The Ancient Water Meadows of the River Nadder.

Front Cover

The proof copy of my new book The Ancient Water Meadows of the River Nadder has just arrived and as always with these books I couldn't be more pleased with it.

Earlier in the year I was invited by John Stoddart, the Warden of the Barford and Burcombe Fishing Club, to take photographs of the now largely derelict workings of the ancient water meadow system in the Nadder Valley with a view to producing an historical record.

 

As warden, he was able to arrange for the multiple consents required from various landowners and tenants to enter the mostly private land and take the photographs. As we walked for miles on cold winter mornings looking at the intriguing sights, neither of us knew that months later we would produce this book together with John turning his commentary of how it all used to work, from its formation in the 17th Century through to its heyday, into the excellent and highly informative texts in the book. As someone who has always been fascinated by dereliction, this was a great experience for me.

The book is A4 landscape in size and has around 170 images with many produced as full page plates across some 80 pages.

I have arranged for a limited print run which should be with me in the next couple of weeks. I am only looking to recoup the printing costs in the book price of just £25 and have already sold the majority as pre-orders. Please contact me if you would like to secure one of the remaining copies on a first come basis.

In the meantime, the book can be seen as a 'Flipbook' on my website.

Click in the link below and scroll down to the book.

https://www.paulwatts.net/commissioned-work/

Some random low res page shots taken with iphone: