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"very moderate degree of pollution", thought to be domestic effluent from 3 cottages, the closest 60m from the borehole. The test pumping also showed that the water table in the chalk sloped down towards Tarrant Gunville and that the pumping formed a cone of depression of 900m radius.  Pumped water sank into the dry bed of the River Tarrant within a few metres of the discharge point.  In 1950 the Stubhampton borehole was authorised to supply 2.2 Ml/d but was not put into use because of pollution. In 1957 regular abstraction began and in 1966 a Licence of Right under Water Resources Act 1963 for the abstraction of 2.2 Ml/d, 796 Ml/a was given. 

In 1968 Poole and East Dorset Water Board constructed 2 boreholes (152m and 107m deep) in chalk at Shapwick on the River Stour about 5 kms downstream of its junction with the Tarrant.  In 1969 these boreholes were test pumped at c.9.6 Ml/d.  In 1970 a report on the test pumping includes this comment on the effect on the Tarrant.  The Tarrant "in its upper reaches is a winterbourne drying annually upstream of Tarrant Monkton and in the drier years upstream of Tarrant Rushton. In exceptionally dry years the river is dry just above the confluence with the Stour, although there may be some flow between Tarrant Rushton and Tarrant Keynston". This refers to the Tarrant as known in 1969. Testing appeared to show groundwater flowing beneath the Tarrant to the Stour. The report also says that "although the cone of depression extended as far as Tarrant Keynston; the Lower Tarrant would not be greatly affected because it is already influent" (i.e. loses water into its bed).   The National Rivers Authority disagreed with this last statement. Shapwick boreholes were licensed to abstract 9.1 M1/d, 3319 Ml/a in 1970. Serious abstraction did not commence until 1979.

Concern over the condition of the River Tarrant resulted in the formation of the Tarrant Valley Water Protection Association (TVWPA) in September 1973.  Their initial paper states that the River Tarrant is/was a good breeding river for trout and sometimes salmon. TVWPA argued that it is wrong to abstract water high in the valleys and pipe it to coastal towns or out of the catchment area and that increased pollution of streams and rivers calls for greater, not smaller flows if the water quality is to be maintained.  In 1996 'The River Tarrant Protection Society' (RTPS) was formed to continue the work started by the TVWPA.

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