[83] In Newark the water was deep enough to allow four grammar school boys to row across the countryside to Kelham. These include recreational water activities, and once rehabilitated, as nature reserves and wetlands. The flood bank was subsequently strengthened and repaired, following further floods during 1824 and 1852. After this confluence, the river turns north-east and is joined by the Soar before reaching the outskirts of Nottingham, where it is joined by the Erewash near the Attenborough nature reserve and enters Nottinghamshire. Wilmington, North Carolina, United States. As no archive sources record that the Hemington bridge existed, there may have been other medieval bridge projects now forgotten. The average for the whole Trent catchment is 720mm (28in) which is significantly lower than the average for United Kingdom at 1,101mm (43.3in) and lower than that for England at 828mm (32.6in). [47][148] More definitive finds from the medieval period were also found at this site and near Colwick. Newark Navigation Commissioners were created, with powers to borrow money to fund the construction of two locks, and to charge tolls for boats using them. [178] At one time these sites provided a quarter of the electricity needs of the UK, giving rise to the epithet 'Megawatt Valley'. The river is known for dramatic flooding after storms and spring snowmelt, which in the past often caused the river to change course. From its source in the Plynlimon Mountains in west Wales, the River Severn flows through the West Midlands counties of Shropshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire Wales (Powys) Llanidloes(165m above sea level) Caersws Newtown(103m above sea level) Welshpool(70m above sea level) England Shropshire Shrewsbury(county town and historic city) [34] DETROIT (AP) Nissan is recalling more than 809,000 small SUVs in the U.S. and Canada because a key problem can cause the ignition to shut off while they're being driven. Domestic effluent and polluting discharges from the metal working industries in the upper reaches, combined to affect the whole length of the tributary River Tame. These levels extend across the Trent valley, and include the lower reaches of the Eau, Torne and Idle. Later, in 1699, the baron William Paget (Lord Paget), who owned coal mines and land in the area, obtained an Act of Parliament to extend navigation up to Fleetstones Bridge, Burton, despite opposition from the people of Nottingham. [132][133] It forms part of the Severn-Trent flyway, a route used by migratory birds to cross Great Britain. Water level management is important in these lowland areas, and the local watercourses are usually maintained by internal drainage boards and their successors, with improved drainage being assisted by the use of pumping stations to lift water into embanked carrier rivers, which subsequently discharge into the Trent. [23][75][76], One of the earliest recorded floods along the Trent was in 1141, and like many other large historical events was caused by the melting of snow following heavy rainfall, it also caused a breach in the outer floodbank at Spalford. [57][84][85] Two days later, in the lower tidal reaches of the river, the peak of the flood combined with a high spring tide to flood villages and 2,000 properties in Gainsborough. The mudstones are not exposed by the bed of the river, as there is a layer of gravels and then alluvium above the bedrock. Navigation can be difficult, and there have been a number of incidents with ships running aground and in one case, striking Keadby Bridge. [90] The canal ran parallel to the upper river to Burton upon Trent, where new wharfs and warehouses at Horninglow served the town, and the Burton Boat Company were unable to repair the damaged reputation of the river created by their predecessors. River Trent has been used as a migration corridor for the wading birds and wildfowl. The River Trent is the third longest river in England with a length of 298 km, and the second largest in terms of flow, with a basin estimating 10,435 km 2 . [158], Salmon, a species that became virtually extinct due to historic pollution, have been progressively reintroduced on the tributaries since 1998, with thousands of salmon parr being released into the Dove and its tributary the Churnet each year. [91] Eventually in 1805, they reached an agreement with Henshall & Co., the leading canal carriers, for the closure of the river above Wilden Ferry. During a following glaciation (Devensian, 70,000BC) the ice held back vast areas of water called Glacial Lake Humber in the current lower Trent basin. The new Ferry Bridge was opened in 1889, although it needed the financial support of the brewer and philanthropist Michael Bass to pay for the construction, and later in 1898 to purchase the existing ferry rights so that it became free of tolls. The Dadfords, who were engineers on the Trent and Mersey Canal, estimated the cost at 20,000, but the proposal was opposed by landowners and merchants on the river, while the Navigator, published in 1788, estimated that around 500 men who were employed to bow-haul boats would have lost their jobs. Food was scarce, "in one day 10,000 loaves had to be sent into the town and distributed gratuitously to save people from famine". Due to the relatively small size of the Trent and its tributaries such as the Fowlea Brook, which drained these towns, the river and brooks were unable to dilute the inflow of domestic sewage and soon became overwhelmed and badly polluted. And here the smug and silver Trent shall run River Trent, courtesy of Richard Croft Free guides for fun days out Looking for a perfect place to picnic, relax, think, run, walk your dog and more, all for free? It is situated mainly on the west bank of the River Trent and on the Grand Trunk (Trent and Mersey) Canal. Open water swimming still takes place at locations including Colwick Park Lake adjacent to the river, with its own voluntary lifeguards. [13][14][15] At West Stockwith the Trent is joined by the Chesterfield Canal and the River Idle and soon after enters Lincolnshire fully, passing to the west of Scunthorpe. [41], The lower sequences of these terraces have been widely quarried for sand and gravel, and the extraction of these minerals continues to be an important industry in the Trent Valley, with some three million tonnes of aggregates being produced each year. The River Trent was a major working river until after the Second World War. Lord Paget seems to have funded the work privately, building locks at King's Mill and Burton Mills and several cuts and basins. [115], The Tame pollution also reached the Trent as well, with one of the worse affected reaches being that downstream of the confluence with the Tame through Burton, this being exacerbated by its late introduction of sewage treatment, and the substantial wastewater arising from the breweries in the town. [29], Land use is predominantly rural, with some three-quarters of the Trent catchment given over to agriculture. With a course of 143 miles . The complex of three bridges provides evidence of attempts to keep a crossing open over slightly more than two hundred years from 1097, with three bridges constructed on the same site but felled by scouring, floods and course migration of the river to the south eroding the bridgehead. [153], The effluent and industrial pollution of the early 20th century, led to a rapid decline in fish stocks, large stretches of the river became fishless and species such as salmon almost disappeared. The flood defences around Nottingham and Burton constructed during the 1950s, following the 1947 event, stopped any major urban flooding, but problems did occur in undefended areas such as Willington and Gunthorpe, and again at Girton where 19 houses were flooded. The Newark Navigation Commissioners financed improvements to Newark Town lock at the same time, and dredging of the channel was largely funded by selling the 400,000 tonnes of gravel removed from the river bed. [168][169]) Cavendish Bridge was itself damaged beyond repair by a flood in March 1947, requiring a temporary Bailey bridge to be used until a new concrete span was constructed in 1957. More improvements followed between 1957 and 1960. The native and migrant species are still spotted in River Trent where they live on the nature reserves and wetland areas. The engineer for the Manchester Ship Canal, Sir Edward Leader Williams, was commissioned to survey the river, while negotiations with the North Staffordshire Railway, who owned the Trent and Mersey Canal and had maintained its viability, ensured that some of the clauses from previous Acts of Parliament did not prevent progress. Many of the largest historical floods were caused by snowmelt, but the last such episode occurred when the bitter winter of 1946-7 was followed by a rapid thaw due to rain in March 1947 and caused severe flooding all along the Trent valley. Another translation is given as "the trespasser", referring to the waters flooding over the land. [36][37], Downstream of Armitage the solid geology is primarily Mercia Mudstones, the course of the river following the arc of these mudstones as they pass through the Midlands all the way to the Humber. Yet Thames and Severne both in this come short of me, River Trent, river in the English Midlands. River Bann, Irish An Bhanna, river, the largest in Northern Ireland, falling into two distinct parts. This combined with the nearby supplies of fuel in the form of coal from the Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire coalfields, and the existing railway infrastructure meant that a string of twelve large power stations were originally constructed along its banks. Lichfield. [136][137], Other managed wetland sites along the river include Beckingham Marshes, Croxall Lakes, Drakelow, and Willington Gravel Pits. Contained within these terraces is evidence of the mega fauna that once lived along the river, the bones and teeth of animals such as the woolly mammoth, bison and wolves that existed during colder periods have all been identified. [138][139][140][141], The Trent valley also links together other SSSI and local nature reserves, which have varying habitats not only for birds, but also mammals, insects and fish, a good example is the tributary River Mease where the entire watercourse has been designated both as a SSSI and a European special area of conservation. [112] The collapse of the fishery was due to the rapid population increase of the towns that developed following the Industrial Revolution. [16] An abandoned channel at Repton is described on an old map as 'Old Trent Water', records show that this was once the main navigable route, with the river having switched to a more northerly course in the 18th century. For that I am the mere of England, that divides A description of the breach was given as follows: The bank is formed upon a plain of sandy nature, and when it was broken in 1795, the water forced an immense breach, the size of which may be judged from the fact that eighty loads of faggots and upwards of four hundred tons of earth were required to fill up the hole, an operation which took several weeks to complete. Duke of Sutherland, describing the river in his injunction of 1902. The work was completed by October 1773, and the separate tolls remained in force until 1783, when they were replaced by a one-shilling (5p) toll whichever channel the boats used. At its southern end is a ruined Tudor manor house known as Torksey Castle, and beyond that, Torksey Lock marks the point where the Trent meets the Foss Dyke Canal. Tolls were reduced to retain the traffic, wages were increased to retain the workforce, and they sought amalgamation with a railway company. [157], Recreational fishing is still popular, although anglers no longer line the banks as they once did. At Besthorpe near Newark, breeding pairs of little egrets and grey herons have been observed. Other changes, such as the replacement of town gas with natural gas, saw the end of the polluting and toxic coal tar emissions to rivers in 1963. The River Great Ouse meanders through some of the prettiest towns and villages in Cambridgeshire. Welsh rhyd, "ford") in various place names along the Trent, such as Hill Ridware, as well as the Old Englishderived ford. The 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. Rampton. Up to 0.3 metres (1ft) of deposition could occur in a single season, and depths of 1.5 metres (5ft) have been accumulated over time at some locations. The river turns north-east where it is joined by its largest tributary, the Tame (which is at this point actually the larger, though its earlier length shorter) and immediately afterwards by the Mease, creating a larger river that now flows through a broad floodplain. Large parts of the city and surrounding areas were flooded with 9,000 properties and nearly a hundred industrial premises affected some to first floor height. Its drainage basin covers more than 4,000 square miles (10,000 square km). [11], Downstream of Nottingham it passes Radcliffe on Trent, Stoke Bardolph and Burton Joyce before reaching Gunthorpe with its bridge, lock and weir. At this point, between Alkborough and Faxfleet the river reaches the boundary with Yorkshire and joins the River Ouse to form the Humber which flows into the North Sea.[11]. The river in Burton is crossed by a number of bridges including the ornate 19th-century Ferry Bridge that links Stapenhill to the town. The central arches of the medieval Swarkestone bridge were knocked out by the great flood of 1795 and rebuilt, but the bridge's more rural location allowed large portions of the medieval bridge to survive and remain in use today. Most of the town belongs to the historic county of Staffordshire, but the neighbourhoods on the east bank of the Trent lie in the . In quantity equals not one of yours: At least one other medieval attempt was made to bridge the Trent near Wilden at Hemington, but this was gone long before the end of the Middle Ages. This resulted in the release of raw sewage and the chemical into the river, killing thousands of fish, and posing a health risk to river users as far south as Burton. The second and third largest are the Derwent and the Dove respectively; together these two rivers drain the majority of Derbyshire and Staffordshire, including the upland areas of the Peak District. Some of the earliest floods can be assessed by using Spalford bank as a substitute measure for the size of a particular flood, as it has been estimated that the bank only failed when flows were greater than 1,000m3/s (35,000cuft/s), the bank was also breached in 1403 and 1795. Its source is in Staffordshire, on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. [125][129], Artificial changes along the Trent, due to navigation, farming, mineral extraction and drainage works, mean that much of the riparian landscape has been altered, reducing the amount of natural habitat. [73][74], The Trent is widely known for its tendency to cause significant flooding along its course, and there is a well documented flood history extending back for some 900 years. A huge half-moon, a monstrous cantle out. Similar facilities were present in 1870 on the water meadows at Burton-on-Trent, which also had its own swimming club. Livestock was badly affected, 72 sheep drowned in Wilford and ten cows were lost in Bridgford. Raising finance was difficult, but some was subscribed by the chairman and vice-chairman, and construction of Cromwell Lock began in 1908. . In 1683 the same bridge was partially destroyed by a flood that also meant the loss of the bridge at Newark. [193][194][195], Both whitewater and flat water canoeing is possible on the Trent, with published guides and touring routes being listed for the river. Polluting substances such as ammonia showed a reduction, as did the biochemical oxygen demand, an indicator of the contamination present in the river. The canal connects the Trent to the Potteries and on to Runcorn and the Bridgewater Canal. [115], The economic recession in the 1970s meant that there was a considerable contraction of heavy industrial sectors, reducing pollution loadings from factories and foundries. and the town was also a key place on long-distance routeways . In Nottingham the heights of significant historic floods from 1852 have been carved into a bridge abutment next to Trent Bridge, with flood marks being transferred from the medieval Hethbeth bridge that pre-dated the existing 19th-century crossing. [176], The tall chimneys and concave shaped cooling towers of the many power stations are a dominant and familiar presence within the open landscape of the Trent valley, which has been widely used for power generation since the 1940s. Later improvements such as the series of purification lakes that were constructed on the Tame in the 1980s, which allowed contaminated sediment to settle out from the river, also reduced pollution levels, and lessened the impact of first flush runoff events in the lower Tame and the middle Trent. [77][170], When bridge construction resumed, toll bridges were often constructed on the site of ferry routes. [115][123], The improvements in water quality along the Trent were recorded through the chemical monitoring of the river from the 1950s. [59], The River Soar which drains the majority of the county of Leicestershire, could also be considered as the second largest tributary, as it has a larger catchment area than the Dove or Derwent, but its discharge is significantly less than the Derwent, and lower than the Dove. [166] King Edward fortified the Nottingham bridge in 920, while a notable battle took place at Burton's bridge in 1322, and another in 1643. [91], At the beginning of the 1790s, the Navigation faced calls for a bypass of the river at Nottingham, where the passage past Trent Bridge was dangerous, and the threat of a canal running parallel to the river, which was proposed by the Erewash and the Trent and Mersey Canal companies. Stone. [119], From the 1960s onwards, there were gradual but steady improvements to the inadequate sewage works and sewers built during the Victorian era in the urban areas, but this was expensive, and took time to complete. Though the river is no doubt legally still navigable above Shardlow, it is probable that the agreement marks the end of the use of that stretch of the river as a commercial navigation. 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