| River Ribble | |
|---|---|
 River Ribble atPreston | |
 | |
| Location | |
| Country | England |
| County |
|
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | |
| • location | Confluence of Gayle Beck and Cam Beck,Selside,Ribblehead |
| • elevation | 807 ft (246 m) |
| Mouth | |
• location | Irish Sea atLytham |
| Length | 75 mi (121 km) |
| Basin features | |
| Conservation | Ribble Rivers Trust |
TheRiver Ribble runs throughNorth Yorkshire andLancashire inNorthern England. It starts close to theRibblehead Viaduct in North Yorkshire, and is one of the few that start in theYorkshire Dales and flow westwards towards theIrish Sea (theDee inDentdale and theTwiss inKingsdale being notable others).
The nameRibble may be aBrittonic compound-formation.[1] The second element is the noun*pol, with connotations including "puddle, pond, upland-stream" (Welshpwll).[1] The first isrö-, an intensive prefix, with nouns meaning "great" (Welshrhy-,Cornish re-).[1]
Ribble may once have been known as*Bremetonā-, underlying the nameBremetenacum, the Roman fort atRibchester.[1] Involved here is the Brittonic root*breμ–, meaning "roaring" (cf. Welshbrefu),[1] as observed at the river-namesBreamish inNorthumberland,[1]Braan in Scotland andBrefi in Wales.[1]
Neolithic toSaxon finds from along the River Ribble during the creation of thePreston Docks and others revealed man has been in the area for a long time. The River Ribble looked completely different then and the coastline is likely to have been much further inland than it is at present where land has been reclaimed and the marsh extended out into the River Ribble due to sedimentation.
The Ribble would appear to have been known inRoman times as theBelisama,[2] possibly giving its name toSamlesbury.Ptolemy's "Belisama aest." seems to represent the estuary of the Ribble.Bremetennacum was a Roman fort that guarded a crossing-point of the river atRibchester. Remains of another Roman site were discovered atWalton-le-Dale in the mid-19th century.
TheCuerdale Hoard, the largestViking silver hoard ever found outsideRussia was discovered in 1840 on the southern bank of a bend of the river, atCuerdale near Preston.[3] Whilst the medieval silverMitton Hoard was found near where this river joins theRiver Hodder in 2009.[4]
At one time the Ribble marked the northernmost extent of the ancient kingdom ofMercia.[5] At the time of theDomesday Book, the river formed the northern boundary of an area of land (known asInter Ripam et Mersam) that was included in the Domesday information forCheshire,[6] though it was probably not formally part of the county of Cheshire.[7][8][9]
Sawley Abbey was founded byCistercian monks in 1147, at a bend in the river. It is thought that the monks built aweir to supply amill race that powered acorn mill within the abbey precinct.[10]
After his defeat in theBattle of Hexham in 1464 (during theWars of the Roses),King Henry VI went into hiding at a number of houses belonging to his supporters. A little over a year later he was at Waddington Hall inWaddington. On 13 July 1465, a group of Yorkists, including the property-owner's brother, arrived at the hall to arrest him. Escaping into nearby woods, Henry was captured soon after crossing the river at the oldstepping stones at Brungerley.[11]
Around 1785, a largeweir was constructed across the river, slightly downstream atWaddow Hall, to supply water to acotton mill atLow Moor. The site relied on water power right up to closure around 1930, although thewater wheels gradually gave way towater turbines and were augmented bysteam engines.[12]
During 2009, anArchimedean screw typehydropower station was constructed at Settle weir near Bridge End Mill. Built for a community-owned company,Settle Hydro, the site became operational by the end of the year. As of February 2024, the generator has produced 1.2 million kWh of electricity.[13]
The Ribble begins at theconfluence of theGayle Beck andBatty Wife Beck near theviaduct atRibblehead, in the shadow of theYorkshire three peaks. It is the only major river rising in Yorkshire which flows westward.[14] It flows throughSettle,Clitheroe,Ribchester andPreston, before emptying into theIrish Sea betweenLytham St. Annes andSouthport, a length of 75 miles (121 km).[15] Its main tributaries are theHodder andCalder which join the river near Great Mitton, theRiver Darwen which joins atWalton-le-Dale and theRiver Douglas which joins nearHesketh Bank.
AboveHellifield the valley of the river is known asRibblesdale.
TheRibble Way is a long-distance footpath which follows the river for much of its course. The river is connected to both theLeeds and Liverpool Canal and theLancaster Canal (via theRibble Link). The river downstream of Preston was actively dredged when Preston was an active port; this is no longer done and silt from the river is now spreading more widely over the (sand) beaches aroundFairhaven andSt. Annes.
Its 10-mile-wide (16 km) estuary forms part of theRibble and Alt EstuariesSpecial Protection Area for wildlife. An average of 340,000 water birds over-winter in the estuary making it the most important wetland site in Britain. The Ribble is also a key breeding ground for the endangeredAtlantic salmon.[5]
1.25 million people live in the Ribble's catchment area.[5]
The Normal Tidal Limit (NTL) of the river is at Fishwick Bottoms, between Preston andWalton-le-Dale, 11 miles (18 km) from the sea.[5]
The River Ribble has the third-largest tides in England, with tides that run at 4 knots (5 mph; 7 km/h) and a tidal range at the mouth of the river of 30 feet (9 m) duringspring tides. Since River Ribble dredging ceased, the estuary is filling up with sand and is developing a meandering path, depending on the tides and river runoff. In addition, many tributaries flow into the main channel including theSavick Brook/Ribble Link, while the River Douglas, has a significant influence both on sediment transport and hydrodynamics of the estuary.[16]
There was abridge at Edisford,Clitheroe in 1339. The age of the presentsandstone bridge is not known, but parts contain features indicating they may date to the late medieval period.[17] The currentRibchester Bridge dates from 1774. It replaced one built in 1669, which also had a predecessor of unknown age.[18]
Evidence of a bridge betweenPreston andWalton-le-Dale occurs in a deed in the early 13th century. A stone bridge was built in the early 1400s, possibly just west of the present Walton Bridge which was completed in 1781. Until 1755 this was the only bridge over the Ribble at Preston.[19] The original attempt to build a bridge directly toPenwortham was completed in 1755, only to collapse the following year. ThePenwortham Old Bridge opened in 1759 to replace it.[20] In 1802 theLancaster Canal Company completed a timbertrestle bridge to facilitate a temporarytramroad to connect the two isolated sections of the canal. The missing section was never completed and, although heavily modified, the disusedOld Tramroad Bridge still stands today.[21]
Severalferry crossings were marked along the lower part of the river, on the firstOrdnance Survey map of Lancashire, published in the 1840s. The Hacking Ferry nearHacking Hall and Trowers Ferry near Dinckley Hall. Another, downstream of Osbaldeston Hall and the Balderstone Hall Ferry. Also atSamlesbury Church as well as an old boat house, upstream of Penwortham Old Bridge.[22]
It is uncertain when these services began. A 1354charter assigned some land for the use of the ferryman near Ribchester, possibly referring to the crossing near Osbaldeston Hall.[23] The Hacking Ferry seems to have been funded by the Shireburn family ofStonyhurst, and established during the 1600s. It continued operating as a regular toll service until 1938, but continued occasionally afterward until it finally ceased operation in 1955. In later years it operated twojohnboat-typerowing boats. The older boat could carry twelve passengers and a newer boat had a capacity of 19. The former is now in the collection atClitheroe Castle Museum.[24]
A Ribble estuary fixed crossing has been proposed on several occasions, to provide a quicker route between the seaside resorts ofSouthport andBlackpool. Two routes for a tramroad were proposed; the first in 1899 outlined a route betweenCrossens andLytham, then between 1900 and 1906 as a route from Crossens toWarton viaHesketh Bank.[25] A railway tunnel was proposed in 1907, between Hesketh Bank and Warton.[26] A bridge was proposed between 1938 and 1947.[27] A road link was campaigned for in 2007, envisaging a development similar to theRance Tidal Power Station inBrittany.[28] In 2011, anApril fools' joke suggested a 9-mile-long (14 km) road tunnel fromMarshside toLytham St Annes.[29]
The River Ribble catchment is covered by the Ribble Rivers Trust, a UK based charity working to improve, protect and promote the River Ribble for both people and wildlife. The Ribble Estuary is an Internationally importantRamsar Wetland site,[30] aSpecial Protection Area (SPA) under theJoint Nature Conservation Committee,[31] aMarine Conservation Zone up toSamlesbury,[32][33][34]Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI),[35] aNational Nature Reserve,[36][34] and is under development as a Coast & WetlandsRegional Park.[37]
Preston City Council published plans to build a barrage across the River Ribble, in their 'Riverworks' proposals (2006).[38] The aim of these proposals was to build a barrage and a water sports park on a section of the Ribble, coupled with over 4,000 units of housing and businesses in the river's flood plain. Some local residents opposed these plans, arguing that they endanger wildlife, increase flood risk to local housing and damage greenbelt areas. These residents set up the Save The Ribble campaign, and their two-year information campaign successfully overturned Preston City Council's proposals, and South Ribble Borough Council announced the alternative creation of a Country Park. Parts of the river are a County Biological Heritage Site.
The River Ribble gives its name to the local government boroughs ofRibble Valley andSouth Ribble, and theRibble Valley parliamentary constituency. TheRibble Bus Company once operated throughoutNorth West England. The Ribble also lends its name to theRibble Steam Railway.[citation needed]
Certainly there were links between Cheshire and south Lancashire before 1000, whenWulfric Spot held lands in both territories. Wulfric's estates remained grouped together after his death, when they were left to his brotherAelfhelm, and indeed there still seems to have been some kind of connexion in 1086, when south Lancashire was surveyed together with Cheshire by the Domesday commissioners. Nevertheless, the two territories do seem to have been distinguished from one another in some way and it is not certain that theshire-moot and thereeves referred to in the south Lancashire section of Domesday were the Cheshire ones.
The Domesday Survey (1086) included south Lancashire with Cheshire for convenience, but the Mersey, the name of which means 'boundary river' is known to have divided the kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia and there is no doubt that this was the real boundary.
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53°45′N2°46′W / 53.750°N 2.767°W /53.750; -2.767
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