The PaddlerUK magazine March 2015 issue 1 | Page 41

TW Cubbon discussed with locals a proposed trip
down the Dee from Bala to the sea, and the only
objection was that a canoe would be more suitable
than his rowing boat!
Around this time William Bliss was documenting
canoeing exploits on the Wye, Teifi, Usk, Vyrny, Lugg
and Monnow.
views differ as to their own
rights and responsibilities and
those of others. To understand
how we reached this position, we
need to look back at public use of
water through history.
Archaeology tells us that people have been
using water for transport and subsistence from
prehistoric times, and Roman law explicitly states that
flowing waters are ‘Res Publicae’ to which access must
be freely available to all. Across the former Roman
Empire, the principle of ‘res publicae’ underpins
present-day law relating to public access and
navigation. We know less of what happened in Britain
after the Romans left, but we know for certain that
subsequent encroachments on navigation were
redressed by Magna Carta.

Rivers enjoyed by the public

19th to 20th Century local newspapers bring to life a
picture of rivers enjoyed by the public for sustenance,
transport and recreation, just as they must have been
from time immemorial. We can read of youths
swimming in the river while coracle-fishers go about
their work nearby; farmers bringing their sheep to the
river to be washed before market; local boating and
swimming regattas; families enjoying placid rivers and
lakes in small boats, adventurous paddlers exploring
the white-water reaches of our rivers.

Inland water was demonstrably being shared by a
wide variety of users up to the 1940s and beyond, so
how, only two decades later, did access to inland
water become contentious?

Foundations for future conflict

We have no records of problems for recreational
water-users until very recent times, but foundations
for future conflict may have been laid early in the
20th Century, when the developing sport of flyfishing came in to conflict with the needs of netsmen
fishing by coracle for sustenance or income.
“Has he to forgo sewin fishing altogether, and for 19
days out of 20 for salmon fishing, merely for the sake of
the leisured class, who have the time to lash the waters
all day long for salmon at £2 a piece… and cheap, too,
at the price. They own every yard of land, and must they
own every gallon of free-running water as well? The
product of the land is already theirs. They now desire the
harvest of the flood all to themselves… One word with
you, my friend Twm Shon Jack. What the sportsman
wants is the river all to himself, and “he will get it too” if
you do not wake up.”
Letter to the Tivyside Advertiser 1912
The first known challenges to recreational water-users
came in the 20th Century, from landowners claiming
th BW&֗76