cbec, along with project partners FAS Heritage, M&H Ecology and RSK Environment, was engaged by the National Trust to develop restoration proposals for the 124-hectare Tivington Farm area of the National Trust’s Holnicote Estate in the headwaters of the River Aller catchment, Somerset
Drainage around the farm consisted of a network of ditches, which were historically excavated to improve agricultural field drainage and to facilitate water transfer to former water mills. The restoration preference was to develop process-based proposals founded on the twin concepts of ‘Stage 0’ restoration and ‘slow flow’ in order to provide natural flood management (NFM).
cbec used a multidisciplinary approach for this project, including desk-based assessments, review of prior research, topographic survey and hydromorphological assessment, heritage impact assessment (FAS Heritage), preliminary ecological assessment (M&H Ecology) and a landscape and visual appraisal (RSK Environment). A topographic survey was undertaken by a number of experienced cbec field staff using a combination of Trimble R12 real-time kinematic GPS and Trimble S6 total station combined with existing lidar data in order to delineate the geometry of the drainage ditch network at Tivington Farm.
