WHEN THE BOURNE RISES

If you’re wandering through the countryside of the Elham valley in Kent, you might spot what looks like a large ditch, wending its way along the edges of fields and the sides of the roads.
It’s not a ditch though - or at least, not all the time. This is where the Nailbourne, an intermittent bourne (the local word for a stream), runs. About every seven years or so, water will rise from the bed and within a day or two the river will be in full flow. It has even flooded at times, what was an empty ditch so full that it spills over and into fields and turning roads into fords.
There is an old legend that St Augustine had tapped his staff on the ground and summoned up a spring in a time of drought, but this angered the Anglo-Saxon gods who summoned up a flood. In order to appease the local folk of the Elham Valley who were tired of being caught in this battle between old and new gods, St Augustine kept the spring flowing but decreed that the water would only emerge above ground in the valley every seven years.
There is also a legend that when the Nailbourne does run, it is an unlucky year.
Either or both of those may be true, or they may not be. What is true though, is something which is far older than either.
When the Nailbourne rises, and is in full flow, if you hide yourself in a thicket or copse on the night of the new moon and keep a close watch on the waters, you may see a very small boat, made from bark and reeds, come drifting down the stream. You may also see the very small helmsman and passengers on that boat. But take special care that they don’t see you, or you will get taken by those in the boat and unlike the Nailbourne you will not be coming back every seven years.