The Lavant is a winterbourne which rises in the Downs, in normal winters at Singleton about 6 miles north of Chichester, and flows through the village also called Lavant where it leaves the chalk and has to fill up the gravel basin before it is seen in Chichester itself.

Ten days ago the river Lavant was dry.

On Monday 28th the springs had broken out and there was a good flow in the fields a couple of miles north of Lavant village
https://imgur.com/ZfffIP5 





Yesterday, Wed 1st, the strong flow had reached the water intake plant about half a mile north of the village
https://imgur.com/AuB7YnX 




and at 2pm the river was definitely flwoing through the village, as seen at the top of the playing fields
https://imgur.com/qYo1UgJ 




but disappearing as the gravel absorbed it only 100 yards further on
https://imgur.com/EPSrawG  




And it was still completely dry 300 yards furtheron
https://imgur.com/od6K2WB 





At the end of the afternoon (4pm) it had covered those 300 yards
https://imgur.com/qGXmGIX

IMAGE. Members enable at bottom of page

 


and will shortly be augmented by the treated water outflow from the local sewage works. This should get it down to Chichester, 3 miles further on, by the end of the weekend

 

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The recent rains have certainly made an imact to the chalk aquifers in Southern England. The Frome in Dorset is flowing well again and not running of treated water as it was earlier in the autumn.
 
We need a Spellcheck again please Brian if you read this. 

Great to see the Edit button works again but the photos even when you click on them require excellent vision to appreciate them.
In other words they remain tiny.

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