Hitchin Nub News aims to support our community, promoting shops, businesses, charities, clubs and sports groups through our ever-growing online newspaper - but we also encourage comment and opinion from locals.

We're delighted to have a well-known character called 'Sparky' whose in-depth knowledge of many aspects of Hitchin and its surrounding area is as fascinating as it is impressive.

So, read on for the first of what we hope will be many articles and opinion pieces from our latest Nub News trusted contributor - as Sparky explains in his inimitable way just why Hitchin's water is so good, and why we should value it.

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A curious thought struck me recently as I dodged yet another downpour over the summer: is this heavy rain falling on us in the Hitchin region destined for The Wash or a wash?

Hitchin's position, nestling in a gap in the Chiltern Hills, means that it is surrounded by a collection of strong springs.

A fair amount of our annual rainfall (61cm in 1920, 58cm today - that's 24 and 22 inches in old money) is likely to be absorbed by the softer chalk of the surrounding uplands, its downward percolation eventually being halted by a layer of harder and more impervious chalk known as Melbourne Rock.

Where this occurs a spring may well appear, often at the bottom of the hill.

Wellhead in Charlton, the source of the River Hiz, is a fine example, as are Oughtonhead and Nine Springs in Hitchin, birthplaces of the Rivers Oughton and Purwell respectively.

In fact visiting all three of these on one walk makes an interesting expedition, ending in a pub, of course (I recommend The Vic, obviously, being my local).

The River Purwell is helped along by two smaller watercourses upstream from its main spring: Ippollitts Brook (which rises near St Ibbs and runs parallel to the B656 London Road) and by the circuitous and far-from-mighty Ashbrook that goes under the A602 Wymondley Bypass not once but twice; who said local hydrology was dull!

The Purwell, now swollen with contributions from its tributaries and the nine springs at Nine Springs (by the Coots Corner fishery) joins the Hiz at Waters Meet in Grove Road.

It is here that the short-lived Purwell ceases to be and the now engorged Hiz flows on to Ickleford and its second confluence, this time with the beautiful two mile-long River Oughton - one of England's shortest named rivers and one of only 200 pure chalk streams in the world.

The Hiz then heads due north to join the River Ivel north of Henlow village and with this new name it will eventually flow into the genuinely impressive Ouse at Tempsford, north east of Bedford.

So our clean chalk water, now diluted, continues on its way to meet the muddy brine of The Wash at Kings Lynn, its journeys end.

But what of your wash?

Well, our chalk springs are also very attractive to local water companies, hungry for this apparently endless supply of crystal clear chalk-filtered water.

As a result we have four pumping stations around our town drawing water up from the aquifers via bore holes: two near Wellhead in Charlton; on the Pirton Road at Oughton Head and at Offley Bottom in the valley by Wibbly Wobbly Lane (yes, really).

An additional pumping station exists further out at Kings Walden in the gorgeous Lilley Bottom, a mile or so from the source of the Mimram. All are at the bottom of a hill.

Not only is chalk spring water relatively clean and naturally pure, it is also conveniently near the surface: the Wellhead bore at Charlton is only four metres deep.

I know this because I cornered a high-viz clad water company employee near Wellhead earlier this year and pumped him for info. He was French and rather charming and spoke of the chalk streams in his native country.

Such is our insatiable thirst, over-extraction is a real danger and when the springs do occasionally dry up it is often not solely a result of low rainfall.

So we too have a responsibility to use less of this precious resource; the water companies are more than happy to keep supplying us with what we ask for and if we are all not careful then the beautiful Wellhead and the others will be left as nothing but small dry valleys.

Sparky

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Previous opinion pieces from Nub News trusted contributors

Neil Jensen on the day the Graf Zeppelin flew over Top Field on the way to the 1930 FA Cup final

Isla McLachlan: Hitchin - a small place with a big heart

If you would like to become a Nub News trusted contributor and perhaps write a column, email [email protected] with your pitch and we'll take it from there. Who knows, you too could be writing for the ever-growing Nub News and our many thousands of readers!