Concerns that Shropshire river “is drying up”
There have been very low levels of water in an off shoot off the Morda at Newbridge
People have been shocked to see part of a Shropshire river apparently “drying up.”
The River Morda covers just shy of 17 miles on the English/Wales border. Rising in the hills above Oswestry, it flows eastwards through Trefonen and Morda before meeting the River Vrynwy.
However, there have been very low levels of water in an off shoot off the Morda at Newbridge, near Maesbury Marsh.
There, the river divides with one channel following an historic mill stream to the west, and the other continuing east.
However, vicar turned citizen scientist, Paul Cawthorne said it is clear something has changed recently.
“For a bare riverbed of stones to appear in a free-running mill stream complex after a wet winter and spring is bizarre,” he said.
“Instead of the Environment Agency trying to deny there’s an issue, as so often happens these days under their new dismissive incident categorisation approach, let’s hope they investigate more carefully this time to find out what’s actually going on. That’s the role Parliament expects of them, surely.”
A fisherman who lives in the area – who did not want to be named – is also baffled.
“In all the time I’ve been here, 10 years, the wall has always had four to six inches up it and it will flow,” he said.
“The strange thing is, the water has just gone like that. You’ve got no weeds starting to grow in the gravel, you’ve got no build up of silt or soil on it.
“It’s like it’s just happened overnight. I pass over this bridge all the time and always go to the brook. That’s why this is so staggering
“We have had a bit of rain compared to other springs. But we had an unprecedented six month drought last year so why didn’t the stream go like this? And we had a very wet winter.
“It’s so strange to see the riverbed like that.”
An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “Following a call to our incident line, we responded to a report of drought on the River Morda, where officers observed no blockage was the cause of the low water level.
“April 2026 has been notably dry in some areas, in places receiving significantly below average rainfall. Periodic drying is a natural process, and reduced water flow is to be expected.”