The source

This introduction to the River Allen is an audio extract from a wonderful film about the river, produced by local film-maker Hugh Miles. The film, entitled 'Liquid Gold', was produced for the Dorset Wildlife Trust, and can be viewed in its entirety on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMoQltmP9nE

As you will hear in this introduction, as one of only a few chalk rivers in the world, the River Allen is very special for wildlife. The river has also been important to people living in this area for a very long time. It begins as a series of springs arising in the chalk hills to the north. The Dorset Cursus, one of the largest Neolithic monuments in Europe, connects many of these springs together. The Cursus was built more than 5000 years ago, and appears to have been used for funerary practices and rituals associated with the afterlife. So perhaps people living in this area viewed the river as something sacred, arising from the underworld, where it was guarded by the spirits of our ancestors.