Geograph - photograph every grid square

Nick's picture is obviously fairly recent as it shows the most recent course of the Swale, which is very active in this vicinity. The left hand side of the photo shows the Swale in its post winter 05 course, where it has now 'straightened' one meander, the river now running a couple of hundred metres further north than the line shown on the OS map. The braided channel here is constantly moving and eroding one bank or the other, and a little further downstream [just out of picture] it has straightened out the next meander as well, leaving a channel which is likely to form an oxbow. All this is being written during a period of heavy winter rains and floods along the Swale, so the course may have changed yet again in the last few days. The Swale has always had the reputation of being England's fastest rising river, - a problem made worse in the last 40 years by a misguided policy of 'gripping' the moorlands around the upper Swale gathering grounds. 'Grips' are drainage ditches cut across the moors, encouraging a more rapid run off and thus the greater likelyhood of flash flooding in the dale bottom. The original idea was to improve the moors for sheep grazing and for heather, but nothing was achieved. The original suspension bridge was indeed wrecked in a flood when it was hit by a large floating tree trunk. There were also problems developing because of erosion around the base of the bridge abutments. I should have a photo of the old bridge somewhere!