The River Wansbeck runs through the county of

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...

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 ...

. It rises above Sweethope

Lough ''Loch'' () is the Scottish Gaelic, Scots and Irish word for a lake or sea inlet. It is cognate with the Manx lough, Cornish logh, and one of the Welsh words for lake, llwch. In English English and Hiberno-English, the anglicised sp ...

on the edge of Fourlaws Forest in the area known locally as The Wanneys (Great Wanney Crag, Little Wanney Crag; thus the "Wanneys Beck"); runs through the town of

Ashington Ashington is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, with a population of 27,864 at the 2011 Census. It was once a centre of the coal mining industry. The town is north of Newcastle upon Tyne, west of the A189 and bordered to the ...

before discharging into the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...

at Sandy Bay near Newbiggin-by-the-Sea. The River flows through the village of

Kirkwhelpington Kirkwhelpington is a village and civil parish in the English county of Northumberland about northeast of Hexham. It is on the River Wansbeck alongside the A696 trunk road between Otterburn and Ponteland. History Kirkwhelpington has mediev ...

, the town of Morpeth, Hartburn, where the

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 ...

Hart Burn joins, and the

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

of Mitford, where the River Font joins. The River Wansbeck is nicknamed the River Wanney. The term 'The Wilds of Wanney' is used by people of Tyneside to refer to the rural areas of Northumberland where the Wansbeck rises. The River lent its name to the former Wansbeck district which was based in Ashington, and included Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, Bedlington and Stakeford.

Barrage and navigation

Between 1974-75, a £250,000 barrage with a navigation lock was built near the rivermouth and adjacent to the A189 road bridge. In so doing the lower three miles of river became a country park and are recognised as England's most northerly inland (locked) navigation. Very little use of the lock has actually been recorded, although rowing and sailing craft are launched and used in the country park. Stakeford Bridge is about midway in the navigable part. Sheepwash Bridge is near the upper limit of the park and the navigable water. From 1985, the new navigation was officially recorded in ''The Inland Waterways of Great Britain'', noting that the navigation authority was then Wansbeck District Council, which means that, since 2009, Northumberland County has held that role. File:The infant River Wansbeck - geograph.org.uk - 627089.jpg, The infant River Wansbeck as a stream File:Stepping stones Morpeth - geograph.org.uk - 1533870.jpg, Stepping stones at Morpeth File:Wallington Bridge - geograph.org.uk - 1585530.jpg, Wallington Bridge between Kirkharle and Cambo File:Weir at Mitford - geograph.org.uk - 305932.jpg, Weir at Mitford File:Wansbeck River Mouth - geograph.org.uk - 69518.jpg, River Wansbeck meets the

Road and rail river crossings

*North Seaton A189 Bridge, A189 (road, foot) *North Seaton Railway Bridge (rail), used to carry

Blyth and Tyne Railway The Blyth and Tyne Railway was a railway company in Northumberland, England, incorporated by Act of Parliament on 30 June 1852. It was created to unify the various private railways and waggonways built to carry coal from the Northumberland coalf ...

now used for freight *Stakeford Bridge, A196 (road, foot) *Sheepwash Bridge, A1068 road (road, foot) *Bothal Mill Bridge, A196 (road, foot) *Pegswood Railway Viaduct,

East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between London and Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Great Britain running b ...

(rail) *Morpeth

Telford Bridge Telford bridge usually refers to a bridge whose design and construction was overseen by the late-18th/early-19th century Scottish civil engineer Thomas Telford. An (incomplete) list of these may be found here. Among those Telford bridges known by th ...

, A197 (road, foot) *Lowford Bridge, B6343 (road, foot) *Highford Bridge, B6343 (road, foot) * A1 Bridge (road) * Mitford Bridge, B6343 (road, foot) * Meldon Bridge (road, foot) *Mill House Bridge, B6343 (road, foot) *Low Angerton Bridge (road, foot) *Low Angerton Railway Bridge (disused), Used to carry the

Wansbeck Railway The Wansbeck Railway was a single track railway line in Northumberland, England, that ran from Morpeth to Reedsmouth, where it made a junction with the Border Counties Railway. Conceived as part of a through trunk route for the North British Ra ...

*Middleton Bridge, B6343 (road, foot) *Wallington Bridge, B6342 (road, foot) *

Bridge (road, foot) *

A696 Bridge (road) *

Sweethope Loughs Sweethope Loughs are two freshwater lakes almost in length, the smaller one just east of the larger, in the southern part of Northumberland, England and lying between the A68 road, and the A696 road. They lie about west of Morpeth; west of Ki ...

Road Bridge (road, foot)

References

External links

Canal Plan AC Waterways Gazetteer
{{authority control Wansbeck

Barrage and navigation

Road and rail river crossings

See also

References

External links