The River Cocker is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, England. The River Cocker rises near to Yeat House Farm and Higher Knowe Hill south of Quernmore, near Lancaster. It runs south westerly through Cocker Clough Wood and Brunstow Wood, then by Hampson Green, before briefly turning north west when joined by Potters Brook at the hamlet of Potters Brook close to the

M6 motorway The M6 motorway is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom. It is located entirely within England, running for just over from the Midlands to the border with Scotland. It begins at Junction 19 of the M1 and the western end of the A14 at t ...

, where it is channeled under the

Lancaster Canal The Lancaster Canal is a canal in North West England, originally planned to run from Westhoughton in Lancashire to Kendal in south Cumbria (historically in Westmorland). The section around the crossing of the River Ribble was never completed, a ...

. The river then skirts south around

Cockerham Cockerham is a small village and civil parish within the City of Lancaster district in Lancashire, England. It is south of Lancaster and north-northwest of Preston. Lying on the River Cocker, at the estuary of the River Lune, the parish ha ...

, by Little Crimbles before being swollen by Park Lane Brook and Lee Brook and flowing into saltflats below

Cockersand Abbey Cockersand Abbey is a former abbey and former civil parish near Cockerham in the City of Lancaster district of Lancashire, England. It is situated near the mouth of the River Cocker. History It was founded before 1184 as the Hospital of St Mar ...

on the Lune estuary. The river is, approximately 17.5 km (10.9 miles) in length. Cockerham Marsh is a designated

SSSI A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

and the Cocker Estuary is a favoured overwintering site of migratory

pink-footed goose The pink-footed goose (''Anser brachyrhynchus'') is a goose which breeds in eastern Greenland, Iceland and Svalbard. It is migratory, wintering in northwest Europe, especially Ireland, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and western Denmark. The nam ...

, which can be seen in flocks of over one thousand, at times. It is also nationally important for other winter seabirds, including

oystercatcher The oystercatchers are a group of waders forming the family Haematopodidae, which has a single genus, ''Haematopus''. They are found on coasts worldwide apart from the polar regions and some tropical regions of Africa and South East Asia. The e ...

turnstone Turnstones are two bird species that comprise the genus ''Arenaria'' in the family Scolopacidae. They are closely related to calidrid sandpipers and might be considered members of the tribe Calidriini. The genus ''Arenaria'' was introduced by t ...

grey plover The grey plover or black-bellied plover (''Pluvialis squatarola'') is a large plover breeding in Arctic regions. It is a long-distance migrant, with a nearly worldwide coastal distribution when not breeding. Taxonomy The grey plover was forma ...

knot A knot is an intentional complication in cordage which may be practical or decorative, or both. Practical knots are classified by function, including hitches, bends, loop knots, and splices: a ''hitch'' fastens a rope to another object; a ' ...

curlew The curlews () are a group of nine species of birds in the genus ''Numenius'', characterised by their long, slender, downcurved bills and mottled brown plumage. The English name is imitative of the Eurasian curlew's call, but may have been in ...

common redshank The common redshank or simply redshank (''Tringa totanus'') is a Eurasian wader in the large family Scolopacidae. Taxonomy The common redshank was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his ...

and

dunlin The dunlin (''Calidris alpina'') is a small wader, formerly sometimes separated with the other "stints" in the genus ''Erolia''. The English name is a dialect form of "dunling", first recorded in 1531–1532. It derives from ''dun'', "dull brown ...

. In summer, it hosts impressive numbers of

ringed plover The common ringed plover or ringed plover (''Charadrius hiaticula'') is a small plover that breeds in Arctic Eurasia. The genus name ''Charadrius'' is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from ...

Etymology

The name refers to cocker, a breeder of, hunter of, or fighter with game birds. This is appropriate given the local farming of poultry and the presence of many

partridge A partridge is a medium-sized Galliformes, galliform bird in any of several genera, with a wide Indigenous (ecology), native distribution throughout parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. Several species have been introduced to the Americas. They a ...

and other game birds in the surrounding area.

Water quality and pollution

The River Cocker, along with its neighbour the

River Conder The River Conder is a river in the English county of Lancashire. The source of the River Conder is a spring at Conder Head on Black Fell near Littledale, from where the stream briefly runs north, then west through Cragg Wood. The river then sk ...

lie within the

Pilling Pilling is a village and civil parish within the Borough of Wyre, Wyre borough of Lancashire, England. It is north-northeast of Poulton-le-Fylde, south-southwest of Lancaster, Lancashire, Lancaster and northwest of Preston, Lancashire, Pr ...

, Ridgy, Cocker and Conder Operational Catchment of 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 ...

's Lune Management Catchment. The area is heavily pastorally farmed, with extensive cattle, sheep and poultry stock and

agricultural pollution Agricultural pollution refers to biotic and abiotic byproducts of farming practices that result in contamination or degradation of the environment and surrounding ecosystems, and/or cause injury to humans and their economic interests. The pol ...

is identified as the main reason that waters have yet to attain “Good” status.

United Utilities United Utilities Group plc (UU), the United Kingdom's largest listed water company, was founded in 1995 as a result of the merger of North West Water and NORWEB. The group manages the regulated water and waste water network in North West Englan ...

has made funding available for the “Cocker and Conder Clean Up”. Recent reporting has identified the overall quality of the water as “Moderate” for environmental pollution (ammonia and phosphates) and “Good” for chemical contamination.

References

* Rivers of Lancashire Rivers of Lancaster {{England-river-stub