The River Wiske is a tributary of the

River Swale The River Swale in Yorkshire, England, is a major tributary of the River Ure, which becomes the River Ouse, Yorkshire, River Ouse, that empties into the North Sea via the Humber Estuary. The river gives its name to Swaledale, the valley throu ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, England. The Wiske gives its name to several villages it passes through. The name Wiske is derived from an

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

word ''wisca'' meaning a water meadow. It was once known as the Foulbroke, a name for which some writers commented that it was well deserved. The river was maintained by the River Wiske Internal Drainage Board, which was part of the Shires Group of IDBs. It is within the

national character area A National Character Area (NCA) is a natural subdivision of England based on a combination of landscape, biodiversity, geodiversity and economic activity. There are 159 National Character Areas and they follow natural, rather than administrative, b ...

s (NCAs) of the

Vale of Mowbray The Vale of Mowbray is a plain in North Yorkshire, England. It is bounded by the Tees lowlands to the north, the North York Moors and the Hambleton Hills to the east, the Vale of York to the south, and the Yorkshire Dales to the west. Northall ...

and the Tees Lowlands.

Course

The river becomes the Wiske at the confluence of Carr Beck and Stony Lane Beck south of Ingleby Arncliffe close to the Tontine Bridge where the A19 and A172 roads diverge. It flows north in a series of meanders to East Rounton where it turns north-westerly and then westerly past Appleton Wiske. The river continues to flow westerly until just after passing under the A167 road near Great Smeaton where it turns south. It follows a mainly southerly direction towards Danby Wiske, Yafforth, and

Northallerton Northallerton ( ) is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the River Wiske in the Vale of Mowbray and had a population of 16,832 in 2011. Northallerton is an administrative centre for York and North Yorkshire ...

. The river then alternates between a southerly and south-south-easterly direction until it passes Kirby Wiske, where it turns south-west to join the

. Water from the river eventually enters the sea at

Spurn Head Spurn is a narrow sand tidal island located off the tip of the coast of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England that reaches into the North Sea and forms the north bank of the mouth of the Humber Estuary. It was a spit (landform), spit with a s ...

at the mouth of the

Humber Estuary The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Trent, Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms ...

History

During the drought of 1995/96 Yorkshire Water installed a pipeline connecting the

River Tees The River Tees (), in England, rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines and flows eastwards for to reach the North Sea in the North East of England. The modern-day history of the river has been tied with the industries ...

near

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. It lies on the River Skerne, west of Middlesbrough and south of Durham. Darlington had a population of 107,800 at the 2021 Census, making it a "large town" ...

to the river near Birkby, south of Great Smeaton. It enables water to be transferred from the Tyne and Wear into the Tees and then to the Wiske for pumping out from the River Ouse at

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

. Although the pipeline was never used it was tested and remains as an "insurance policy". There are ongoing concerns about the biological impact of mixing water in Yorkshire's rivers. The river is maintained by the Swale and Ure Internal Drainage Board. It was maintained by the River Wiske IDB until 2012 when five IDBs in the

and

Hambleton District Hambleton was a local government district in North Yorkshire, England. The administrative centre was Northallerton, and the district included the outlying towns and villages of Bedale, Thirsk, Great Ayton, Stokesley, and Easingwold. The di ...

were combined into one. The Wiske suffers from pollution and flooding problems. Pollution is high nitrogen content from the agricultural industry and excess water from the A19 flows into the river at its source. Flooding of villages on its route and its tributaries (such as Brompton near Northallerton) is a problem because of limited availability of land upstream to store water in times of high flow. The

Environment Agency The Environment Agency (EA) is a non-departmental public body, established in 1996 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with responsibilities relating to the protection and enha ...

and the

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is a charitable non-governmental organisation, one of the UK's 46 county-based Wildlife Trusts. Its focus is nature conservation and it works to achieve a nature-rich Yorkshire with healthy and resilient ecosystems ...

, have undertaken work along the course of the river to remediate the issues.

Geology

The River Wiske is underlain by a range of geological deposits, including undifferentiated sandstone, conglomerate, undifferentiated mudstone, siltstone and sandstone from the Triassic period, and the Lias group consisting of mudstone, siltstone, limestone and sandstone from the Mesozoic period.

Natural history

There are four non-statutory Nature Conservation Sites along the river: Middlebrough plantation just outside Newby Wiske; Stony Lane Pond near the confluence of Stony Lane Beck and Carr Beck; Pepper Arden Bottoms near East Cowton and Pheasantry Wood and Fox Covert near Danby Wiske. The river passes through farmland bounded by hedgerows with some wet woodland near Kirby Wiske and some grassland near Newby Wiske. Biodiversity audits carried out in 2010 found

European water vole The European water vole (''Arvicola amphibius'') or northern water vole is a semi-aquatic rodent. It is often informally called the water rat, though it only superficially resembles a true rat. Water voles have rounder noses than rats, deep bro ...

on the river between Danby Wiske and Brompton Beck.

European otter The Eurasian otter (''Lutra lutra''), also known as the European otter, Eurasian river otter, European river otter, common otter, and Old World otter, is a semiaquatic mammal native to Eurasia and the Maghreb. The most widely distributed member o ...

s were found on the river between North Otterington and Kirby Wiske. Soprano pipistrelle and brown long-eared bat were also found in the area along with

kingfisher 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, ...

, reed bunting and

lapwing Lapwings (subfamily Vanellinae) are any of various ground-nesting birds (Family (biology), family Charadriidae) akin to plovers and dotterels. They range from in length, and are noted for their slow, irregular wingbeats in flight and a shrill, ...

Lists

Tributaries

* East Rounton Stell * Welbury Stell * Carr Bridge Stell * The Stell * Willow Beck * Howe Beck * Spudling Dike * Sike Stell

Settlements

* Ingleby Arncliffe * East Rounton * West Rounton * Appleton Wiske * Great Smeaton * Birkby * Hutton Bonville * Danby Wiske * Yafforth *

* Warlaby * North Otterington * Newby Wiske * South Otterington * Kirby Wiske

Crossings

* Baulk Bridge, Ingleby Arncliffe * East Rounton Bridge, East Rounton * West Rounton Bridge, West Rounton * Wiske Railway Bridge, Middlesbrough branchline * Wiske Bridge, Appleton Wiske * Unnamed road near Hornby Grange Farm * Smeaton Bridge, A167 * Unnamed road near Frigdale * Wiske Bridge, Birkby * Railway Bridge, East Coast Main Line * Wiske Bridge, Danby Wiske * Yafforth Bridge, B6271 * Wensleydale Railway Bridge * Viewly Bridge, Ainderby Road, A684 * Howden Bridge, nr Romanby * Unnamed road nr North Otterington * Otterington Bridge, between Newby Wiske and South Otterington * Kirby Bridge, Kirby Wiske * Pivet Bridge (foot), nr Kirby Wiske

Gallery

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiske Rivers of North Yorkshire