Trent Falls

Where the Trent and Yorkshire’s Ouse meet, to form the Humber, is one of the country’s major waterway junctions.  The water drained from one fifth of England’s total area flows through here.  Why is it called Trent Falls?  Don’t know.  As far as I know it isn’t called Ouse Falls, although the more pragmatic do call it Trent End, but not Ouse End (and not Humber Start).

So, sticking with Trent Falls, there’s only one place ashore from where the whole geography can be seen and that’s the small village of Alkborough.

During the last miles of the Trent’s approach to Trent Falls the river flows along the bottom of a steep ridge on its eastern bank.  High for this part of the country.  Alkborough is on top of that ridge, near where it falls way to allow the Humber to flow to the east, so it has a viewpoint over Trent Falls and the flat country extending for many miles beyond.

The pale-coloured land on the left, just below the line of the horizon, is between the Trent and the Ouse.  The white post where the rivers meet is Trent Falls, and the white boat has cruised up the Humber and is turning into the Trent.
(Click on any image for a larger view).

From the skipper’s viewpoint it would look like this, a picture kindly supplied by Rachael Jennings, taken from her motor-cruiser.   www.naughty-cal.blogspot.co.uk

In the foreground is Alkborough Flats, an agricultural area for thousands of years, but now used for another purpose.  For 500 years there was also a small port on the Flats, until the 1700s, because the rivers limit access to this area and it’s still quiet and undisturbed.  There was more activity in 1643 when the Royalists in the Civil War brought an artillery position onto the Flats to defend access to the Trent, but the guns were eventually overcome by the Parliamentarians.  Late in World War 2 the Flats were used as a bombing-range by the RAF, USAF and the Polish airforce.

Agriculture eventually ceased on the Flats.  In September 2006 a breach was made in the floodwall, which allows the tide to flow in and out of a third of the 1,000 acre site.  During extreme high tides water also flows over a lowered section of the wall into the whole of the Flats, to alleviate flooding in Hull, Gainsborough and York.  During construction of the breach unexploded bombs were found, from the 1940s bombing range.

Today Alkborough Flats is also a wetland haven for birds and other wildlife.  It’s accessible from Alkborough (from Whitton Road, turn down Prospect Lane).  There’s a car-park, hides, information panels and seats.

Places with a spectacular geography usually have an ancient history and Alkborough’s viewpoint is also the site of a turf maze, known as Julian’s Bower.  Its age and origin are a mystery but it’s thought to be medieval.

The Victorians prudently copied the ancient design of the maze into the floor of the porch of the village church.

When in Alkborough we always visit The Paddocks Tea Rooms, which is on a working farm, for the best of service and food, and copious leaflets about exploring the area. www.collegefarm.org  They also have a caravan site.

Finally, it’s possible to drive further round the end of the ridge for views across the Humber.

As a dedicated blog-writer I, of course, spent many days waiting for a white boat to arrive to complete this picture!

 

Waterways by Train

We enjoy taking a train from Rotherham to Hull, and have done so a number of times during different seasons. It’s the easiest way to see a selection of Humber waterways, and to gather a broad impression of the geography of the region  -  a geography created by the waterways.

Although Hull is not really covered by this blog it’s a city with a lovely riverfront on the Humber, and boats and shipping to see (dependent on the tide of course), so we are always happy to visit it again.

This post describes a railway journey starting at Rotherham’s new snazzy waterside station, officially opened in July this year.

The railway shares the valley created by the River Don.  Sitting on the right-hand side there are always waterway glimpses, although less so in the summer when the thickly-wooded surroundings block sightings.

But before we leave Rotherham behind there’s a clear view of the large canal basin, usually with flocks of swans, where very large commercial craft turn at their head of navigation.  The Don is a typical river navigation, so between Rotherham and Doncaster boats are sometimes on the river and other times on canal lengths which bypass weirs and shallows.

Next in view are massive steelworks through the centre of which flows the Don.  I mention this as proof that steel is still made in Rotherham despite the many ill-informed impressions.

Having got that off my chest it’s back to the waterways.  Near Swinton station derelict locks on the Dearne & Dove Canal are now the boatyard of the Waddington Boat Company.  And on leaving Mexborough station the line crosses a navigationally by-passed section of the River Don.

The Don looks different when in flood with fresh water from the Yorkshire hills.







Before reaching Doncaster the line passes through a tunnel and a deep cutting.  This is the limestone ridge through which the Don has made one of the few passes  -  further south the Chesterfield Canal had to tunnel through it to reach the Trent.

We changed trains at Doncaster - again sitting on the right side has the best views.  The line crosses the navigation just after leaving the station, but it’s masked by buildings, fences, etc.  A little later the Don is crossed and a small weir can clearly be seen, which looks insignificant, but it’s what stops the tide from travelling further upstream on this river.

From now on the geography is totally different.  For many centuries the tidal River Don, freed from the limitations of a valley, and a steep cutting through a ridge, flowed where it wanted through flat low-lying land.  That all changed in the 17th century when it was confined by Dutch engineers into an artificial course, that’s why the lower reaches of the Don are now known as the Dutch River  -  its straightened lines obvious on the map as it approaches the River Ouse.

By doing so a vast acreage of land between the Dutch River and the Trent were drained and developed into a rich agricultural resource, which is pleasant to see out of the train window.  Sheep grazing on the flood-banks of the waterways, small-holdings with a mixture of animals, remote small roads, horses in paddocks, and fields of crops of many varieties.

If facing astern it’s possible to catch a glimpse of Long Sandall Lock on the Don Navigation, but it is only a glimpse and I’ve never managed to get a picture of it from a train window.

After Stainforth station the line passes under the M18 and, a little further on, crosses over the Stainforth & Keadby Canal at Thorne.  There’s always moored boats to see from the train in this busy little waterways town.

  

 Soon afterwards is Thorne North station, the approach to it adorned by a lovely park with lakes.  After passing through more drained arable land the train crosses the Dutch River  -  it’s banks indicating the state of the tide.

 

 Immediately afterwards it’s a bridge over the Aire & Calder Navigation, as it nears Goole docks.

On the approach to Goole station the superstructures of ships in the docks can sometimes be seen beyond the buildings.  It’s a sign that major waterways are near.

The first is the Ouse, the king of Yorkshire’s rivers.  The train clatters across a long bridge over the Ouse which swings open to allow ships up to Howdendyke wharf  -  so it’s unlikely you’ll see a ship from the train!

And this is the type of ship the bridge swings for, unloading at Howdendyke wharf.

More flat lands, this time drained via the Market Weighton Canal.  I keep missing photographs from the train, so here’s one I took earlier.

Brough is a Roman town, created to guard the northern end of their Humber crossing-point.  From here the rail line gets closer and closer to the Humber, eventually after Ferriby there’s spectacular clear views as the train runs along the north bank.  Facing backwards shows the wide upstream channel of the Humber, but facing forwards gives a lovely view of the Humber Bridge.

Eventually the Humber Bridge is so near it requires the train-track to run under its northern approach road.  After Hessle station the Humber can still be seen but it’s beyond a busy parallel road.

Hull’s Paragon railway station is a delight, with flowers and a small area as it was when trains were the major form of public transport.

It’s an enjoyable walk from the station’s main exit, across the main road, along Paragon Street, at its end turn right into Princes Dock Street which is considerably more pleasant than it sounds.  The Princes Quays shopping centre is set in a water landscape with fountains, there are outside cafes, and on the other side of the street are historic buildings still in use.  At the end of Princes Dock Street there is a crossing to the marina with, at its far end, a lock into the Humber.

Downstream, left facing the Humber, is the start of a very pleasant riverside area, including a pier from where the river-crossing ferries used to sail, a footbridge over the River Hull, The Deep (aquarium) and a waterside footpath along the Humber.

It’s a day out of which we never tire, and Doncaster-Hull is only an hour on the train.

Barmby Barrage

These boats are on the tidal section of the River Ouse, waiting to enter the River Derwent. 

At the confluence of other rivers this would be a straight-forward matter of waiting for the water levels to rise to a navigable height, but here the Derwent is not free to flow.  Instead it is controlled by Barmby Barrage.

Seen from the Ouse the entrance to the River Derwent looks like this.  Built in 1975 Barmby Barrage stops the saline and sediment-rich tidal waters of the Ouse from contaminating the fresh and clear waters of the Derwent, which, further upstream, is extracted for drinking water.  Another function is flood-control by excluding high levels on the Ouse which sometimes struggles to deal with high volumes of fresh water coming down from the hills north of York, and abnormally high tides. All the water-level calculations are done automatically, with the barrage-keeper on hand to deal with any problems and operation of the lock for boaters.

On the left are the closed gates to the lock-chamber, the opening of which was awaited by the boats in the photograph above.  On the right are the sluices which control the levels between the Ouse and the Derwent.  Between the lock and the sluices is the jetty which juts out 37ft.

The jetty, seen from the Derwent side
(No, it doesn't have a power station on it). 

A recent addition is a “lamprey ladder”, seen here during installation, sloping down into the Ouse.  These eel-like, but not eels, fish need to come in from the sea to breed in fresh water  -  a supply of which from the Derwent flows down the “ladder” and the lampreys in the Ouse sense it and swim up the ladder.  It was installed in 2011, so what the lampreys had been doing since the barrage was installed in 1975 I don’t know.  Nevertheless, they now have an Environment Agency ladder to help them on their way.

Having passed through the barrage's lock boats are on a very different waterway.  Navigation on the Derwent has a complex history  -  the Navigation Act was repealed in 1935, and waterways enthusiasts fought long and hard in the 1970s and 1980s to have the legal right to boat upon the river.  The situation remains unclear - there is no navigation authority, and boats can only cruise as far as Stamford Bridge.

The Dewent, looking upstream
from the barrage's mooring pontoon

On the Derwent the surroundings of the barrage are a well-maintained amenity site with leisure facilities which include course fishing, a bird-watching hide, a wildlife reserve and a picnic area.  There’s also a mooring pontoon for boats waiting for passage through the barrage.  It’s a quiet area with free parking, at the end of the road from Barmby on the Marsh.  We like it.

The Ferry at Booth

It’s quiet on the river now, but for centuries the ferry at Booth was so important it eventually gave its name to the nearby area of Boothferry.

The barrier of the Humber, and the four major rivers at its upstream end, was crossed most easily at Booth, although “easily” is a relative term.  The rivers are all tidal and the incoming flow is very fast, with the ebb slower but sometimes swollen by fresh water draining away.

Nevertheless, the ferry’s location is strategic  -  the Ouse is narrower than the Humber, it’s the first place where the Ouse is crossable, and on the south bank it gives access to a wide geographical area (including the Great North Road at Doncaster), without crossing another major river.  Hull’s nearest crossing point was Booth, so south-based traffic to and from that major port ensured a steady stream of customers, including stage-coaches during their brief thirty-year ascendancy from 1810.  The horses had to be un-hitched and the coach manhandled up and down the often slippery ramps, then fresh horses harnessed up for the next miles.  The stage-coach names evoked speed  -  the Eclipse, the True Briton, the John Bull  -  but the only thing speeding along at Booth was the River Ouse.

In May 1893 an eye-witness account tells of one ferry carrying ten calves in the body of the boat with ten men standing on the bulwarks.  The next load was fifteen sheep and lambs, five farmers, a dog and himself  -  the loading was going well until the whole flock broke loose and some of the fat farmers were nearly capsized.  The dog flew out, the drovers swore, and the onlookers smiled.  Eventually the creatures were got onboard, only for two lambs to spring overboard before being recovered.

c1910 on south bank - how long did it take to load
a car, people, and a horse and cart?

This sort of scene had gone on for more centuries than were recorded, as had the ferrymen using the boat to catch migratory salmon coming up the Ouse each year  -  getting to the fish before the pursuing porpoises and bottle-nosed whales.

The ferryboats were rowed across, usually with one large oar at the stern, and another near the bows.  In 1914 one was fitted with an engine, but spares were difficult to obtain during the war so the boatmen went back to rowing over.

OK, so who would trust their
car to this?

After the First World War the ramps were improved with smoother surfaces as more cars were using the crossing.  By the 1920s the public pressure for a bridge to be built at Booth could not be resisted.  Shipping was still using the river to access wharfs further upstream at Selby so the bridge would have to be moveable.  The first girders were lifted into place on 1 June 1927, eventually the new Boothferry Bridge would be 698ft long, with a swing-span giving a 125ft wide shipping channel.



At the closing of an era the last ferry crossed the Ouse on 17 July 1929, the day before the official opening of the bridge.

Boothferry Bridge open c1900 - a rare sight today
(that tug looks a bit off channel)

Boothferry Bridge seldom swings now, shipping going no further upstream than the nearby Howdendyke wharves.  Barges obtain various contracts to deliver further upstream but I’m not aware that they require the bridge to open.  The crossing is still busy with local traffic and that on the A614, although most volume is on the M62, the bridge of which swoops high above the Ouse a little further downstream.

There’s little to see now where Booth’s ferry was so busy, so noisy, for so long.  But on the north bank some of the buildings remain, although vastly improved and extended.  Standing on the north bank of the ferry crossing, looking downstream to Boothferry Bridge, beyond that to the M62 viaduct, and down to the swiftly flowing waters of the River Ouse  -  a reminder that crossing large rivers is never easy.

 The following pictures are dated

8 May 2012

Looking across to the north bank. The buildings are the three on the right in the picture of c1910.

The buildings on the north bank, although much altered.

On the north bank, looking across to the south bank ferry landing. Here, only a solitary piece of timber near the water's edge shows the location of the old ferry ramp.

Boothferry Bridge.

Boothferry Bridge from the area of the ferry landing.