The River Culm Library
Working with Nature Along the Culm
On 11-10-2022 CtC held an online workshop focusing on the nature-based solutions that have been going in the ground in the Culm catchment throughout the Co-Adapt phase of the project (2019-2022). The workshop also included some NBS co-design activities for people to express their priorities for NBS.
Download the presentations:
Sarah Ward, WRT – Introduction & Co-Adapt
Jo Neville, National Trust – Nature-Based Solutions: overview & NT picture
Culm & tributaries Water Quality Scorecards
Thanks to the fantastic volunteers throughout the Culm catchment who collect and analyse water samples, we now have 6 Scorecards , which give the latest water quality overview for 2021.
View the full Scorecards here:
Hydrographs GCSE Resource Pack
Co-created with GeographySouthWest our resource packs showcase the River Culm catchment as a case study mapped to a topic aligned with the National Curriculum.
Teachers’ Notes, Student Slides and a Student Worksheet (see separate download) cover key concepts and provide activities to achieve intended learning outcomes.
Hydrographs GCSE Resource Pack – Student Worksheet
Co-created with GeographySouthWest our resource packs showcase the River Culm catchment as a case study mapped to a topic aligned with the National Curriculum.
Teachers’ Notes, Student Slides (see separate download) and a Student Worksheet cover key concepts and provide activities to achieve intended learning outcomes.
Flood Management GCSE Resource Pack
Co-created with GeographySouthWest our resource packs showcase the River Culm catchment as a case study mapped to a topic aligned with the National Curriculum.
Teachers’ Notes, Student Slides and a Student Worksheet (see separate download) cover key concepts and provide activities to achieve intended learning outcomes.
Flood Management GCSE Resource Pack – Student Worksheet
Co-created with GeographySouthWest our resource packs showcase the River Culm catchment as a case study mapped to a topic aligned with the National Curriculum.
Teachers’ Notes, Student Slides (see separate download) and a Student Worksheet cover key concepts and provide activities to achieve intended learning outcomes.
Water Cycle A-Level Resource Pack
Co-created with GeographySouthWest our resource packs showcase the River Culm catchment as a case study mapped to a topic aligned with the National Curriculum.
Teachers’ Notes, Student Slides and suggested activities cover key concepts and knowledge to achieve intended learning outcomes.
Carbon Cycle A-Level Resource Pack
Co-created with GeographySouthWest our resource packs showcase the River Culm catchment as a case study mapped to a topic aligned with the National Curriculum.
Teachers’ Notes, Student Slides and suggested activities cover key concepts and knowledge to achieve intended learning outcomes.
Slow the Flow Board Game
Learn all about problems facing the Culm catchment and the nature-based solutions that can help in this fun and fast-paced ‘see how slow you can make the water go’ board game by Cat Farnell.
Keeping an eye on the Culm – children’s activities sheet
Have you thought about what there is to explore in the Culm catchment, what living things there might be or how to get arty with nature? Whilst aimed at children (Key Stage 1), this activity sheet provides some links to educational and creative resources (videos, poems, worksheets) with connections to the Culm that will interest all age groups. Take a virtual tour around Hemyock Castle, find out about the mayfly lifecycle or explore colour and patterns in the outdoors. This is the first in a range of educational materials and resources the Connecting the Culm project aims to produce (COVID-allowing!).
View/download the PDF sheet & let the fun begin!
Note: this activity sheet was produced for February 2021 half-term in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which meant that outdoor group activities during the school holidays weren’t possible.
Catchment Connections – activities sheet
Connect with the Culm catchment in 12 ways……

Culm CSI – Ted Bell & the Madford Brook
Ted and Tracey Bell are awesome stewards of the Culm in many different ways! In this digital story, Ted shows us how to sample river water for Culm CSI (a sub-set of Westcountry CSI) and gives us a quick tour of favourite places near the Madford Brook, which is a tributary of the River Culm.

St Margaret’s Brook, Hemyock Castle & Hemyock Floods – Margaret & Richard Sheppard
Margaret and Richard Sheppard live near Hemyock Castle and are keen observers of St Margaret’s Brook, which is a tributary of the River Culm. When out observing they record their views of the brook and the castle and luckily for us share them on YouTube for the Connecting the Culm project. Their most recent films focus on the route of the brook and how it was diverted for defensive purposes to form the moat of the castle, as well as how the brook has flooded in recent times. Follow the links below to take a virtual tour around Hemyock…
St Margaret’s Brook around Hemyock Castle – WATCH NOW ON YOUTUBE
St Margaret’s Brook around Hemyock Castle – photo slideshow on YouTube

Richard Carman & Dominic Acland – co-creating the Culm Blueprint
In this short film Richard and Dominic take us on a co-creation journey from the source of the River Culm right down to where it meets the Exe, thinking about how the various contributions of Culm communities have shaped the Blueprint illustrations, vision and action plan.

Water Security Alliance webinar 13-01-2022
In this webinar, Dr Sarah Ward, Co-Creation Specialist, takes a look back at a year in the ‘online’ life of the Connecting the Culm project, for this GW4 Water Security Alliance webinar titled: Climate, Co-creation and COVID: an online year in the life of the Connecting the Culm project.

Lower Culm Water Quality Scorecard
Thanks to the fantastic volunteers throughout the Culm catchment who collect and analyse water samples, we now have a Lower Culm CSI ‘Scorecard’ , which gives the latest water quality overview for 2020.

Science of the Culm – Environmental Evidence Review
We now have a full set of analysis and maps for the Culm catchment, which has enabled a lot of interventions and actions to be identified. These will be discussed (for example in Blueprint Working Groups and the Blueprint Forum) and implemented across the rest of the project into 2022! This is the complete ‘Environmental Evidence Review’. We’re currently working on something a bit more digestible…
Giving Our Rivers A Voice
This short, snappy film by Professor Darren Reynolds from the University of the West of England, Bristol talks about the importance of freshwaters, their role in the carbon cycle and new ways to monitor their health.
Evidence and reports
Devon Biodiversity Records Centre Vegetation Monitoring Online Training Session 14 06 2021
Learn about the species of vegetation to be found along the River Culm and its tributaries in this introductory session with Devon Biodiversity Records Centre’s Jess Smallcombe, including brief Q&A (35mins).
Devon Biodiversity Records Centre Wetland Axiophytes – FULL LIST
A full list of species of vegetation to be found along the River Culm and its tributaries.
Devon Biodiversity Records Centre Wetland Axiophytes – TOP 20 LIST
A list of the Top 20 species of vegetation to be found along the River Culm and its tributaries.