Wildway Route 24 – Colliers Way …….. Off the Rails is a diary of plants and wildlife seen along Sustrans Colliers Way (Route 24) in 2017-8. It is not intended to be a comprehensive record of the flora and fauna of the environs of the cycle path, which Greener Greenways’ ecologists are planning at a later date, but merely a log of what we and fellow ramblers and birdwatchers see whilst walking a small section of the path.
Wild Waterways is a record of our survey of a stretch of the Somerset River Frome on behalf of the Somerset Otter Group. We are very lucky here in Somerset as the otters here are genetically linked to the native wild otters which survived on Exmoor when most of the otter population was wiped out in the 1990s so they are not introduced otters.
The streams which run beside and down Colliers Way and feed into Bucklad Brook before it joins the Mells River which then flows into the River Frome.
The River Frome is a very beautiful ever changing fast flowing river where it narrows and rippling where it widens which flows through farming country where cattle stand ankle deep, drinking and flicking flies, the town of Frome where it passes through the Nature Reserve and alongside a thriving Canoe Club, past a few villages, Iford Manor and Farleigh Hungerford castle where the weir deepens the river for good swimming to be had at the Wild Swimming Club, the oldest in the country.
It also supports kingfishers, herons, little egrets, dippers, goosanders and the occasional mandarin ducks as well as wild brown trout attracting fly fishingmen and chub, roach and dace which attracts the coarse fishermen.
Farleigh Hungerford Wild Swimming Club
Iford Manor on the River Frome
