Ver Valley Society

General information

The Ver Valley extends from Kensworth Lynch north of Markyate, south via Redbourn, St.Albans and Park Street to join the River Colne near Bricket Wood. The Valley is formed on chalk covered by a thin layer of clay and flint in the hills with gravel and silt in the valley bottom.

Chalk streams such as the Ver are globally very rare. They have porous beds and rely on a high water table for existence. The springs which feed the valleys flow with mineral-rich, pure water which has been filtered through the chalk. Such water is vital to the flora and fauna typifying a chalk stream. But now the very existence of such rivers, especially the Ver and its tributary the Red are under threat.

The upper section of the River Ver has always been a winterbourne, flowing only at times of high rainfall usually in the winter but from Flamstead south, until recent years, it was a permanent chalk stream. In the 19th and early 20th century the healthy river supported a dozen watermills. The pure, fast flowing, mineral-rich water, of relatively constant temperature, allowed a flourishing watercress industry to develop. Now the spring fed wetlands of the valley are slow to freeze, providing a temporary refuge for over wintering birds and support a variety of plants, animals and invertebrates and birds in summer.