Fairham Brook is a tributary of the

River Trent The Trent is the third Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, longest river in the United Kingdom. Its Source (river or stream), source is in Staffordshire, on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through and drains the North Midlands ...

that flows through

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

and

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Course

The source of the brook is on the edge of the Nottinghamshire Wolds, near Old Dalby, Leicestershire. It initially flows in a northerly direction, and then turns west passing through the villages of Widmerpool, and

Bunny Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated form ...

. It crosses Bunny and Ruddington moor, and then flows north between Clifton and the village of

Ruddington Ruddington () is a large village in the Borough of Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire, England. The village is south of Nottingham and northwest of Loughborough. It had a population of 6,441 at the United Kingdom census, 2001, 2001 Census, increas ...

. The brook joins the River Trent near Silverdale, on the outskirts of Nottingham near Clifton Bridge.

Catchment

The catchment has an area of , which lies between that of the Polser brook and River Smite to the north, and that of the Kingston brook to the south. The brook has a number of tributaries, which are mostly unnamed, except for the stream that flows from Gotham, known as the Gotham brook, the stream that flows between Ruddington village and Mickleborough Hill which is known as Packman's Dike, and the Nethergate brook which drains the Clifton estate. Fairham Brook - geograph

In its middle reaches the brook drains an area known as "The Moors", a flat fenland landscape that includes Ruddington, Bunny, Bradmore and Gotham moors. Agricultural drainage is important for these moors, with the smaller drains being maintained by the Trent Valley

Internal Drainage Board An internal drainage board (IDB) is a type of operating authority which is established in areas of special drainage need in England and Wales with permissive powers to undertake work to secure clean water drainage and water level management wit ...

. Fairham Brook acts as the arterial watercourse and has been designated as

main river The Main () is the longest tributary of the Rhine, one of the major European rivers. It rises as the White Main in the Fichtel Mountains of northeastern Bavaria and flows west through central Germany for to meet the Rhine below Rüsselsheim, ...

from Clifton to its confluence with the Trent.

Wildlife and ecology

Alongside the brook near Clifton, is a local nature reserve, which consists of wetland and scrub, where

kingfishers Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly coloured birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species living in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...

have been seen in the vicinity of the brook. There is another nature reserve beside the brook known as Keyworth Meadow, which supports a population of turtle doves. In the 17th century, a bridge over the brook marked the start of Clifton Grove which was originally an avenue of

elm Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the genus ''Ulmus'' in the family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical- montane regions of North America and Eurasia, ...

trees that bordered the carriage route to Clifton Hall. Although the elm trees were lost to Dutch elm disease, the grove still exists, and contains other trees including

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

chestnut The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Description ...

, and

giant redwood ''Sequoiadendron giganteum'' (also known as the giant sequoia, giant redwood, Sierra redwood or Wellingtonia) is a species of coniferous tree, classified in the family Cupressaceae in the subfamily Sequoioideae. Giant sequoia specimens are the la ...

s. It is now an important wildlife site and local nature reserve, that links other reserves alongside the River Trent, including Clifton wood and Holme Pit. Fairham brook has been classed as having poor ecological quality under the

Water Framework Directive The Water Framework Directive (WFD; 2000/60/EC) is an EU directive to establish a framework for the protection of all water bodies (including marine waters up to one nautical mile from shore) by 2015. The WFD establishes a programme and timeta ...

. This is one of the lower bands in the five part framework scale, which ranges from high, good, and moderate, through to poor and finally bad.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Nottinghamshire 1Fairham

Course

Catchment

Wildlife and ecology

See also

References