The Scarpe () is a river in the

Hauts-de-France Hauts-de-France (; pcd, Heuts-d'Franche; , also ''Upper France'') is the northernmost region of France, created by the territorial reform of French regions in 2014, from a merger of Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy. Its prefecture is Lille. The ...

region of France. It is a left-bank tributary of the river Escaut (

Scheldt The Scheldt (french: Escaut ; nl, Schelde ) is a river that flows through northern France, western Belgium, and the southwestern part of the Netherlands, with its mouth at the North Sea. Its name is derived from an adjective corresponding to ...

). It is long. The source of the river is at Berles-Monchel near

Aubigny-en-Artois Aubigny-en-Artois (, literally ''Aubigny in Artois'') is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. Geography A town located 8 miles (13 km) northwest of Arras at the junction of the D73, D74, D75 and D49 roads, just by t ...

. It flows through the towns of

Arras Arras ( , ; pcd, Aro; historical nl, Atrecht ) is the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department, which forms part of the region of Hauts-de-France; before the reorganization of 2014 it was in Nord-Pas-de-Calais. The historic centre of ...

Douai Douai (, , ,; pcd, Doï; nl, Dowaai; formerly spelled Douay or Doway in English) is a city in the Nord département in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe some from Lille and from Arras, Dou ...

and

Saint-Amand-les-Eaux Saint-Amand-les-Eaux (; former nl, Sint-Amands-aan-de-Skarpe, link=no) is a commune in the Nord department, northern France. It lies on the river Scarpe, 12 km northwest of Valenciennes. In French, the town people are named ''Amandinois'' ...

. The river ends at

Mortagne-du-Nord Mortagne-du-Nord () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It lies on the border with Belgium, on the river Scheldt. Heraldry See also *Communes of the Nord department The following is a list of the 648 communes of the Nor ...

where it flows into the Scheldt.

Scarpe Mountain Scarpe may refer to: * Scarpe river, in France *Battle of the Scarpe (disambiguation), four Battles of the Scarpe were fought during World War I *USS Scarpe (SP-713) USS ''Scarpe'' (SP-713) was a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission fr ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

, was named after the river. The navigable waterway and its coal barges also feature in the novels by 19th century author

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...

Navigation

The river was made navigable by weirs and locks over about two thirds of its length (), divided into the Upper Scarpe (, 23 km, 9 locks) from Arras to Courchelettes, the Middle Scarpe through Douai, and the Lower Scarpe (, 36 km, 6 locks) from Douai to the Escaut. The Middle Scarpe is no longer navigable, bypassed by the high-capacity

Canal Dunkerque-Escaut The Dunkirk-Scheldt Canal is a 189 km long series of historic canals, and the canalised river Scheldt that were substantially rebuilt from the mid-1950s up to ca. 1980, with some new sections, from Dunkirk to the Belgian border at Mortagne-d ...

History

This river was navigated from the Escaut up to Douai as early as 638, but improvements with flash locks were required to give access to the important town of Arras, reached in 1613. This remained a shallow navigation, with locks of varying width and length, until it was improved to the Becquey gauge in the 1840s. The enlargement to

Freycinet gauge The Freycinet gauge (french: gabarit Freycinet) is a standard governing the dimensions of the locks of some canals, put in place as a result of a law passed during the tenure of Charles de Freycinet as minister of public works of France, dating ...

was completed by about 1890. Today the Lower Scarpe is closed from the Douai junction to Saint-Amand-les-Eaux pending dredging and identification of a new owner and operator. The river and its valley were important battlegrounds in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. The valley of the Scarpe has been designated as a protected

Ramsar site A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention,8 ha (O) *** Permanent 8 ha (P) *** Seasonal Intermittent < 8 ha(Ts) **

References

External links

River Scarpe
with further maps and details of places and moorings, by the author of ''Inland Waterways of France''
Navigation details for 80 French rivers and canals
(French waterways website section) {{Authority control Rivers of Nord (French department) Rivers of the Pas-de-Calais World War I in the Pas-de-Calais Rivers of Hauts-de-France Rivers of France Ramsar sites in Metropolitan France Hauts-de-France region articles needing translation from French Wikipedia