The Whyburn (known locally as Town Brook, and by the UK Government as Baker Lane Brook) is the main
watercourse
A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...
flowing through the town of
Hucknall
Hucknall () is a market town in the Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, Ashfield district of Nottinghamshire, England, north of Nottingham, southeast of Kirkby-in-Ashfield, from Mansfield and south of Sutton-in-Ashfield.
Hucknall is on the west ba ...
in the
English county of
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 ...
. It rises in two separate springs at the foot of the
Misk Hills by Whyburn Farm, and flows east into the town of Hucknall, past Whyburn Lane to which it also gives its name. The brook once drove several mills in Hucknall, the most notable example being close to the junction of Baker Street and Annesley Road near the town centre.
In ''the History of
Hucknall Torkard'' it is suggested that a mill pond once existed close to the former village green (now the Market Place).
[
The name of the stream is thought to be derived from a Celtic word 'Wy' meaning 'water'. The Whyburn has a total length of around , and terminates in a ]confluence
In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...
with the River Leen
The River Leen is a 15-mile (24 km) long tributary of the River Trent that flows through Nottinghamshire, and the city of Nottingham in the East Midlands of England.
The name Leen developed through various renderings of the Celtic word m ...
immediately upstream of Bestwood Village
Bestwood Village is a village and civil parish in the Gedling district of Nottinghamshire.
Until 1 April 2018 it was part of the civil parish of Bestwood St. Albans. The population count was 2,223 at the 2021 census. A small part of the vill ...
Mill Lakes. A school used to take the name of 'Whyburn'.
Flood mitigation measures
The path of the Whyburn takes it though urban built up areas of Hucknall. In order to reduce the risk of urban flooding
Urban flooding is the inundation of land or property in cities or other built environment, caused by rainfall or coastal storm surges overwhelming the capacity of drainage systems, such as storm sewers. Urban flooding can occur regardless of whethe ...
, several flood mitigation
Flood management or flood control are methods used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters. Flooding can be caused by a mix of both natural processes, such as extreme weather upstream, and human changes to waterbodies and ru ...
measures have been implemented along its length, including retention ponds, flood barrier
A flood barrier, surge barrier or storm surge barrier is a specific type of floodgate, designed to prevent a storm surge or spring tide from flooding the protected area behind the barrier. A surge barrier is almost always part of a larger flood ...
s, a monitoring station, and flood warning
A flood warning or flood alert is the task of making use of flood forecasts to make decisions about whether warnings should be issued to the general public or if previous warnings should be rescinded or retracted.
The task of providing warning f ...
services.
In spite of the measures, the brook has flooded several times. The highest recorded river level was measured at during Storm Babet
Storm Babet (known as Storm Viktor in Germany) was an intense extratropical cyclone which affected large parts of northern and western Europe. The second named storm of the 2023–24 European windstorm season, Babet was named by the UK's Met Of ...
in October 2023.
See also
* Farleys Brook
References
Bibliography
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External links
Baker Lane Brook level at Hucknall
Gov.UK - Check for flooding
Baker Lane Brook at Hucknall
- River Levels
Top of the Poops
{{authority control
Rivers of Nottinghamshire
2Whyburn