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Despite flowing through the heart of the city from North-West to South-East, the River Sherbourne had slowly been forgotten. Largely buried underground in the city centre many residents simply didn’t know it even existed. In other stretches, its deep channel served as a convenient ditch to dump rubbish.
Warwickshire Wildlife Trust (WKWT) had previously done a project on the River Sowe in Coventry (which the Sherbourne joins with), which improved the watercourse massively. It was decided that the Sherbourne needed the same love and attention. Of course, that meant finding money and getting lots of people on board. WKWT set about speaking to other organisations with a vested interest in making the river better for the people and wildlife of Coventry.
We discovered that there were shared goals and a desire to improve the river and reconnect people to it, from a variety of sectors and the project partnership was born. A long and challenging few years then took place working up funding applications to the National Lottery Heritage Fund and securing match funding from elsewhere, until at last, in November 2022, The Sherbourne Valley Project finally got the green light for a four year scheme.
Throughout this delivery phase of the project, we are engaging with and benefiting over 25,000 people via one off activities. We are working with 3,500 people in a more structured, regular way through volunteering, training, walks and other sessions. We are engaging under-represented groups living close to the river and finding new ways to enthuse them about the river’s heritage.
The project is designed to have different levels of engagement, from one off events to longer term volunteering. We are using innovative techniques such as reality capture and mural artworks to grab people’s attention, and raising awareness of the wider opportunities available.
The vast majority of the activities focus on the River Sherbourne itself, the tributaries of the Sherbourne and the adjoining green spaces, but we are taking a valley wide approach to ensure we make the project as inclusive as possible.
The project boundary captures the River Sherbourne catchment (the area where rainfall and runoff flow into the river), and includes other areas which are key to the goals of the project.
