Nestled north of Chardstock in the Blackdown Hills National Landscape, Farway Marsh was once a thriving, nature-rich habitat before decades of land drainage and stream incision left the Kit Brook cut off from its historic floodplain. In our short documentary, The Mystery of Farway Marsh, produced by hyper-mouse Films, offers an inspiring and lighthearted look at how local action can bring a lost wetland back to life and why it’s so important. The film captures the story of how dedicated community volunteers, ecologists, and landowners came together to reverse that damage using practical Natural Flood Management (NFM) and nature-based solutions.
Think of it as a beaver-built wetland – just with much less chomping! To reconnect the Kit Brook to the land, the team implemented low-tech interventions like raising the riverbed with woody brash, hinging trees to mimic natural debris dams and digging shallow scrapes to hold and slow floodwaters. As the film beautifully illustrates, these techniques do far more than ease downstream flood risks; they trap sediment to clean the water, store carbon in the soil, and revive vital habitat for species like trout, water crowfoot, and freshwater leeches.
The Mystery of Farway Marsh is a celebration of collaboration, practical conservation and the power of local people standing up for the River Axe catchment. We encourage everyone to watch it below and see what can be achieved when communities take river health into their own hands. If you feel inspired to volunteer with Friends of the River Axe, or if you have a stream, marsh, or stretch of river on your own land that you’d love to restore, please get in touch with us at friendsoftheriveraxe@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you!
And if you have a project that you want the world to know about, get in touch with the talented and environmental filmmakers at www.hyper-mouse.com