Ways and Means: New book featuring Yorkshire river shows love affair with Britain's waterways

But they are also, quite often, plagued with pollution and there is a high price to be paid for such a sorry state of play.

Documentary maker and photographer William Joshua Templeton set off after lockdowns to capture some sense of the nation's love affair with its waterways.

His new photobook, featuring Yorkshire's Wharfe, highlights the decline of the English river - but also in striving for better. There is an element of accountability, he adds.

"The thinking behind it is 'if you love rivers, you might fight to protect them'," he said.

"It's a very complicated world, and we all have very different parts to play. But if you care about rivers, you can find somewhere you fit in."

Mr Templeton has taken thousands of photographs for the photobook, Ways and Means, with just a few dozen images selected for the final 100 pages.

Picture led, it follows through three general themes. The first has a focus on 'love', showing the people that care for the country's rivers.

The second examines some of the problems and challenges, such as sewage pollution, while the third looks to solutions - highlighting the stories of those inspiring people who are taking action in their own way to help.

The River Wharfe at Ilkley was the first in the country to secure official Bathing Water Status, putting pressure on water companies and official bodies to clean up its waters.

The 65-mile Wharfe is one of the best known and most-loved of Yorkshire’s rivers, meandering as it does through Langstrothdale and passing by, or in some cases through, Kettlewell, Grassington, Bolton Abbey, Addingham, Ilkley, Burley-in-Wharfedale, Otley, Wetherby and Tadcaster and into the River Ouse.

Mr Templeton, inspired by local campaigners, visited a "dilapidated" sewage plant here for his photographs, to see for himself what it all came down to.

Of the final images chosen for the photobook, he said rivers are the "lifeblood" of our planet, and their carriage connects us all as a powerful reminder of the cycle of nature.

"The one thing that has resonated with me, wherever I've been, is the sense of community that springs up around rivers," he added. "It brings people together.

"From a warm Vimto after a swim, to someone offering me a glass of port when I got out of the river at Exmoor - people are just delighted to see people swimming and being fully immersed in nature. Rivers feel like a place, in this country, where you can be in the wild.

"And in many regards, England is void of wild spaces. It feels like a commons we should all have access to."

Ways and Means, published by LA MENTALE, Paris is now on sale.

Mr Templeton supports onepercentfortheplanet.org IRC (international rescue committee) and will donate 100 per cent of photo book sales profits to The Rivers Trust.

To order, visit williamjoshuatempleton.co.uk.