A hundred volunteers spent a Saturday clearing the riverbank: two tonnes of litter, bagged and sorted by lunchtime.
It started with a post in a neighbourhood group about the state of the river after the autumn storms. Three weeks later, a hundred volunteers aged from 7 to 82 arrived at Mill Lane with gloves and borrowed wheelbarrows.
By lunchtime they had filled more than 400 bags and pulled two bicycles and a shopping trolley from the shallows. A local recycling firm sorted the haul free of charge, and more than half of it will be reused.
“I’ve walked past this stretch for thirty years,” said Rosa, who came with her grandchildren. “It feels like ours again.” The group now meets on the first Saturday of every month, and new volunteers are always welcome.