A slow clay river of the Kentish Weald, reckoned among the best lowland clay rivers left in England
Most English rivers people make a fuss of run on chalk or over rock. The Beult does neither: it is a lowland clay river, sluggish, silty, and prone to spilling into its fields after heavy rain. That is exactly why it matters. Very few clay rivers have escaped being straightened and dredged, and the Beult still meanders more or less as it always did, with steep earth banks, undercut bends and a good deal of dead wood in the channel.
The life reflects that — a strong run of coarse fish, and the flood meadows either side that go with a river allowed to overflow. Flooding at Yalding, where the Beult meets the Medway, is a regular winter event.
Getting alongside it takes some looking, since there is no continuous riverside path. The Greensand Way and local footpaths cross it in places, and the village of Smarden sits on the water with a footbridge and a good pub in The Bell. Headcorn and Staplehurst stations are both a couple of miles from the river.
