History of River Trent

River Trent

River Ouse and Humber Estuary The Island Sand Stainforth and Keadby Canal A18 Keadby Bridge(shares bridge with rly) Doncaster - Scunthorpe Railway M180 motorway bridge River Idle (moveable sluice) Chesterfield Canal, West Stockwith A631 Trent Bridge, Gainsborough Sheffield to Lincoln Railway Fossdyke Navigation, Torksey Lock A57 Dunham Toll Bridge former Chesterfield-Lincoln Rly Cromwell Lock and weir A1 Winthorpe Bridge East Coast Main Line bridge Newark Nether Lock Nottingham - Lincoln Railway A46 Newark Bypass Bridge Newark Town Lock A616 Bridge A617 Bridge Marina A46 Newark Bypass Bridge Nottingham - Lincoln Railway Averham Weir River Devon Hazelford lock and weirs Gunthorpe lock and weir A6097 Gunthorpe Bridge Stoke lock and weir Rectory Junction Viaduct Holme lock, National Watersports Centre Grantham Canal Meadow Lane Lock Castle Lock Nottingham Nottingham Canal Beeston Lock Beeston Weir Cranfleet Lock Thrumpton Weir Trent Viaducts Flood Lock Erewash Canal and River Soar Railway bridges Sawley Locks Flood Lock Sawley Weir M1 motorway bridge River Derwent Trent and Mersey Canal Cavendish Bridge (limit of navigation) A50 Bridge Railway bridge King's Mills(site of mill and lock) Disused railway bridge A514/Swarkestone Bridge B5008 Willington Bridge River Dove Burton Mill(site of disused mills and lock) weir A511 Burton Bridge Bond End Branch( formerly leading to Trent and Mersey Canal) A5189 St Peters Bridge to source

Course

The Trent rises on the Staffordshire moorlands near the village of Biddulph Moor, from a number of sources including the Trent Head Well. It is then joined by other small streams to form the Head of Trent, which flows south, to the only reservoir along its course at Knypersley. Downstream of the reservoir it passes through Stoke-on-Trent and merges with the Lyme, Fowlea and other brooks that drain the 'six towns' of the Staffordshire Potteries to become the River Trent. On the southern fringes of Stoke, it passes through the landscaped parkland of Trentham Gardens.

The river continues north-east, passing the village of Walton-on-Trent until it reaches the large town of Burton upon Trent. The river in Burton is crossed by a number of bridges including the ornate 19th-century Ferry Bridge that links Stapenhill to the town. To the north-east of Burton the river is joined by the River Dove at Newton Solney and enters Derbyshire, before passing between the villages of Willington and Repton where it turns directly east to reach Swarkestone Bridge. Shortly afterwards, the river becomes the Derbyshire-Leicestershire border, passing the traditional crossing point of King's Mill, Castle Donington,Weston-on-Trent and Aston-on-Trent.The river then continues south through the market town of Stone, and after passing the village of Salt, it reaches Great Haywood, where it is spanned by the 16th-century Essex Bridge near Shugborough Hall. At this point the River Sow joins it from Stafford. The Trent now flows south-east past the town of Rugeley until it reachesKings Bromley where it meets the Blithe. After the confluence with the Swarbourn, it passes Alrewas and reaches Wychnor, where it is crossed by the A38 dual carriageway, which follows the route of the Roman Ryknild Street. 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.

At Shardlow, where the Trent and Mersey Canal begins, the river also meets the Derwent at Derwent Mouth. 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. As it enters the city, it passes the suburbs of Beeston, Clifton and Wilford; where it is joined by the Leen. On reaching West Bridgford it flows beneath Trent Bridge near the cricket ground of the same name, and beside The City Ground, home of Nottingham Forest, until it reaches Holme Sluices.^[9]

The now tidal river meanders across a wide floodplain, at the edge of which are located riverside villages such as Carlton and Sutton on Trent, Besthorpe and Girton. After passing the site of High Marnham power station, it becomes the approximate boundary between Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire and reaches the only toll bridge along its course at Dunham on Trent. Downstream of Dunham the river passesChurch Laneham and reaches Torksey, where it meets the Foss Dyke navigation which connects the Trent to Lincoln and the River Witham. Further north at Littleborough is the site of the Roman town of Segelocum, where a Roman road once crossed the river.Downstream of Nottingham it passes Radcliffe on Trent, Stoke Bardolph and Burton Joyce before reaching Gunthorpewith its bridge, lock and weir. The river now flows north-east below the Toot and Trent Hills before reachingHazelford Ferry, Fiskerton and Farndon. To the north of Farndon, beside the Staythorpe Power Station the river splits, with one arm passing Averham and Kelham, and the other arm, which is navigable, being joined by the Devon before passing through the market town of Newark-on-Trent and beneath the town's castle walls. The two arms recombine at Crankley Point beyond the town, where the river turns due north to pass North Muskham andHolme to reach Cromwell Weir, below which the Trent becomes tidal.

It then reaches the town of Gainsborough with its own Trent Bridge. The river frontage in the town is lined with warehouses, that were once used when the town was an inland port, many of which have been renovated for modern use. Downstream of the town the villages are often named in pairs, representing the fact that they were once linked by a river ferry between the two settlements. These villages include West Stockwith and East Stockwith, Owston Ferry and East Ferry, and West Butterwick and East Butterwick. 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. The last bridge over the river is at Keadbywhere it is joined by both the Stainforth and Keadby Canal and the River Torne.

Downstream of Keadby the river progressively widens, passing Amcotts and Flixborough to reach Burton upon Stather and finally Trent Falls. 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.

Migration of course in historic times

Unusually for an English river, the channel altered significantly during historic times, and has been described as being similar to the Mississippiin this respect, especially in its middle reaches, where there are a numerous old meanders and cut-off loops. 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. Further downstream at Hemington, archaeologists have found the remains of a medieval bridge across another abandoned channel. Researchers using aerial photographs and historical maps have identified many of these palaeochannel features, one well documented example being the cut-off meander at Sawley. The river's propensity to change course is referred to in Shakespeare's play Henry IV, Part 1:

Methinks my moiety, north from Burton here,

In quantity equals not one of yours:

See how this river comes me cranking in,

And cuts me from the best of all my land

A huge half-moon, a monstrous cantle out.

I'll have the current in this place damm'd up;

And here the smug and silver Trent shall run

In a new channel, fair and evenly;

It shall not wind with such a deep indent,

To rob me of so rich a bottom here.

Henry Hotspur's speech complaining about the river has been linked to the meanders near West Burton, however, given the wider context of the scene, in which conspirators propose to divide England into three after a revolt, it is thought that Hotspur’s intentions were of a grander design, diverting the river east towards the Wash such that he would benefit from a much larger share of the divided Kingdom. Downstream of Burton upon Trent, the river increasingly trends northwards, cutting off a portion of Nottinghamshire and nearly all of Lincolnshire from his share, north of the Trent. The idea for this scene, may have been based on the disagreement regarding a mill weir near Shelford Manor, between local landowners Gilbert Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, and Sir Thomas Stanhope which culminated with a long diversion channel being dug to bypass the mill. This took place in 1593 so would have been a contemporary topic in the Shakespearian period.

Prehistory

During the Pleistocene epoch (1.7 million years ago), the River Trent rose in the Welsh hills and flowed almost east from Nottingham through the present Vale of Belvoir to cut a gap through the limestone ridge at Ancaster and thence to the North Sea. At the end of the Wolstonian Stage (c. 130,000 years ago) a mass of stagnant ice left in the Vale of Belvoir caused the river to divert north along the old Lincoln river, through theLincoln gap, along what is now the course of the Witham. During a following glaciation (Devensian, 70,000 BC) the ice held back vast areas of water – called Glacial Lake Humber – in the current lower Trent basin. When this retreated, the Trent adopted its current course into the Humber.

References

1.  "Get-a-map online". Ordnance Survey. Retrieved 26 March2013.
2. Jump up^ "Littleborough". Trentvale.co.uk. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
3. Jump up^ "Owston Ferry". isleofaxholme.net. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
4. Jump up^ "West Butterwick". The Isle of Axholme Family History Society. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
5. Jump up^ "East Stockwith". Lincolnshire.gov. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
6. Jump up^ Large & Petts 1996, p. 192
7. Jump up^ Large & Petts 1996, p. 200
8. Jump up^ Keys, David (22 November 1993). "Medieval Timber Bridge Unearthed".The Independent (London). Retrieved 24 March 2013.
9. Jump up^ Ripper, S. and Cooper L.P., 2009, The Hemington Bridges: "The Excavation of Three Medieval Bridges at Hemington Quarry, Near Castle Donington, Leicestershire", Leicester Archaeology Monograph
10. Jump up^ Large & Petts 1996, p. 198
11. Jump up^ "The Trent Valley: palaeochannel mapping from aerial photographs"(PDF). Trent Valley GeoArchaeology. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
12. Jump up^ William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Pt.I., Act III, Sc. I
13. Jump up^ Complete Works of William Shakespeare, William Shakespeare, p433, 2007, ISBN 978-1-84022-557-0, accessed May 2009
14. ^  Everard Leaver Guilford (1912). "Memorials of old Nottinghamshire" (Memorials of old Nottinghamshire. ed.). London: G. Allen. pp. 93–103. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
15. ^  Shakespeare, William (2002). Castan, David Scott, ed. King Henry IV Part 1: Third Series, Part 1. Cengage Learning EMEA. p. 246. ISBN 978-1-904271-34-5.
16. Jump up^ Stone 2005, p. 68.
17. Jump up^ "Stanhope, Sir Thomas 1540-96 of Shelford". history of parliament. Retrieved 10 August 2013.
18. Jump up^ Posnansky, M. The Pleistocene Succession in the Middle Trent Basin. Proc. Geologists' Assoc 71 (1960), pp.285–311
19. Jump up^ May 1977.