Portrait of a Place: The River Dart Anglers

Exploring connection to place

Title: Portrait of a Place: The River Dart Anglers

Funded by:

AHRC Impact Acceleration Account

Location: River Dart, Devon

Project duration: December 2022 – March 2023

Project partners: Dart Angling Association

University of Plymouth PI:

Dr Zoe Latham

University of Plymouth staff: Dr Sally Sutton, Linda Ward

A Portrait of Place: The River Dart Anglers draws on creative, place-based research. It has been conducted in collaboration with our community partners, the Dart Angling Association (DAA). The project and exhibition, hosted at the Dartmoor National Park Visitor Centre in Princetown, highlight the stories, histories, memories, and archival materials of the DAA, revealing the various ways in which they connect to place and have, over time, formed a long-standing ecological relationship with the river.

Throughout this project, we have been using everyday stories of angling on the Dart to think about place connectivity as a tool for addressing issues and challenges facing the future of the river and as a means of envisioning future resilience.

Through this exhibition, researchers bring to life why places matter to people, helping us to understand the past, present, and future of places and to articulate possibilities beyond the present to those who have the power to make change happen.

It is hoped that by drawing upon the arts and humanities, specifically the use of moving images, photography and storytelling, we can inform further scientific research into the loss of salmon on the Dart. In parallel, by illustrating the significance of angling history, knowledge, and deep-rooted place relationships to a wider audience, we can encourage an ethos of sharing stories in order to engage others, change preconceptions and explore the forward-thinking space where cultural practice meets conservation practice.

Since the association's formation in 1895, its members have collaborated with the wider riparian community, including the Dart Fisheries and Conservation Association, to protect and conserve the natural environment and fish populations. As stewards of the river, anglers have worked diligently to protect the declining fish stocks, modifying their angling practices in line with scientifically informed best practices and a deeper understanding of the river's ecological decline.

Linda Ward

Evidenced in the archives featured in the exhibition, the association details over 130 years of conciliatory action taken towards pollution management, river monitoring of pH and oxygen levels, documentation of declining fish numbers, riparian obstructions to migration, re-liming, measuring oxygen levels, debris clearing, infrastructure mending, observing, and reporting declining fish numbers, reporting poaching, observing and reporting fish disease, and managing water levels and flooding. This work has been undertaken to improve conditions for migratory salmon, sea trout, and spawning grounds, including the removal of debris, clearing weeds, and raking spawning beds, in the hope of better times ahead.

The work you have done to further a wider understanding of anglers and their interests on the Dart, as well as what their stewardship works look like and their aspirations and fear for the future will go a long way to breaking down the barriers that prevent effective partnerships.

This careful building of trust and nurturing these relationships have made it possible to explore other options to work collaboratively on salmon projects on the Dart. By carefully teasing out the sensitivities and diversity of opinion within the angling and landowner community you have given others greater insight into potential opportunities as well as acute issues – this aids our own relationship building.

Further, the public exhibition of the work takes this knowledge and understanding wider than potential project partners and into the broader local community. Given the occasionally fraught nature of relations between different interest groups this is helpful. A better mutual understanding leads to better ways of working. I am already developing a number of project proposals that I hope will build on the careful work of Sally and yourself to deliver improvements for salmon, for anglers and for the wider community.

Emma Magee
South Devon Catchment Coordinator, Environment Agency

A Portrait of Place: Dart Anglers (2023)

To get an essence of the river and the fisherman's connection to it, Linda Ward applied a stripped-back filming method, using three continuous locked-off shots of the river while recording sound-only interviews with Rod Lewis, Ian Scofield and Phil Prowse.

The purpose was to edit a simple flow of water imagery and sounds that supported the anglers' words. Ward aimed to create factual moving image work with a meditative quality that encourages the viewer to observe the movement of the river over time, while hearing the anglers speak in a personal way about their felt and lived experiences.

Watch the film: A Portrait of Place: Dart Anglers