Wednesday, January 20, 2016

MONITORING RIVER LEVELS IN BRIGG

It's not unusual for the River Ancholme in Brigg to show low levels of water at this time of the year.
Today's depth is just 0.83 metres, according to the  Environment Agency's official figures.
The typical river level range for this location, the Agency says, is  between 0.48m and 2.38m.
So the current level is  not far from the lowest end of the scale.
The other evening we looked at the river at dusk, near the County Bridge, observed how low it was in relation to the brick wall near the White Hart pub beer garden and  decided to check the depth. 
Not by wading out into the waters, King Canute style. Even if the old pre-bridge ford used to be in this region of the river.
The authorities lower the level of the river periodically during autumn/winter so routine maintenance can be undertaken.
Presumably, letting water run out into the Humber during the summer months would be contrary to the needs of boaters and others who use the river for recreation. 
Lowering the water level is nothing new. It was going on in the early 1970s when we used to pick old alley bottles out of the mud near Spring's factory about this time of year.
Strangely, in this era of mass media global warming alerts, no-one says much about low levels in rivers. So, in a quest for balanced reporting, Brigg Blog is penning a piece today.
We don't expect it to generate much interest or discussion.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

the current level [winter] is near the river's natural level and is kept high most of the year at south ferriby sluice,mainly because of the steel works water being taken from appleby pumping station next to the railway bridge,also lately by the power station at scawby brook.

Ken Harrison said...

Yes and no, Pete....before the installation of the SF sluice, the Ancholme, which before land drainage was a braided river - a number of small rivers - and the river would have been tidal, so the the water level would have fluctuated in time to the Humber tides.
Pre-drainage, the vale was regarded as a natural shallow inlet, as far as Brigg, of the Humber...flooded at high tides and a watery quagmire at low tides.
It is known that Bronze Age man..who had a probable settlement in the location of Tesco/Market Place -areas known to be above the flood level - built a substantial timber walk-way crossing the Ancholme, but this was gradually covered by silt following numerous tidal incursions.
Long after the walk-way disappeared (it's still exists underground), the Romans seemed to follow the walk-way's foot-print....for example, when part of the walk-way was exposed in 1933, Roman artefacts were discovered in the higher levels of the evacuations.
The Brigg Log Boat; the Brigg 'raft' and the walk-way, or plank-way are all contemporary - built at roughly the same time period.

Ken Harrison said...

The antics of King Canute have often been misinterpreted .....Canute, apparently an intelligent and religious king, pre Harold, was surrounded by a number of sycophants who constantly tried to flatter Canute. They regarded him as super-human...and to prove that he was mortal and everyone was answerable to a high power (God) he demonstrated that despite his kingly powers, he was unable to hold back tide.
He wasn't a foolish character, which is often depicted in legend, he purposely undertook the beach incident to demonstrate to the band of mis-guided sycophants that he was mortal..

Ken Harrison said...

Following on from Pete's reference, vis-a-vis water 4 steel.....one cubic metre makes 1 tonne and it takes about 30 tonnes of water to make 1 tonne of steel.....
And for the DIYers....if installing a bath...after levelling and putting the sealant around its sides, fill the bath with water, wait for the sealant to cure - this reduces the risk of sealant splitting at a later stage..

Ken Harrison said...

...to bore folks more..the Specific Gravity of steel is about 7.8 time greater than the same capacity of water...so 1 cubic metre of steel weighs 7.8 tonnes...
Therefore, to make 1 cubic metre of steel would take about 235 cubic metres of water...