Conham Bathing
A women-led campaign for river health and rights

Background

In 2021, I founded the Conham Bathing campaign, aiming to tackle the river pollution crisis on the Bristol Avon. For five years, I joined fellow volunteer citizen scientists in monitoring the water quality at an historic bathing site just outside the city. The data we generated filled a regulatory gap and has been cited in local and national press, as well as a parliamentary debate on sewage pollution. In 2022, we launched a live sewage spill dashboard and lobbied the council for improved monitoring in a Full Council debate. Besides citizen science, the campaign has inspired a wedding to the river, a public rave in swimming costumes, a mermaid’s swim across the Bristol Channel, the creation of a giant puppet to symbolise the spirit of the river, and the Thriving Avon Charter (more on that below).

The campaign has been featured in local, national and even international media–including The Times, the Guardian and BBC Radio 4's Today Programme–and in the award-winning documentary Rave on for the Avon.

Highlights of the campaign

  • Training new citizen scientists

  • Launching the charter of river rights

  • Panel at Green Man Festival

  • River wedding with Mrs Avon

  • Filming Rave on for the Avon

  • Interviewed for BBC Radio 4

  • Discussion with Bristol Mayor after council debate

  • Documentary premiere at Kendal Mountain Festival

  • Avona, the puppet spirit of the river

Rights of the Avon

Besides the citizen science programme, Conham Bathing also campaigned for a recognition of the river’s rights.

Inspired by the global Rights of Nature movement, in 2024, we launched the Thriving Avon Charter, a community-owned document recognising the rights of the River Avon and the duties of river guardians. The charter gained 600 signatures and was taken on pilgrimage from source to mouth with the founders of We Are Avon.

In 2026, I collaborated with We Are Avon and city councillors across the region to develop an iteration of the charter, now known as the Avon Bioregional Charter.

I am now involved in the next phase of this work, which is to operationalise the charter and ensure it is integrated–as deeply as possible–into existing policy processes and governance across the Avon bioregion.