The River Lark Catchment Partnership (Registered Charity number 1177318) was founded in 2015 by Andrew Hinchley and Jim Stephens. It is the Community Partner with Anglian Water on the Lark Flagship Chalkstream Restoration Project.
Since 2025, RLCP has also been the Host of the Cam Ely Ouse Catchment Partnership (CamEO) which includes the rivers Cam/Rhee/Granta, the Little Ouse and Thet, and the Wissey as well as the Lark. In 2026, we established the Lark and Little Ouse Headwaters Farm Cluster.
The Lark, the Flagship Chalk stream for East Anglia
In 2022, the Lark was designated as Anglian Water’s ‘flagship’ chalk stream for East Anglia and discussion began about a major restoration p[rogramme. Thanks, however, to an important piece of research, a Fluvial Audit from the University of Southampton, funded by the Environment Agency, and delivered in December 2025, we have revised our understanding of what needs to be done. Planning is now underway for the first two major restoration projects.
With our growing team of enthusiastic river restoration volunteers and Citizen Scientists, and our staff, we have embarked on an ambitious programme designed to improve our knowledge of this distinctive river system, raise public awareness, and restore it so that it can again give life to its surroundings. We are an evidence-led and evidence-gathering organisation, investigating the current state of water quality in the catchment, and the history buried in its silts and soils, as well as that preserved in maps ancient and modern, in documentary evidence, and in the lived experience and memories of local residents. We work in partnership with a large number of other organisations, big and small. We welcome new members and partners.
Rivers and Landscapes – People and Wildlife
The River Lark Catchment
The River Lark Catchment consists of all the named and unnamed waterbodies that flow into the River Lark, with the landscapes which both ‘catch’ their waters and feed them with underground springs...
Distinctive Lark Landscapes
The Lark crosses four National Landscape Characteristic areas (clay farmland; chalk grassland; the Brecks; the Fens), but our recent Fluvial Audit from the University of Southampton demonstrates that, because of its underlying geology, the Lark is distinctive because it is four different types of river in one…
History
Stone-age settlements; Roman villas; medieval water mills; the great Abbey of St Edmund; four hundred years of straightening and dredging for navigation and drainage; modern intensive agriculture; industry; housing; and everything that comes out of our taps: the Lark’s waters have been central to the history, culture and economics of the region for thousands of years …
River Restoration
The re-routing, straightening, embanking, and dredging of our rivers means that they are often over-wide, silty, and with sluggish flow. They can run dry in summer but have flash floods in winter. In our experience, the best way to solve these problems is to use Nature-based Solutions …
Citizen Science and Monitoring
In partnership with Norfolk Rivers Trust, we have been the Anglian Demo for the CaSTCo citizen science water quality monitoring programme. And with innovative tech company Seneye we are helping to develop continuous water quality monitoring sensors especially designed for river systems (including e-DNA testing)…
CamEO - Cam Ely Ouse Catchment Partnership
RLCP is the Host of the Cam Ely Ouse Partnership (CamEO), one of 106 regional catchment partnerships established by government in 2013 to bring together government agencies, NGOs like ourselves, and local people, using a Catchment Based Approach to improve water environments….
Lark and Little Ouse Headwaters Farm Cluster
We have started a new farm cluster with a view to improving soil health and water quality across the ‘beads on a string’ landscape south and east of Bury St Edmunds. This area includes the headwaters of both the Lark and the Little Ouse and includes, among numerous unnamed water bodies, the upper reaches of the Cavenham Stream, the whole of the Linnet, Hawstead Tributary, Pakenham Stream, Sapiston River/Black Bourne, and …
Education and Public Engagement
We are keen to encourage everyone to become aware that water is a precious commodity and that we need to ensure that there is enough of it for both people and the environment. We are developing a bank of teaching materials for schools (both KS2 and KS3) and mount regular events, talks, and meetings for the general public to publicise our plans river restoration, and encouraging debate and participation …
Health and Well-being
Our volunteers often tell us that the reasons they like coming to help on the river is because of the camaraderie, the sense that they are doing something useful for the environment, and just as importantly, that just standing in a river makes them feel better. There are lots of different ways in which you too can get involved.
Latest News
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Earth and Water: the CamEO Conference 2026
Eighty people, representing environmental NGOs, water companies, farmers and land agents, local government and the Environment Agency gathered at The […]
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Ministerial visit to the Cavenham Stream
Emma Hardy, Minister for the Environment, met senior representatives from RLCP, Anglian Water, the Environment Agency, and local landowners and […]
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Grant Success for education and public engagement
We are delighted to have been given a grant of £2700 by West Suffolk Council from their Thriving Communities Fund […]
