Godolphin & Baylis Park Restoration
Our work on the ground
The Salt Hill Stream
The stream plays a big role in managing local water. A tributary flowing though Slough, running along green spaces, connecting neighbourhoods, winding through open sections and culverts before joining the Thames catchment. It’s been part of this area for generations, but over time, it has become neglected.
We’re now restoring its natural flow, just like WWT did previously in Salt Hill Park, to help protect homes, parks, and the community it’s always run alongside.
Benefits for People and Climate
- Less flood risk to local homes and parks.
- Cleaner water and more wildlife in your local green space.
- A better park experience for walking, playing, or relaxing.
- Opportunities to learn and get involved with nature and climate awareness.
- Supports climate action with carbon savings and healthier ecosystems.
Bringing the Stream back to life through Godolphin and Baylis Park!
Right now, the stream is straight and restricted, which can lead to flash flooding. Giving it natural space to flow, helps protect our parks and nearby homes while also making the area more beautiful and nature-rich.
This project also helps the park become more climate resilient, making it better prepared for heavy rain, flooding, and the changing weather we’re seeing.
It’s part of a government-funded programme supporting innovative ways to manage water, reduce flood risk, and improve local spaces for nature and people.
The restoration process
This is a gentle, nature-friendly update. We’ll carefully re-meander the stream (make it naturally curved!) and add small wetland areas, while keeping most of the park open and unchanged for play, walks, and sports. You’ll still enjoy your green spaces, with added wildlife and better flood protection.
We’ll look at how to create the best possible stream and wildlife habitats – by expert river habitat & hydrological modelling and checking soil health to make sure the land can support these improvements.
Monitoring and evaluation
What are we doing – and why?
Project Sponge is part of the DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) Innovation Resilience Programme – a UK government initiative trialling nature-based solutions to tackle flooding, improve water quality, restore nature, and help communities adapt to climate change.
What Are We Monitoring?
💧 Water & Flooding
We measure water levels and timing of flood events across key sites in the catchment. This helps us track how well our interventions are reducing flood risk.
💧 Nature’s Response
We’re studying bat and flying insect populations to understand how local wildlife responds to greener, healthier habitats
💧 Community Resilience
We’re working closely with local communities to understand how they engage with the project- and how that engagement improves resilience, wellbeing, and connection to nature.
Here’s the science bit...
- Bats are nocturnal animals that rely on echolocation instead of sight.
- The soundwaves emitted by bats travel through the air until they hit something, like an insect, a tree, or a wall, then bounce back as echoes, which the bat’s sensitive ears detect.
- By listening to the time delay and direction of these echoes, bats build a detailed mental map of their environment.
- Different bat species produce different types of calls.
We place small, specialised audio recorders (see image 1) in green spaces to capture these echolocation calls.
Visualised as spectrograms (sound pictures), these calls form distinctive shapes: sharp lines, flat lines, hockey-stick curves, or soft bends – each species’ unique signature. (Figure 2 – Scroll right on the image on the side)
It’s like listening in on nature’s secret language and reading its hidden handwriting. This helps us understand which bats are present, how active they are, and how our habitat improvements support local biodiversity.
Join us for Citizen Science
We’re starting a new citizen science programme – and you’re invited to be part of it from the very beginning!
Alongside local volunteers, we’ll be collecting data to help track the impact of our work across Baylis and Godolphin Parks and beyond.
- Through the SmartRivers project, we’ll monitor freshwater invertebrate communities to understand how they respond to changes in the landscape – giving us early insights into the health of our streams as restoration efforts progress.
- By tracking soil moisture, we’ll learn whether interventions like wetland creation and tree planting are making the parks more resilient to flooding in winter and drought in summer.
- Regular water quality testing will help us monitor the overall health of the river, track any pollution events, and ensure the changes we’re making are supporting cleaner, healthier waterways.
We’re sampling Salt Hill Stream at five sites to monitor its health through the SmartRivers programme.
Join us in September to help track changes and do real science!
Join our citizen science team to learn how to identify freshwater invertebrates and take part in hands-on research that protects Slough’s rivers and green spaces.