Bratley Water

 

Up on Ocknell Plain, just beyond the end of the old Stoney Cross airfield, multiple small rivulets flow into Slufters Bottom and Bratley Water is born; eventually Bratley, after a couple of name changes will merge with Highland water to become the Lymington River emptying into the Solent.  A few years back much of Slufters enclosure's conifers were harvested exposing the pre-existing deciduous core through which Bratley Water runs, and returning most of the surrounding landscape to open heath. At that time Bratley Water itself was restored to a more pleasing natural meander, and it's a real transformation...a positive one. Slufters conifers choked the infant stream and it's deciduous environs, as well as obscuring long views across the forest from all directions. I'm still taken by the restored vistas when in this part of the forest, and am enjoying the slow re-naturalizing of Slufters Bottom. 

Bratley Arch

Bratley Water is one of the upper tributaries of the Lymington River, here at Bratley Arch it's still young having only formed a mile or so north in Slufters Bottom. The Slufters Bottom catchment area is a finger of broad valley sticking into Ocknell Plain, and when it rains heavily the run off causes the the valley bottom flood and the waters surge. Through Bratley Bottom these surges create multiple narrow competing channels through the trees and carr, each cutting through the underlying clays and exposing the tangled roots of trees as they go. As the waters recede first two then one channel will survive, the others will wait their time to be or their time has been and they'll begin to fill. The valley bottom is scared all over by centuries of these transient waterways.