The River Sence is a
Leicestershire (
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
)
tributary
A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drai ...
of the larger
River Soar. The River Sence can be traced eastwards up to the village of
Billesdon
Billesdon is a village and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England, with a population of 745 according to the 2001 census, increasing to 901 at the 2011 census. It is just off the A47, nine miles east of Leicester. ...
, and then flows south west through
Great Glen, Leicestershire
Great Glen (or Glenn) is a village and civil parish in the Harborough District, in Leicestershire, 2 miles south of Oadby. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 3,662. Leicester city centre is about seven miles north we ...
, and then west (south of
Wigston
Wigston, or Wigston Magna, is a town in Leicestershire, England, just south of Leicester on the A5199. It had a population of 32,321 in 2011.
Geography
Wigston is south of the city of Leicester, at the centre of Leicestershire and the East ...
and
South Wigston
South Wigston is a large village to the south of Leicester, England. It is outside the city boundary, forming part of the Oadby and Wigston district of Leicestershire. The population of the ward rose slightly from 7,471 at the 2001 census to ...
) until the
confluence with the River Soar just to the west of
Blaby. Tracing the River Sence upstream, the
Environment Agency does monitor the river between Blaby and Great Glen, but there has been no significant flooding in recent years, and the land along the River Sence is largely agricultural. In 1881 Sebastian Evans wrote that the usual names for this river were Billesdon Brook and Burton Brook.
[ Evans, Arthur Benoni (1881) ''Leicestershire Words, Phrases, and Proverbs''; edited, with additions by Sebastian Evans. London: Trübner & Co.; p. 47]
The river flows past South Wigston at a point known locally as Crow Mills. After heavy rain the river level here rises quickly. It floods neighbouring fields and then flows across the road causing the road to become impassable to traffic. After prolonged rain the river floods large areas of farm land along its course. At village of Blaby it floods across the cricket pitch and also it can flood across the Leicester Road under the Leicester to Birmingham railway bridge. This can cause significant disruption to local traffic.
Over recent years the maintenance on the river appears to have been reduced. It can often be seen choked with weeds and other vegetation.
The flooding of the Soar Valley
As a tributary of the River Soar, The River Sence in the Blaby and Wigston area suffers from persistent flooding.
In the mid 1800s, the railway viaduct
Crow Mill was swept away in a storm and subsequent floods. The destroyed wooden structure was replaced by a steel and brick construction to restore the main railway line. However, in the 1960s it was dismantled when the line was closed as part of the
Beeching cuts, branch line cuts proposed by Dr Beeching.
The road at Crow Mill still suffers closures through flooding, as does the road between Blaby (Northfield Park) and Glen Parva, due to the River Sence bursting its banks.
References
Sence, River
1Sence
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