Friday Talk: The River Stour – An Historic Watercourse

Antony Firth is the Director of Fjordr, a Wiltshire-based marine and historic environment consultancy. He will talk about his recent project for Historic England to develop a method for identifying the historic character of watercourses, using the Dorset Stour as a case study.

Rivers are a focus for a great deal of work at the moment to reduce flood risk, improve water quality and help the conservation of important species and habitats. Rivers are also affected by development and construction works, but these activities do not always take account of the long history of human intervention in riverine environments.

Although rivers have played a central role in the historical development of the English landscape, little attention has generally been given to their archaeology. Antony’s project aims to make information on the archaeology and history of rivers more easily available to the people responsible for managing our watercourses. For our Friday talk, he will focus on the Middle Stour, in the area around Blandford.

You can find more information at: https://www.geographysouthwest.co.uk/university/uniresource_articles/investigating-historic-watercourses-river-stour-dorset/

Admission to the talk is £5 for museum members, £8 for non-members.

Drinks and homemade food will be available from 6.30 pm, and the talk will start at 7.30 pm.

We have a wide variety of talks about our history and heritage from a range of expert speakers lined up for Spring and Autumn 2022. These will take place on Fridays (usually, but not always, the last Friday of the month) at the Parish Centre in Blandford. Please see our Events Calendar for the dates and details of other talks.