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Faxfleet
Faxfleet is a hamlet and former civil parish, now in the parish of Blacktoft, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately 6 miles (10 km) west of Brough, and 9 miles (14 km) east of Howden, at the start of the Humber, on the north bank, where the River Ouse and the River Trent meet. In 1931 the parish had a population of 151. Just to the east of the hamlet is the entrance lock for the Weighton Canal, and also Whitton Island in the Humber.
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544 m
River Ouse, Yorkshire
The River Ouse ( OOZ) is a river in North Yorkshire, England. Hydrologically, the river is a continuation of the River Ure, and the combined length of the River Ure and River Ouse makes it, at 129 miles (208 km), the sixth-longest river of the United Kingdom and (including the Ure) the longest to flow entirely in one county. The length of the Ouse alone is about 52 miles (84 km) but the total length of the river is disputed.
It is a matter of opinion as to whether the River Ouse is formed at the confluence of the River Ure and the much-smaller Ouse Gill Beck at Cuddy Shaw Reach near Linton-on-Ouse, about six miles downstream of the confluence of the River Swale with the River Ure. An alternative opinion is recorded in a publication published in The Yorkshire Post in a series dated 1891, written and illustrated by Tom Bradley. His description and bird's-eye-view maps—specifically in his account of the River Swale—suggests that the River Ouse starts at the confluence of the Swale and the Ure. His narrative states that the Ouse has no specific source, simply flowing from the stated confluence until it runs into the Humber at the confluence of the Ouse and Trent.
Continuing the path of the Ouse downstream from Linton-on-Ouse, it then flows through the city of York and the nearby towns of Selby and Goole before joining with the River Trent at Trent Falls, near the village of Faxfleet, then entering the Humber estuary.
The Ouse's system of tributaries includes the Derwent, Aire, Don, Hipper, Wharfe, Rother, Nidd, Swale, Ure and Foss. Together they drain a large part of the Pennines, and much of the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors.
The Ouse valley is a wide, flat plain; heavy rainfall higher in the river's drainage basin can bring severe flooding to settlements. In recent years York, Selby and villages in between have been flooded.
714 m
Trent Falls
Trent Falls is the confluence of the River Ouse and the River Trent which forms the Humber between Lincolnshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire in England.
880 m
River Trent
The Trent, the third-longest river in the United Kingdom, has its source in Staffordshire, on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through and drains the North Midlands into the Humber Estuary. The river is known for dramatic flooding after storms and spring snowmelt, which in the past have often caused the river to change course.
The river passes through Stoke-on-Trent, Stone, Staffordshire, Rugeley, Burton-upon-Trent and Nottingham before joining the Yorkshire Ouse at Trent Falls to form the Humber Estuary, which empties into the North Sea between Kingston upon Hull in Yorkshire and Immingham in Lincolnshire. The wide Humber estuary has often been characterised as the boundary between the Midlands and Northern England ("The North").
1.7 km
Whitton Island
Whitton Island is an island situated at the western end of the Humber Estuary in northern England.
The almond-shaped island straddles the county boundary between the counties of East Riding of Yorkshire to the north and North Lincolnshire which otherwise runs over tidal water roughly along the centre line of the estuary. Parts of the island fall within the boundaries of four civil parishes. Despite being named after the Lincolnshire parish of Whitton, the largest part of the island is in the Yorkshire parish of Blacktoft and much of the remainder is in the neighbouring parish of Broomfleet. Much smaller parts of the southeast coast of the island fall within the Lincolnshire parishes of Alkborough and Whitton.
Whitton Island is an ait (or eyot), formed by the deposit of sands and gravels washed down by the river, which accumulate over a period of time, and become consolidated by the vegetation that colonises them. Only in recent years has the island emerged sufficiently from the mud and sand bank known as Whitton Sand to be mapped by the Ordnance Survey as a new feature. Whitton Sands forms a part of the Humber Wildfowl Refuge.
Whitton Island is owned by Associated British Ports who were in discussion with the RSPB during 2014 over its future management. In March 2017 the RSPB signed a 50-year lease on the then 120 hectare island to manage it as a Nature Reserve. To improve the island as a habitat for wetland birds, the RSPB dug a lagoon and several ponds. This has resulted in the arrival of increased numbers of birds some of which had not previously ventured so high up the estuary. The island now provides a safe nesting habitat for the avocet, and also good feeding and roosting areas for pink-footed geese, teal, wigeon, dunlin, spoonbills, curlew, turnstone and ringed plover.