Observing Two Springs: Early Differences in Flow and Behaviour

Dulverton, Somerset

Before any modelling, before any intervention, the land is already speaking.

At Wildwood Grove, two springs have been identified within the site boundary. Both are visible on mapping, yet their behaviour on the ground differs in ways that cannot be understood through maps alone.

One spring expresses itself consistently, with a defined point of emergence and a predictable pattern of surface flow. The other behaves more diffusely — appearing, disappearing, and reasserting itself across seasons, rainfall events, and ground conditions.

These differences matter.

Early observation suggests that each spring is interacting with the land through distinct subsurface pathways. Wetness persists downslope of mapped contours. Seepage appears in areas not marked as hydrologically significant. In places, water moves slowly and laterally through soils rather than forming immediate surface channels.

This is not unexpected — but it is significant.

Spring-fed systems rarely behave as neat point sources. They are shaped by geology, historic land use, compaction, drainage legacy, and seasonal recharge dynamics. Without time spent observing these factors in situ, modelling risks becoming assumption-led rather than evidence-led.

At this stage, we are not attempting to explain or optimise these systems.

We are recording them.

Observation is taking place across rainfall events, dry periods, and freeze–thaw conditions. Notes are being kept on persistence of saturation, timing of flow, and the relationship between springs, ditches, and the emerging headwater watercourse that exits the site and feeds the Brockey, and ultimately the River Exe.

What is already clear is that water movement across the land is not uniform, and not static.

Any future restoration — whether for habitat creation, natural flood management, or ecological uplift — must respect these differences rather than override them.

Intervening before understanding would risk flattening complexity that should instead be working for the land.

This Field Journal records these early observations not as conclusions, but as groundwork. Some systems only reveal their logic slowly, and only to those willing to wait.