Protect new turn by river (7)
I believe the answer is:
nurture
'protect' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'new turn by river' is the wordplay.
'new' is an anagram indicator.
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'river' becomes 'ure' (river in Yorkshire).
'turn' anagrammed gives 'nurt'.
'nurt'+'ure'='NURTURE'
(Other definitions for nurture that I've seen before include "Cherish (an ambition)" , "Raise" , "Encourage development of (a child)" , "Foster, feed" , "Rue runt involved in process of rearing" .)