River of Many Voices: Oral and Environmental Histories of the Severn

Abstract

This chapter argues that valuable environmental knowledge resides in communities which remain largely outside the attention of the written archive. The chapter focuses on a case study of a community of surfers on the lower reaches of the River Severn, where a tidal wave, or ‘bore’, periodically surges upriver. It uses archival records and a recent interview with a group of surfers to extend our understanding of recreational engagement with the river wave. It recognises the dynamism of the river as a historical agent, and asserts the surfers as river stewards whose deep knowledge of place is an important resource for present and future understanding of the Severn environment. It also suggests that oral historians can usefully broaden their definitions of oral sources to pay attention to environmental sounds and more-than-human ‘voices’.