River Dearne
Encyclopedia
The River Dearne is a river
in South Yorkshire
, England
. It flows roughly east for more than 30 kilometres (18.6 mi), from its source just inside West Yorkshire
, through Denby Dale
, Clayton West
, Darton
, Barnsley
, Darfield
, Wath upon Dearne, Bolton on Dearne
, Adwick upon Dearne
and Mexborough
to its confluence
with the River Don at Conisbrough
.
This was just one of many rivers that was involved in the 2007 United Kingdom floods
.
The upper Dearne is followed by the Dearne Way, a footpath through the countryside from Dearne Head to Barnsley. The lower Dearne Valley is confusingly now also called Dearne Valley and is a regeneration area.
Attractions along the Dearne include the Yorkshire Sculpture Park
at Bretton Hall, and Monk Bretton Priory
.
The main tributary
of the River Dearne is the River Dove
.
, by which time it has dropped below the 175 metres (574.1 ft) contour, and its flow has been swelled by a number of springs and the output of the Park Dike. Below the bridge, the Munchcliffe Beck joins, and there is a large millpond, which supplied mills at Denby Dale. Beyond the mills, it crosses under a railway viaduct by Denby Dale railway station
. The viaduct is curved, with 21 tall arches, and was built by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
in 1884.
Next the river flows to the north east, with the A636 road closely following it on the north bank. It is joined by the Thorpe Dike at Kitchenroyd. It passes through Scissett
and then to the west of Clayton West
, where it is crossed by the Kirklees Light Railway
. Park Gate Dike again swells the flow, before a double-arched skew bridge built in the early nineteenth century carrries the A636 over the channel. Nearby is a hump-backed packhorse bridge with a single arch, probably built in the previous century, after which the river turns to the east to pass by the upper and lower lakes of Bretton Country Park on the south bank and Bretton Hall with the Yorkshire Sculpture Park
on the north. There is a weir on the river and one on the outflow from the lakes, after which the 75 metres (246.1 ft) contour is crossed.
Next it turns to the south east and passes under the A637 road, the M1 motorway
and the sliproads which form part of Junction 38, to reach Darton
. The Cawthorne Dike joins from the west as it turns to the east and passes under the Wakefield to Barnsley railway line. The B6428 crosses on Barugh Bridge, a single span bridge made of rock-faced stone, which bears the date 1850 on the north-west butress. As the river approaches Barnsley
, the remains of the Barnsley Canal
follow it on the south bank. Beyond the A61 Old Mill Lane bridge there was a mill, after which an aqueduct carried the canal over the river. Two more road bridges follow, the second of which carries the A633 Grange Lane. Just before the bridge is Priory Mill, a thirteenth century mill which was heavily rebuilt by Sir William Armyne in 1635, and further remodelled in the nineteenth century. It was powered by a leat from the river, which supplied internal water wheels. Water from the leat was also channelled to Monk Bretton Priory
, where it flushed the kitchens and the reredorter
. Next there are two former railway bridges which now carry footpaths. Soon sections of the disused Dearne and Dove Canal
run parallel to the river, and after passing under two more railway bridges, the course turns to the south to reach Darfield
, below which the River Dove
joins from the west. The river turns to the east again, passing to the north east of a series of lakes which form the Dearne Ings and Old Moor washlands. On the opposite side of the channel are the Bolton Ings washlands, which cover 110 acres (44.5 ha) and have been acquired by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
(RSPB). In 2011, the site was in its early stages of development, but the reedbeds have attracted spoonbill
s and avocet
s, and are expected to act as a breeding ground for bittern
s in due course. After the washlands, the river flows to the north of Wath upon Dearne, and to the south of Bolton on Dearne
.
The railway to Bolton on Dearne station crosses, after which the river is flanked by the disused Bolton Common tip on the south bank. From the village of Adwick upon Dearne
, which is a little further to the south, Harlington Road crosses the river at Adwick Bridge, a grade II listed twin-arched bridge built of sandstone
around 1800. Denaby Ings nature reserve is separated from the river by a railway embankment on the north bank. The river sweeps round to the south to join the River Don just below Mexborough Low Lock, where Mexborough New Cut on the River Don Navigation
rejoins the river. In 1903 the junction of the river with the Don was adjacent to the railway sidings of the Cadeby Main colliery, but by 1930 it had been moved further upstream, much closer to its present location.
As part of a comprehensive assessment of flood risks caused by the River Don and its tributaries, the River Dearne Improvement Scheme was implemented between 1963 and 1973. It was recognised that simple enlargement of the river channel would not provide a satisfactory solution, as it would just move the problem to the River Don, and therefore a series of washlands were created, which could be progressively flooded if required, without affecting centres of population. Near the mouth of the river, Dearne Mouth washland, which is now known as the Denaby Ings Nature Reserve, was created in 1963, and a manually operated sluice allowed the flow of the river to be diverted through the floodbank and into the washland when there were high levels at the junction with the River Don. The sluice was rebuilt in 1973. Additional washlands were created at Harlington and North Ings, and the river was straightened and realigned.
Futher upriver, a flood relief channel was built at Bolton upon Dearne, and more washlands were formed between Wath railway bridge and Adwick bridge. The Bolton Ings and Old Moor washlands were next to be created, to be followed by those at Wombwell Ings, where the River Dove joins the Dearne, Darfield, Houghton and Cudworth. Some of the storage capacity was lost as a result of mining schemes, and a regulator was installed at Bolton in 1972, allowing the flow to be restricted by a sluice gate. During the flooding in 2007, all of the washlands filled to capacity, although the Bolton regulator could not be operated as it had been vandalised. Some damage to the Houghton washlands resulted from the extremely high water levels, which overtopped the banks and caused erosion to take place. Following the floods, a reassessment of the function of the regulators was carried out, and in view of the costs of maintaining them, the Environment Agency intend to remove them once some reconfiguration of the river channel has been completed. This work will ensure that the washlands fill and empty at the appropriate points in a flood cycle.
in 1810 had serious impacts on the river, as it provided a way to transport the coal to Sheffield and Rotherham, where it was used in the steelworks. This led to the rapid development of more and larger collieries. The population grew rapidly, but it was housed in small villages near the pits. With no urban infrastructure, sewage polluted the river, as did the industrial discharges from the mines.
Parts of the upper river were well suited to the woollen trade, and mills developed in the nineteenth century, at Denby Dale, Scissett and Clayton West. The valley of the upper river is quite narrow, and housing was provided by building terraces, which often backed on to the river. Again, sewage ended up in the river, as did the effluent from processing the wool, which included caustic washing agents and dyes. Water used in washing was returned to the river without adequate cooling, and the temperature rose. As early as 1896, the West Riding River Board was working hard to improve the situation, and achieved limited success by 1902, when they produced a report. They identified 44 small sewage treatment plants, none of which treated the sewage adequately, and noted that the river was "much polluted by domestic sewage and by untreated or partially treated trade refuse." By the early 1900s, the river was lifeless between Barnsley and the Don, with fish unable to survive in the cocktail of chemicals. The River Dove was also lifeless, although the Cawthorne Dyke and several other small tributaries managed to retain populations of brown trout.
The situation had not improved by the 1960s, when the Yorkshire Ouse River Board noted that industrial waste from the mining, paper making, brewing and textile industries was being dumping into the river without any treatment. Pressure from the Board and from local authorities based along the river resulted in some treatment being carried out, but by 1974 much of the river was still rated as Class E on the six-point water quality scale, which indicated it was of poor quality, with some parts rated as Class F, meaning that they grossly polluted with little or no life. Nevertheless, small pockets of fish began to appear. A small population of brown trout had survived in the upper 1.5 miles (2.4 km) of the river, but could not proceed downstream due to dams erected for the woollen mills. Moth-proofing agents were released by the mills into the water, which were highly toxic to fish, and although the discharge of these chemicals ceased in 1979, when they were routed to a sewer for treatment, the problem did not immediately go away, as the chemicals continued to seep into the river from land which had been contaminated by them for another ten years. Any progress with the re-establishment of fish stocks was destroyed by a series of releases of pollutants into the river during the 1970s and 1980s.
By 1987, water quality had improved sufficiently to try restocking the upper river, and large numbers of yearling trout were released into the river in April. A fish survey carried out by the Yorkshire Water Authority a year later showed that many of these were surviving. By 1992, there was evidence that the fish were breeding in the river, and naturally bred brown trout were found between Denby Dale and Clayton West in 1994, for the first time in over 100 years. The trout population in the upper Dearne was declared to be self-sustaining by 1996.
The river below Clayton West ceases to be a shallow, fast-flowing watercourse, and consists of deeper pools with a slower flow, which is suitable for various course fish as well as trout. By 1974, a modest improvement in water quality had been achieved by treatment of industrial effluent, and some fish managed to exist below the weir at the Star Paper Mill in Barnsley. The weir helped to oxygenate the water, and most of the fish had been washed downstream from Cannon Hall and Bretton Lakes. During flood conditions, many of the population would be washed further downstream, to be replaced by others from the lakes. A survey in 1982 found gudgeon, minnow and three-spined stickleback, which had increased by 1985, and over 10,000 course fish were released as part of a restocking programme. However, most of these were decimated by serious pollution incidents that affected the river in 1987 and 1988, and the incidents continued for a further three years. The sewage treatment works at Darton and Lundwood, on either side of Barnsley, were largely responsible.
Discharges from the Darton sewage treatment works contained residues from dyes used by a local carpet manufacturer, which reached the works by a foul sewer, but could not be adequately treated by the existing processes. As a result, the final effluent was a deep red colour, and were a major factor in the poor biochemical oxygen demand
ratings for the river. Major improvements, including new primary settlement tanks and tertiary treatment lagoons, were made to the treatment works, and the carpet manufacturers installed facilities to treat their effluent before it was discharged to the sewer. By 1994, fish were again appearing below the Star Paper Mill weir, and Yorkshire Water and the Environment Agency carried out another fish restocking programme.
Improvements to water quality through Barnsley highlighted the fact that fish populations did not exist below the discharge from the Lundwood sewage treatment works to the east of Barnsley. As the population of Barnsley had increased, the volume of effluent received by the works had increased without a corresponding increase in its ability to treat it. In addition, the outfall reached the river along a 440 yards (402.3 m) stretch of the Cliffe Bridge Dyke, which had suffered from subsidence. This resulted in slow movement along the dyke, which sometimes caused the effluent to become septic before it reached the main channel. A major programme of refurbishment was carried out at the works between 1997 and 1998, to improve the quality of discharge. The fish populations on the lower river fluctuated, as a result of pollution incidents on the middle river, but by 1994, chub and dace were clearly breeding in the river. Breeding was assisted by re-engineering of the channel at Pastures Road, Denaby, which had been straightened in the 1960s after it was affected by subsidence. A series of bends were created, which encourage the formation of deep pools and shallow gravel riffles. These features are needed by dace
and barbel for successful spawning, and prevent young fish from being washed downstream in flood conditions. Water quality has continued to improve, and the lower Dearne has become an important venue for angling.
Further improvements to the Lundwood sewage treatment works began in 2007 to enable it to comply with the Freshwater Fish Directive, and although the site was inundated during the floods of 2007, the scheme, which cost £8 million, was completed in 2008. To celebrate the opening of the new works, the poet Ian McMillan was asked to run a poetry workship at Littleworth Grange Primary Learning Centre, where children completed a poem about water treatment for which he supplied the first two lines.
River
A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...
in South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.29 million. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and City of Sheffield...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It flows roughly east for more than 30 kilometres (18.6 mi), from its source just inside West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
, through Denby Dale
Denby Dale
Denby Dale is a village and civil parish in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England, to the South East of Huddersfield. As a civil parish it covers the villages of Denby Dale, Lower Denby, Upper Denby, Upper Cumberworth, Lower Cumberworth, Skelmanthorpe, Emley, Emley...
, Clayton West
Clayton West
Clayton West is a village in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. It had a population of 2,648 . and 2,704 in 2008. It is south east of Huddersfield and north west of Barnsley.It is in the parish of Clayton West and High Hoyland...
, Darton
Darton
Darton is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley , on the border with West Yorkshire. According to the 2001 UK census, it has a population of approximately 14,927...
, Barnsley
Barnsley
Barnsley is a town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Dearne, north of the city of Sheffield, south of Leeds and west of Doncaster. Barnsley is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley, of which Barnsley is the largest and...
, Darfield
Darfield, South Yorkshire
Darfield is a village within the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England. It lies east of the town of Barnsley. It had a population of 8,066 at the 2001 UK Census.-History:...
, Wath upon Dearne, Bolton on Dearne
Bolton on Dearne
Bolton upon Dearne is a small village in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England, in the part of the Dearne Valley through which the River Dearne passes. It is approximately seven miles east of Barnsley, ten miles west of Doncaster and eight miles north of Rotherham.Bolton...
, Adwick upon Dearne
Adwick upon Dearne
Adwick upon Dearne is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. It is located on the River Dearne. It has a population of 351....
and Mexborough
Mexborough
Mexborough is a town in the metropolitan borough of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England, situated on the north bank of the River Don west of its confluence with the River Dearne...
to its confluence
Confluence (geography)
In geography, a confluence is the meeting of two or more bodies of water. It usually refers to the point where two streams flow together, merging into a single stream...
with the River Don at Conisbrough
Conisbrough
Conisbrough is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster, in South Yorkshire, England. It is located roughly midway between Doncaster and Rotherham, and is built alongside the River Don at...
.
This was just one of many rivers that was involved in the 2007 United Kingdom floods
2007 United Kingdom floods
The 2007 United Kingdom floods were a series of destructive floods that occurred in various areas across the country during the summer of 2007. The most severe floods occurred across Northern Ireland on 12 June; East Yorkshire and The Midlands on 15 June; Yorkshire, The Midlands, Gloucestershire,...
.
The upper Dearne is followed by the Dearne Way, a footpath through the countryside from Dearne Head to Barnsley. The lower Dearne Valley is confusingly now also called Dearne Valley and is a regeneration area.
Attractions along the Dearne include the Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
The Yorkshire Sculpture Park in West Bretton, Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England is an open-air gallery showing work by UK and international artists, including Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth...
at Bretton Hall, and Monk Bretton Priory
Monk Bretton Priory
Originally a monastery under the Cluniac order, Monk Bretton Priory is located in the village of Lundwood, in the borough of Barnsley, England. It was founded in 1154 as the Priory of St. Mary Magdelene of Lund by Adam Fitswane, sited on the Lund, from Old Norse. In the course of time the priory...
.
The main tributary
Tributary
A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...
of the River Dearne is the River Dove
River Dove, Barnsley
The River Dove is a river that extends through the Low Valley in Barnsley, England. The river contains shallow water levels.-Route:The River Dove starts at the outfall of Worsbrough Reservoir, which was built for the opening of the Dearne and Dove Canal in 1804. It supplied the Worsbrough Arm of...
.
Route
The river rises from just below the 330 metres (1,082.7 ft) contour to the west of Birdsedge. Within around 3 kilometres (1.9 mi), it reaches the A635 Barnsley Road bridge at Denby DaleDenby Dale
Denby Dale is a village and civil parish in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England, to the South East of Huddersfield. As a civil parish it covers the villages of Denby Dale, Lower Denby, Upper Denby, Upper Cumberworth, Lower Cumberworth, Skelmanthorpe, Emley, Emley...
, by which time it has dropped below the 175 metres (574.1 ft) contour, and its flow has been swelled by a number of springs and the output of the Park Dike. Below the bridge, the Munchcliffe Beck joins, and there is a large millpond, which supplied mills at Denby Dale. Beyond the mills, it crosses under a railway viaduct by Denby Dale railway station
Denby Dale railway station
Denby Dale railway station serves the village of Denby Dale, in West Yorkshire, England and the surrounding area. It lies on the Penistone Line south east of Huddersfield and is operated by Northern Rail.-Tickets:...
. The viaduct is curved, with 21 tall arches, and was built by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway was a major British railway company before the 1923 Grouping. It was incorporated in 1847 from an amalgamation of several existing railways...
in 1884.
Next the river flows to the north east, with the A636 road closely following it on the north bank. It is joined by the Thorpe Dike at Kitchenroyd. It passes through Scissett
Scissett
Scissett is a village in West Yorkshire, England. It is 14 km south east of Huddersfield and 16 km north west of Barnsley. According to the 2001 census, the village had a population of 1,324...
and then to the west of Clayton West
Clayton West
Clayton West is a village in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. It had a population of 2,648 . and 2,704 in 2008. It is south east of Huddersfield and north west of Barnsley.It is in the parish of Clayton West and High Hoyland...
, where it is crossed by the Kirklees Light Railway
Kirklees Light Railway
The Kirklees Light Railway is a long gauge minimum gauge railway in Kirklees metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire first opened in October 1991...
. Park Gate Dike again swells the flow, before a double-arched skew bridge built in the early nineteenth century carrries the A636 over the channel. Nearby is a hump-backed packhorse bridge with a single arch, probably built in the previous century, after which the river turns to the east to pass by the upper and lower lakes of Bretton Country Park on the south bank and Bretton Hall with the Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
The Yorkshire Sculpture Park in West Bretton, Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England is an open-air gallery showing work by UK and international artists, including Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth...
on the north. There is a weir on the river and one on the outflow from the lakes, after which the 75 metres (246.1 ft) contour is crossed.
Next it turns to the south east and passes under the A637 road, the M1 motorway
M1 motorway
The M1 is a north–south motorway in England primarily connecting London to Leeds, where it joins the A1 near Aberford. While the M1 is considered to be the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the United Kingdom, the first road to be built to motorway standard in the country was the...
and the sliproads which form part of Junction 38, to reach Darton
Darton
Darton is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley , on the border with West Yorkshire. According to the 2001 UK census, it has a population of approximately 14,927...
. The Cawthorne Dike joins from the west as it turns to the east and passes under the Wakefield to Barnsley railway line. The B6428 crosses on Barugh Bridge, a single span bridge made of rock-faced stone, which bears the date 1850 on the north-west butress. As the river approaches Barnsley
Barnsley
Barnsley is a town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Dearne, north of the city of Sheffield, south of Leeds and west of Doncaster. Barnsley is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley, of which Barnsley is the largest and...
, the remains of the Barnsley Canal
Barnsley Canal
The Barnsley Canal is a canal that ran from Barnby Basin, through Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England to a junction with the Aire and Calder Navigation near Wakefield. It was long and included 15 locks. It was taken over by the Aire and Calder Navigation in 1854, and despite competition from the...
follow it on the south bank. Beyond the A61 Old Mill Lane bridge there was a mill, after which an aqueduct carried the canal over the river. Two more road bridges follow, the second of which carries the A633 Grange Lane. Just before the bridge is Priory Mill, a thirteenth century mill which was heavily rebuilt by Sir William Armyne in 1635, and further remodelled in the nineteenth century. It was powered by a leat from the river, which supplied internal water wheels. Water from the leat was also channelled to Monk Bretton Priory
Monk Bretton Priory
Originally a monastery under the Cluniac order, Monk Bretton Priory is located in the village of Lundwood, in the borough of Barnsley, England. It was founded in 1154 as the Priory of St. Mary Magdelene of Lund by Adam Fitswane, sited on the Lund, from Old Norse. In the course of time the priory...
, where it flushed the kitchens and the reredorter
Reredorter
The reredorter was a communal toilet found in mediaeval monasteries in Western Europe and later also in some New World monasteries. It was normally attached to the south end or the east side of the monks' dormitory on the east of the main cloister with seats arranged on the first floor of the...
. Next there are two former railway bridges which now carry footpaths. Soon sections of the disused Dearne and Dove Canal
Dearne and Dove Canal
The Dearne and Dove Canal ran for almost ten miles through South Yorkshire, England from Swinton to Barnsley through nineteen locks, rising 127 yards. The canal also had two short branches, the Worsbrough branch and the Elsecar branch, both about two miles long with reservoirs at the head of each....
run parallel to the river, and after passing under two more railway bridges, the course turns to the south to reach Darfield
Darfield, South Yorkshire
Darfield is a village within the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England. It lies east of the town of Barnsley. It had a population of 8,066 at the 2001 UK Census.-History:...
, below which the River Dove
River Dove, Barnsley
The River Dove is a river that extends through the Low Valley in Barnsley, England. The river contains shallow water levels.-Route:The River Dove starts at the outfall of Worsbrough Reservoir, which was built for the opening of the Dearne and Dove Canal in 1804. It supplied the Worsbrough Arm of...
joins from the west. The river turns to the east again, passing to the north east of a series of lakes which form the Dearne Ings and Old Moor washlands. On the opposite side of the channel are the Bolton Ings washlands, which cover 110 acres (44.5 ha) and have been acquired by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
Bird Notes and News was first published in April 1903.The title changed to 'Bird Notes' in 1947. In the 1950s, there were four copies per year . Each volume covered two years, spread over three calendar years...
(RSPB). In 2011, the site was in its early stages of development, but the reedbeds have attracted spoonbill
Spoonbill
Spoonbills are a group of large, long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, which also includes the Ibises.All have large, flat, spatulate bills and feed by wading through shallow water, sweeping the partly opened bill from side to side...
s and avocet
Avocet
The four species of Avocets are a genus, Recurvirostra, of waders in the same avian family as the stilts.Avocets have long legs and long, thin, upcurved bills which they sweep from side to side when feeding in the brackish or saline wetlands they prefer...
s, and are expected to act as a breeding ground for bittern
Bittern
Bitterns are a classification of birds in the heron family, Ardeidae, a family of wading birds. Species named bitterns tend to be the shorter-necked, often more secretive members of this family...
s in due course. After the washlands, the river flows to the north of Wath upon Dearne, and to the south of Bolton on Dearne
Bolton on Dearne
Bolton upon Dearne is a small village in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England, in the part of the Dearne Valley through which the River Dearne passes. It is approximately seven miles east of Barnsley, ten miles west of Doncaster and eight miles north of Rotherham.Bolton...
.
The railway to Bolton on Dearne station crosses, after which the river is flanked by the disused Bolton Common tip on the south bank. From the village of Adwick upon Dearne
Adwick upon Dearne
Adwick upon Dearne is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. It is located on the River Dearne. It has a population of 351....
, which is a little further to the south, Harlington Road crosses the river at Adwick Bridge, a grade II listed twin-arched bridge built of sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
around 1800. Denaby Ings nature reserve is separated from the river by a railway embankment on the north bank. The river sweeps round to the south to join the River Don just below Mexborough Low Lock, where Mexborough New Cut on the River Don Navigation
River Don Navigation
The River Don Navigation was the result of early efforts to make the River Don in South Yorkshire, England, navigable between Fishlake and Sheffield...
rejoins the river. In 1903 the junction of the river with the Don was adjacent to the railway sidings of the Cadeby Main colliery, but by 1930 it had been moved further upstream, much closer to its present location.
Flood defences
By the 1950s, the course of the river near its mouth had been affected by subsidence from coal mining, and the lowering of the channel resulted in much of the surrounding land being regularly flooded. In order to alleviate the problem and restore the gradient of the channel at this point, a new channel was constructed on the south side of the railway embankment, from near Harlington to the River Don. The old channel can still be seen on the north side of the embankment, and connects to the Denaby Ings Nature Reserve.As part of a comprehensive assessment of flood risks caused by the River Don and its tributaries, the River Dearne Improvement Scheme was implemented between 1963 and 1973. It was recognised that simple enlargement of the river channel would not provide a satisfactory solution, as it would just move the problem to the River Don, and therefore a series of washlands were created, which could be progressively flooded if required, without affecting centres of population. Near the mouth of the river, Dearne Mouth washland, which is now known as the Denaby Ings Nature Reserve, was created in 1963, and a manually operated sluice allowed the flow of the river to be diverted through the floodbank and into the washland when there were high levels at the junction with the River Don. The sluice was rebuilt in 1973. Additional washlands were created at Harlington and North Ings, and the river was straightened and realigned.
Futher upriver, a flood relief channel was built at Bolton upon Dearne, and more washlands were formed between Wath railway bridge and Adwick bridge. The Bolton Ings and Old Moor washlands were next to be created, to be followed by those at Wombwell Ings, where the River Dove joins the Dearne, Darfield, Houghton and Cudworth. Some of the storage capacity was lost as a result of mining schemes, and a regulator was installed at Bolton in 1972, allowing the flow to be restricted by a sluice gate. During the flooding in 2007, all of the washlands filled to capacity, although the Bolton regulator could not be operated as it had been vandalised. Some damage to the Houghton washlands resulted from the extremely high water levels, which overtopped the banks and caused erosion to take place. Following the floods, a reassessment of the function of the regulators was carried out, and in view of the costs of maintaining them, the Environment Agency intend to remove them once some reconfiguration of the river channel has been completed. This work will ensure that the washlands fill and empty at the appropriate points in a flood cycle.
Water quality
In the late 1700s, the river held good populations of fish. Industrial development of the valley consisted of several deep coal mines, but they were fairly small, and did not significantly pollute the river. There were collieries at Smithies, Honeywell, Queens Ground and Mount Osborne. The opening of the Dearne and Dove CanalDearne and Dove Canal
The Dearne and Dove Canal ran for almost ten miles through South Yorkshire, England from Swinton to Barnsley through nineteen locks, rising 127 yards. The canal also had two short branches, the Worsbrough branch and the Elsecar branch, both about two miles long with reservoirs at the head of each....
in 1810 had serious impacts on the river, as it provided a way to transport the coal to Sheffield and Rotherham, where it was used in the steelworks. This led to the rapid development of more and larger collieries. The population grew rapidly, but it was housed in small villages near the pits. With no urban infrastructure, sewage polluted the river, as did the industrial discharges from the mines.
Parts of the upper river were well suited to the woollen trade, and mills developed in the nineteenth century, at Denby Dale, Scissett and Clayton West. The valley of the upper river is quite narrow, and housing was provided by building terraces, which often backed on to the river. Again, sewage ended up in the river, as did the effluent from processing the wool, which included caustic washing agents and dyes. Water used in washing was returned to the river without adequate cooling, and the temperature rose. As early as 1896, the West Riding River Board was working hard to improve the situation, and achieved limited success by 1902, when they produced a report. They identified 44 small sewage treatment plants, none of which treated the sewage adequately, and noted that the river was "much polluted by domestic sewage and by untreated or partially treated trade refuse." By the early 1900s, the river was lifeless between Barnsley and the Don, with fish unable to survive in the cocktail of chemicals. The River Dove was also lifeless, although the Cawthorne Dyke and several other small tributaries managed to retain populations of brown trout.
The situation had not improved by the 1960s, when the Yorkshire Ouse River Board noted that industrial waste from the mining, paper making, brewing and textile industries was being dumping into the river without any treatment. Pressure from the Board and from local authorities based along the river resulted in some treatment being carried out, but by 1974 much of the river was still rated as Class E on the six-point water quality scale, which indicated it was of poor quality, with some parts rated as Class F, meaning that they grossly polluted with little or no life. Nevertheless, small pockets of fish began to appear. A small population of brown trout had survived in the upper 1.5 miles (2.4 km) of the river, but could not proceed downstream due to dams erected for the woollen mills. Moth-proofing agents were released by the mills into the water, which were highly toxic to fish, and although the discharge of these chemicals ceased in 1979, when they were routed to a sewer for treatment, the problem did not immediately go away, as the chemicals continued to seep into the river from land which had been contaminated by them for another ten years. Any progress with the re-establishment of fish stocks was destroyed by a series of releases of pollutants into the river during the 1970s and 1980s.
By 1987, water quality had improved sufficiently to try restocking the upper river, and large numbers of yearling trout were released into the river in April. A fish survey carried out by the Yorkshire Water Authority a year later showed that many of these were surviving. By 1992, there was evidence that the fish were breeding in the river, and naturally bred brown trout were found between Denby Dale and Clayton West in 1994, for the first time in over 100 years. The trout population in the upper Dearne was declared to be self-sustaining by 1996.
The river below Clayton West ceases to be a shallow, fast-flowing watercourse, and consists of deeper pools with a slower flow, which is suitable for various course fish as well as trout. By 1974, a modest improvement in water quality had been achieved by treatment of industrial effluent, and some fish managed to exist below the weir at the Star Paper Mill in Barnsley. The weir helped to oxygenate the water, and most of the fish had been washed downstream from Cannon Hall and Bretton Lakes. During flood conditions, many of the population would be washed further downstream, to be replaced by others from the lakes. A survey in 1982 found gudgeon, minnow and three-spined stickleback, which had increased by 1985, and over 10,000 course fish were released as part of a restocking programme. However, most of these were decimated by serious pollution incidents that affected the river in 1987 and 1988, and the incidents continued for a further three years. The sewage treatment works at Darton and Lundwood, on either side of Barnsley, were largely responsible.
Discharges from the Darton sewage treatment works contained residues from dyes used by a local carpet manufacturer, which reached the works by a foul sewer, but could not be adequately treated by the existing processes. As a result, the final effluent was a deep red colour, and were a major factor in the poor biochemical oxygen demand
Biochemical oxygen demand
Biochemical oxygen demand or B.O.D. is the amount of dissolved oxygen needed by aerobic biological organisms in a body of water to break down organic material present in a given water sample at certain temperature over a specific time period. The term also refers to a chemical procedure for...
ratings for the river. Major improvements, including new primary settlement tanks and tertiary treatment lagoons, were made to the treatment works, and the carpet manufacturers installed facilities to treat their effluent before it was discharged to the sewer. By 1994, fish were again appearing below the Star Paper Mill weir, and Yorkshire Water and the Environment Agency carried out another fish restocking programme.
Improvements to water quality through Barnsley highlighted the fact that fish populations did not exist below the discharge from the Lundwood sewage treatment works to the east of Barnsley. As the population of Barnsley had increased, the volume of effluent received by the works had increased without a corresponding increase in its ability to treat it. In addition, the outfall reached the river along a 440 yards (402.3 m) stretch of the Cliffe Bridge Dyke, which had suffered from subsidence. This resulted in slow movement along the dyke, which sometimes caused the effluent to become septic before it reached the main channel. A major programme of refurbishment was carried out at the works between 1997 and 1998, to improve the quality of discharge. The fish populations on the lower river fluctuated, as a result of pollution incidents on the middle river, but by 1994, chub and dace were clearly breeding in the river. Breeding was assisted by re-engineering of the channel at Pastures Road, Denaby, which had been straightened in the 1960s after it was affected by subsidence. A series of bends were created, which encourage the formation of deep pools and shallow gravel riffles. These features are needed by dace
Dace
A dace is any of a number of species of small fish. The unmodified name is usually a reference to the Common Dace . This, like most fishes called "daces", belongs to the family Cyprinidae, mostly in subfamily Leuciscinae....
and barbel for successful spawning, and prevent young fish from being washed downstream in flood conditions. Water quality has continued to improve, and the lower Dearne has become an important venue for angling.
Further improvements to the Lundwood sewage treatment works began in 2007 to enable it to comply with the Freshwater Fish Directive, and although the site was inundated during the floods of 2007, the scheme, which cost £8 million, was completed in 2008. To celebrate the opening of the new works, the poet Ian McMillan was asked to run a poetry workship at Littleworth Grange Primary Learning Centre, where children completed a poem about water treatment for which he supplied the first two lines.