Our Wrecclesham environment is influenced by both its past and its present, and how it is managed will determine its future. At present many of the management decisions are being made according to short-term pressures often originating from central government policies – to the detriment of the longer-term impacts on both the local human population and biological diversity. The potential impacts on the latter are poorly understood and appreciated because we do not know or understand the species we currently have and the value they provide.

The past

The underlying geology has had and is having a fundamental influence on what we currently see around us. There are patches of gault clay, green sands and riverine soils. These still carry the imprints of the glaciations resulting in a series of ‘river captures’, determining the current courses of our rivers. The northern branch of the River Wey used to flow northward along the valley of the Blackwater but was captured by what is now the southern branch. The course of the Bourne Stream also bears the imprint of this river capture. The change in the underlying geology of the Bourne Stream from clay to greensand at approximately the Sandrock Hill Road crossing results in the water flow originating from the clays of Alice Holt Forest sinking deep into the underlying geology – hence the stream becomes a seasonal ‘bourn’ becoming dry during periods of drought usually in summer. There is a similar impact on the River Wey. It rises on the chalk near Alton and so is classified as a chalk stream – one of only about 200 known globally.

The geology has also had a key influence on land use in the past. The growing of hops which dominated the agriculture and society of much our area in the 19th century was focussed on the areas of sandy soils, and there are persistent memories of these in the form of our hedgerows and some of the insects found. The clays have continued to be used to make pottery since Roman times. The geology continues to influence the plants that grow in our area and hence determine the types of insects and other animals that co-habit with us – for example badgers favour the sandy soils into which they can dig their setts and many of our solitary bees nest in burrows in bare soil.

The present

Our fauna and flora is very much determined by not only the soil types but also our land use patterns. Thus, Wrecclesham has predominantly become urbanised and hence many of the connections between habitats have been severed – isolating many of our remaining biodiversity hot-spots rendering them susceptible to environmental change and one-off incidents, such as fires and floods, which can cause local extinctions. In the absence of connectivity between these hot-spots, there can be no repopulation. Moreover there is a real danger that localised areas of deprivation will continue to expand.

The future

Far-reaching changes are afoot. In 2025 we saw some of the warmest temperatures on record and some of the lowest rainfall whilst the early part of 2026 was one of the wettest. These changes are being accompanied by central government weakening environmental restraints on developments which inevitably will lead to the continuing erosion of our biodiversity. As the general population loses touch with nature it will become more desensitised to the impacts of the biological losses, and so we must strive towards greater appreciation and awareness of the nature around us and appreciation of its services and benefits.