Trent Falls | |
|---|---|
 Alkborough Flats and Trent Falls | |
  Trent Falls Location in Lincolnshire | |
| Coordinates: 53°42′02″N0°41′28″W / 53.700467°N 0.691109°W Coordinates: 53°42′02″N0°41′28″W / 53.700467°N 0.691109°W | |
| Grid position | SE86162310 |
| Location | Lincolnshire, England |
Trent Falls is the confluence of the River Ouse and the River Trent which forms the Humber between Lincolnshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire in England.
The River Ouse flows to the east where it turns into the Humber, and the River Trent flows northwards. It curves to the east near the confluence, although this is largely engineered, rather than natural. A training wall was built on the western bank of the Trent after the First World War, in an attempt to keep the channel in a known position. The rivers deposit large volumes of silt in this area, and charts for coastal shipping have to be updated monthly, but for smaller vessels, the channel can be considered to be reasonably static. [1]
Despite the training wall and a mini-lighthouse called 'Apex Light' which is situated at the end of the wall, [1] navigation at Trent Falls is not simple. There are no real waterfalls, but there is a very rapid race of water at difficult stages of the tide (especially spring tides), and there is a tidal bore on the Trent (the Trent Aegir). Boats coming down one river with an ebbing tide often have to wait several hours (sometimes beached on the sand, and sometimes overnight) until the tide turns and the flood can carry them up the other river.
The RSPB's Blacktoft Sands nature reserve lies immediately upstream of the Falls, on the south bank of the Ouse. It is formed from the largest tidal reedbed in England, and is visited by 270 species of birds, including breeding pairs of bearded tits, Eurasian bitterns and marsh harriers, for which it is of national importance. [2] Overlooking Trent Falls from a hill a mile away to the east is Julian's Bower, an ancient turf maze on the edge of the Lincolnshire village of Alkborough. It dates from at least 1697, when Abraham de la Pryme recorded it, although the reasons for its creation are now uncertain. [3]
The Wash is a rectangular bay and multiple estuary at the north-west corner of East Anglia on the East coast of England, where Norfolk meets Lincolnshire and both border the North Sea. One of Britain's broadest estuaries, it is fed by the rivers Witham, Welland, Nene and Great Ouse. It is a 62,046-hectare (153,320-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest. It is also a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I, a National Nature Reserve, a Ramsar site, a Special Area of Conservation and a Special Protection Area. It is in the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and part of it is the Snettisham Royal Society for the Protection of Birds nature reserve.
The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between the East Riding of Yorkshire on the north bank and North Lincolnshire on the south bank. Although the Humber is an estuary from the point at which it is formed, many maps show it as the River Humber.
The River Witham is a river almost entirely in the county of Lincolnshire in the east of England. It rises south of Grantham close to South Witham at SK8818, passes through the centre of Grantham, passes Lincoln at SK9771 and at Boston, TF3244, flows into The Haven, a tidal arm of The Wash, near RSPB Frampton Marsh. The name "Witham" seems to be extremely old and of unknown origin. Archaeological and documentary evidence shows the importance of the Witham as a navigable river from the Iron Age onwards. From Roman times it was navigable to Lincoln, from where the Fossdyke was constructed to link it to the River Trent. The mouth of the river moved in 1014 following severe flooding, and Boston became important as a port.
The River Great Ouse is a river in England, the longest of several British rivers called "Ouse". From Syresham in Northamptonshire, the Great Ouse flows through Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk to drain into the Wash and the North Sea near Kings Lynn. Authorities disagree both on the river's source and its length with one quoting 160 mi (260 km) and another 143 mi (230 km). Mostly flowing north and east, it is the fifth longest river in the United Kingdom. The Great Ouse has been historically important for commercial navigation, and for draining the low-lying region through which it flows; its best-known tributary is the Cam, which runs through Cambridge. Its lower course passes through drained wetlands and fens and has been extensively modified, or channelised, to relieve flooding and provide a better route for barge traffic. The unmodified river would have changed course regularly after floods.
The River Ancholme is a river in Lincolnshire, England, and a tributary of the Humber. It rises at Ancholme Head, a spring just north of the village of Ingham and immediately west of the Roman Road, Ermine Street. It flows east and then north to Bishopbridge west of Market Rasen, where it is joined by the Rase. North of there it flows through the market town of Brigg before draining into the Humber at South Ferriby. It drains a large part of northern Lincolnshire between the Trent and the North Sea.
The River Ouse is a river in North Yorkshire, England. Hydrologically, the river is a continuation of the River Ure, and the combined length of the River Ure and River Ouse makes it, at 129 miles (208 km), the sixth-longest river of the United Kingdom and the longest to flow entirely in one county. The length of the Ouse alone is about 52 miles (84 km) but the total length of the river is disputed.
The River Trent is the third-longest river in the United Kingdom. Its source is in Staffordshire, on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through and drains the North Midlands. The river is known for dramatic flooding after storms and spring snowmelt, which in the past often caused the river to change course.
Read's Island is an island situated just outside the Ancholme sluice, on the Humber Estuary in England. The Lincolnshire Trust suggest it is an artificial island, and a report from 1979 says that it was reclaimed. However, the site was for many years a large sandbank going by the name of "Old Warp" and is shown on the 1734 Customs Map of the Humber where Read's Island now lays, and extending further downstream.
Blacktoft Sands RSPB reserve is a nature reserve in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which leases the site from Associated British Ports.
Alkborough is a parish of 458 people in 192 households in North Lincolnshire, England, located near the northern end of The Cliff range of hills overlooking Trent Falls, the confluence of the River Trent and the River Ouse.
Adlingfleet is a drained, fertile, former marshland village in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that forms part of the civil parish of Twin Rivers. It is 6.5 miles (10.5 km) east-southeast of Goole town centre. Its sea wall along the far north-east is set back from the Ouse estuary leaving the largest single reedbed in England.
The Market Weighton Canal ran 9.5 miles (15.3 km) from the Humber Estuary to its terminus near Market Weighton. It gained its Act of Parliament in 1772 and opened in 1782. The 3.5 miles (5.6 km) closest to Market Weighton was abandoned in 1900 and the right of navigation through Weighton lock was lost in 1971. However, as of 2002 the lock was passable and the canal usable up to the junction with the River Foulness where silt has made it impassable. Also there is no right of navigation under the M62 motorway bridge to the north of Newport.
Blacktoft is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The village is situated on the north bank of the River Ouse, 1 mile (1.6 km) west from where it joins the River Trent and becomes the Humber. It is approximately 6 miles (10 km) east from Howden and 23 miles (37 km) south-east from the county town of York. Blacktoft lies within the Parliamentary constituency of Haltemprice and Howden an area that mainly consists of middle class suburbs, towns and villages. The area is affluent, placed as the 10th most affluent in the country in a 2003 Barclays Private Clients survey, and has one of the highest proportions of owner-occupiers in the country.
The Stainforth and Keadby Canal is a navigable canal in South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, England. It connects the River Don Navigation at Bramwith to the River Trent at Keadby, by way of Stainforth, Thorne and Ealand, near Crowle. It opened in 1802, passed into the control of the River Don Navigation in 1849, and within a year was controlled by the first of several railway companies. It became part of the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation, an attempt to remove several canals from railway control, in 1895. There were plans to upgrade it to take larger barges and to improve the port facilities at Keadby, but the completion of the New Junction Canal in 1905 made this unnecessary, as Goole could easily be reached and was already a thriving port.
The coast of Lincolnshire runs for more than 50 miles (80 km) down the North Sea coast of eastern England, from the estuary of the Humber to the marshlands of the Wash, where it meets Norfolk. This stretch of coastline has long been associated with tourism, fishing and trade.
In Yorkshire there is a very close relationship between the major topographical areas and the geological period in which they were formed. The Pennine chain of Hills in the west is of Carboniferous origin. The central vale is Permo-Triassic. The North York Moors in the north-east of the county are Jurassic in age while the Yorkshire Wolds to the south east are Cretaceous chalk uplands. The plain of Holderness and the Humberhead levels both owe their present form to the Quaternary ice ages.
The Trent Aegir, also known as the Eagre, is a tidal bore on the River Trent in England. At certain times of the year, the lower tidal reaches of the Trent experience a moderately large bore. It is said to take its name from Ægir, a personification of the sea in Norse mythology, although this is disputed. A more likely derivation is from Old English ēagor.
The River Foulness is a river in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Its name is derived from Old English fūle[n] ēa, meaning “dirty water”. Maintenance responsibilities for the river transferred from the Environment Agency to the Market Weighton Drainage Board on 1 October 2011. Market Weighton Drainage Board subsequently amalgamated with the Lower Ouse Internal Drainage Board on 1 April 2012 to create the Ouse and Humber Drainage Board. The river discharges into the Humber Estuary via Market Weighton Canal. Water levels within the river, its tributaries and the canal are managed and controlled by the Environment Agency. The river lies in an area known as the Humberhead Levels.
The Trent Valley Way is a waymarked long-distance footpath in England following the River Trent and its valley in the counties of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire.
Whitton Island is an island situated at the western end of the Humber Estuary in northern England.
Media related to Trent Falls at Wikimedia Commons