Restoring Natural Watercourses on the Wallington Estate

Scroll to the bottom for the video. Groundwork North East & Cumbria, in collaboration with the National Trust, has undertaken a significant restoration project to improve the ecological health and resilience of the Harwood Burn watercourse, located on the historic Wallington Estate in Northumberland.

This initiative focused on reinstating natural processes within the landscape through a series of sustainable, nature-based interventions. To restore natural hydrological function, the project reprofiled straight, deeply incised, and narrow sections of the watercourse into wider, shallower channels. This allows water to flow more naturally across the landscape and reconnects the river with its adjacent floodplain. In addition, several historic paleochannels—old, naturally formed river pathways—were reactivated, enabling water to follow its original meandering course and improving the overall ecological connectivity of the site.

A further key intervention was the creation of scrapes—shallow depressions in the landscape designed to hold water temporarily during periods of high rainfall. These scrapes allow water to backfill naturally from the main channel, supporting wetland habitat development, enhancing biodiversity, and adding valuable capacity for storing floodwaters. This contributes to the project’s wider focus on natural flood management (NFM), reducing peak flows and helping to mitigate flood risk in downstream areas.

Further restoration efforts involved the planting of willow along the banks of the watercourse to increase surface roughness and structural diversity. This essential work was carried out with the support of enthusiastic volunteers from the Environment Agency. The willow helps to stabilise riverbanks, reduce erosion, and create improved habitats for wildlife, while also increasing the watercourse’s capacity to manage high flows.

Together, these actions form part of a broader vision to restore healthy river systems, support wildlife, and build climate resilience within the Northumberland landscape—ensuring lasting benefits for both people and nature.