Storying the Avon: From Freshwater Science to Folklore

1 January 2025

By fostering long-lasting individual and communal connections can you elicit care for and engagement with the River Avon? Against a backdrop of catastrophic river health in Britain, this project seeks to enrich, deepen and transform Bristolians’ perceptions of their local river, with the aim of recentring the river’s place in the public imagination.

Seedcorn 2024/2025

In the UK, concern over the nation’s rivers has become an issue that continues to attract political, academic and artistic attention. By highlighting the interconnectedness of environment, society, and culture, this project will contribute to this discussion by generating authentic exchanges between storytellers, academics, ecologists, campaigners, and others who are “Avon experts” in their own right—for example, regular bathers. This project will begin mapping and articulating the complexity of people’s relationships with the river through storytelling.

What will the project involve?

This research will draw on a mix of archival research, community engagement and storytelling methods. It will begin by researching the history of the Avon through scholarly and archival research, with a particular eye to gathering folktales, myths, historical legends and other stories associated with the river.

The team will then reach out to community and activist groups already engaging with the river for field-based interviews. Allowing them to gather contemporary stories about the Avon – for example the everyday experiences of anglers, dog-walkers, runners and bathers who have an intimate personal knowledge of the river.

Within a community workshop, the team and participants will explore patterns and connections between experiences of the Avon, and how these might be woven together into a ‘meta narrative’ about the river’s place and importance.
At the heart of this project is a two-hour podcast that walkers can listen to at different stretches along the Avon in Bristol. Produced by the research team, this podcast will weave together natural history, scientific understandings, personal experience, and folklore into an inspiring journey that simultaneously entertains and informs.

Who are the team and what do they bring?

Michael Malay (English Literature, University of Bristol) works on poetry and environmental literature, and has a special interest in British nature writing.
Corinne Harragin (Oral Storyteller, Trainer and Performance Practitioner) explores the role of orality and storytelling in environmental and societal health and the growth of sustainable futures.
James Palmer (Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol) works at the intersection of environment, science and society, and has particular interests in improving public engagement in governance processes, especially through the use of participatory methods.
Ana Castro- Castellon (Physical Geography, University of Bristol) specialises in freshwater ecosystem health and has particular expertise in improving water quality through the identification, prevention and treatment of pollution.

What is to come?

The team hope that this seedcorn award will lead to further collaborations and research projects.