A green vision for our blue spaces

Abigail Whyte met Green MP and river activist Ellie Chowns for a swim and sauna at a new swimming lake on the Welsh border 

“I love this feeling right now,” Ellie tells me, her breath misting around her face. “When your body acclimatises to the cold after a couple of minutes, and you’ve got that lovely tingle and a sense of calmness. It’s fabulous.”

Moments of calm like this are more precious than ever for Green MP Ellie Chowns, who since winning the North Herefordshire constituency last July, she’s hit the ground running, working four days a week in Parliament then spending the remainder attending surgeries, meeting constituents and campaigning for the cleanup of her home river, the Wye.

A keen wild swimmer, Ellie’s passion for the open water has had to take a back seat since taking on the busy schedule of an MP, but she’s happy to meet me at a new swimming lake on the Herefordshire border on a wintry Saturday morning. Dug into a hillside in the Golden Valley, The Dragon’s Gate is a 60m spring-fed lake with a sauna, so named for its proximity to the Welsh border.

A duck to water

As we chat and breaststroke around the lake, it’s clear to see how at home she feels in the water. “I’ve always swam. My mum was a swimming teacher – she taught me to love the water quite early,” she says. “Three years ago I swam everyday throughout winter. I got up every morning at 6.30am to do it.”

I ask her if she misses swimming regularly outdoors since becoming an MP. “I do miss it because it’s such a buzz, “ she says. “I love swimming anyway, especially the swimming that isn’t in an echoey indoor pool. Wild swimming is such a different experience.”

While frequent dips are no longer viable for Ellie at the moment, outdoor swimming always features prominently on her holidays, whether it be taking part in the Scilly Swim Challenge or surprise events in Denmark.

“I went interrailing last summer and spent some time in Copenhagen,” she tells me. “I was cycling near the harbour and saw lots of activity in the water. It turned out to be the TrygFonden Copenhagen Swim, which is a 2km swim around the Danish Parliament. I decided to sign up for the night event, which was happening that very evening. They give you tow floats with LED lights inside, so the swimmers look like a string of fairylights along the canal. It’s such a fabulous event.”

“Unfortunately, we had terrible weather the year I did the Scilly Swim; it was like swimming in a washing machine,” Ellie continues. “It got so choppy, some of the support kayaks were capsizing. It’s a great event, though. I’d never attempt anything like that sort of swimming by myself, so to have that opportunity with safety support and the camaraderie is wonderful.”

Butterfly lover

Ellie first heard about the Scilly Swim Challenge when she was a member of Hereford Triathlon Club, which she praises highly for helping improve her front crawl technique: “They really break down the minutiae of the stroke. I learned to extend the pull phase all the way down to my hip, which made my front crawl so much more efficient.”

I ask her if she has a favourite stroke.

“Butterfly,” she says without hesitation. “Head-up breaststroke is great for chatting while you swim, but butterfly is my favourite. I love the flow of it, it makes you feel like a dolphin.”

After a 10-minute swim, we get out of the lake and scurry into the sauna, greeted by other swimmers sporting smiles and ruddy cheeks. One of them has just had her first ever wild swim, which prompts a multitude of “congratulations” from us all.

“What a place to do it,” another of the women says, gesturing out to the view from the sauna window.

I remark that we’re so lucky to have a good choice of places like to swim in Herefordshire, considering the River Wye is no longer a favourable option because of agricultural pollution that has afflicted the river in recent years. It was during the March For Clean Water in November that I’d first met Ellie, campaigning on behalf of the Wye.

“Wasn’t the march fantastic?” she reflects. “Such a positive energy, and the creativity on show was amazing. It was lovely to see so many people from Herefordshire there, and of course to see people like Chris Packham and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall doing a brilliant job using their platform to support the cause.”

Legal action for the Wye

I ask Ellie about the progress being made to clean up the Wye. She explains about campaigning efforts to put in place a Water Protection Zone (WPZ) for the Wye catchment, something she’s been campaigning for alongside others for several years. The WPZ, she explains, will provide a legal framework for identifying the sources of pollution and make it legally binding for those responsible to take action to reduce their pollution.

“Many of the farmers I speak to recognise it’s a fair way of doing it because it would mean they’re not unfairly blamed for pollution that’s not their fault; it would clarify where the pollution is coming from and allocate responsibility fairly for tackling the problem.” Ellie says.

The health of the Wye is clearly a topic Ellie is passionate about, buoyed by the support of her constituents also fighting for “the nation’s favourite river”. But it’s a topic that gives rise to frustration during her time in London.

“It’s frustrating for me to get to Parliament and hear them banging on about sewage, which of course is really important, but here in Herefordshire sewage is not the big issue,” Ellie tells me. “It’s great that more is being done to clean up our rivers and seas but we need to look at agricultural pollution as well as sewage pollution. The Government have not been properly evidence-based in their approach so far.”

Love what you do

Well and truly warmed up, we leave the sauna to get changed, resisting the temptation to swim in the lake again. As we dry ourselves, I ask her how she’s been finding the pace of work since starting her role last summer.

“It’s a whirlwind. There’s lots to learn, and it can be a vertical learning curve in Parliament, definitely,” she laughs. “I get to meet so many different people, which is something I really enjoy.”

But is there much room for ‘me-time’ as an MP? “You’ve got to find some way of carving out a little bit of down time,” Ellie says. “But also, you’ve got to enjoy what you do, right? And I do really enjoy the job. It’s a huge privilege and I do like being busy.”

“My kids are older and independent now,” she continues. “I do struggle to imagine how I’d do it if they were few years younger. And it’s terrible that it’s a job that could be really tricky for those with caring responsibilities. Politics needs more people from all walks of life because it needs to serve people in all sorts of circumstances. I’m really keen to get more young women into politics. Have you ever considered it?”

It’s a question I’m not expecting and I give a bit of a lame answer. But I can’t deny it’s got me thinking. One to mull over on the drive home perhaps, with a flask of tea.

Abi and Ellie swam at The Dragon’s Gate in Herefordshire. Find out more about the lake at thedragonsgate.co.uk