The Tees Barrage International White Water Course, originally the Teesside White Water Course, is an

artificial whitewater An artificial whitewater course (AWWC) is a site for whitewater canoeing, whitewater kayaking, whitewater racing, whitewater rafting, playboating and slalom canoeing with artificially generated rapids. Course types Main types of course: ...

course on the north bank of the River Tees, in

northern England Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...

. It is part of the

Tees Barrage The Tees Barrage is a barrage and road bridge across the River Tees, Northern England, just upriver of Blue House Point and is used to control the flow of the river, preventing flooding and the effects of tidal change. It is between the t ...

and is located in the Stockton-on-Tees district, accessible by road only from

Thornaby-on-Tees Thornaby-on-Tees, commonly referred to as Thornaby, is a town and civil parish on the River Tees's southern bank. It is in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, England. The parish had a population of 24,741 at the 2011 census, in t ...

and best accessed by the A66. The course was built in 1995 at a cost of £2 million. The course is now open once more under the new name TBIWWC (Tees Barrage International White Water Centre).

Facilities

The course is owned by the

Canal & River Trust The Canal & River Trust (CRT), branded as in Wales, holds the guardianship of 2,000 miles of canals and rivers, together with reservoirs and a wide range of heritage buildings and structures, in England and Wales. Launched on 12 July 2012, the ...

but administered by Tees Active from the on-site watersports centre. The white water facility offers kayaking,

whitewater slalom Canoe slalom (previously known as whitewater slalom) is a competitive sport with the aim to navigate a decked canoe or kayak through a course of hanging downstream or upstream gates on river rapids in the fastest time possible. It is one of th ...

playboating Canoe freestyle (also known as playboating) is a discipline of whitewater kayaking or canoeing where people perform various technical moves in one place (a playspot), as opposed to downriver whitewater canoeing or kayaking where the objective is ...

and

white water rafting Rafting and whitewater rafting are recreational outdoor activities which use an inflatable raft to navigate a river or other body of water. This is often done on whitewater or different degrees of rough water. Dealing with risk is often a ...

plus surfing on the 'surf wave'. The centre's facilities include a high ropes course, a placid practice pool; watersports centre, shop and cafe; car parking, camping, picnicking and caravanning areas;

bandstand A bandstand (sometimes music kiosk) is a circular, semicircular or polygonal structure set in a park, garden, pier, or indoor space, designed to accommodate musical bands performing concerts. A simple construction, it both creates an orname ...

and landscaped

amphitheatre An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...

, ''The Talpore'' pub, a restaurant and hotel. The course itself is a 'U' shaped loop, 250 m long, 7 m wide with a 3.7 m drop and a flow of 14 cumecs (m³/s). The immediate environs of the white water course include the Teesdale Way cycle path (

National Cycle Network The National Cycle Network (NCN) is the national cycling route network of the United Kingdom, which was established to encourage cycling and walking throughout Britain, as well as for the purposes of bicycle touring. It was created by the cha ...

), the River Tees, the

and the placid grade A two star waters of the river Tees; the

David Lloyd Leisure David Lloyd Leisure is Europe's largest health, fitness and leisure business by revenue, operating 130 clubs across nine countries. History David Lloyd established David Lloyd Leisure in 1982 and opened the first club, aimed at providing a fa ...

racquet centre, a superstore and

Portrack Marsh Nature Reserve Portrack Marsh Nature Reserve is a reserve by the northern bank of the River Tees between the Tees Barrage and the Tees Viaduct, near Portrack housing estate in Stockton-on-Tees borough, County Durham. It is the last remaining wetland on t ...

Operation

The state of the course can depend on the level of the tide in the River Tees. The course can operate by flow diversion for two or three hours either side of low tide but can operate at any time when the pumps are used. The course can operate all year round and in hours of darkness when it is flood-lit, and spot-lit on the two footbridges.

Photo gallery (2008)

Image:Tees_Whitewater_Centre-1024.jpg , Tees Barrage White Water Course Centre and practice/warm up pool Image:tees_white_water-1.jpg , Happy Eater pool Image:tees_white_water-2.jpg , Rapids in front of the bandstand Image:tees_white_water-3.jpg , Cruncher pool Image:tees_white_water-5.jpg , Valentines pool Image:tees_white_water-6.jpg , Pedestrian bridge and final rapids Image:tees_white_water-8.jpg , Lower settling pool Image:tees_white_water-4.jpg , One of the many public interpretation and information boards around the course.

Redevelopment

In 2010 and 2011, a £4.6 million redevelopment of the course was undertaken. The changes include the addition of a new shorter, steeper course and a canoe lift with disabled paddlers in mind. Four large 12 m long 3 m diameter

Archimedes' screw The Archimedes screw, also known as the Archimedean screw, hydrodynamic screw, water screw or Egyptian screw, is one of the earliest hydraulic machines. Using Archimedes screws as water pumps (Archimedes screw pump (ASP) or screw pump) dates back ...

s were installed to pump water from the bottom pool to the top pool guaranteeing water levels for paddlers at all states of the

tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ...

. There are plans to generate electricity from the head of river water above the barrage by putting the Archimedes' screws into reverse when not pumping water around the course, making the course more energy efficient. These improvements made the site a world class training facility which is proposed as a training camp location for the 2012 Olympic games. Work started in March 2010 and was completed in October 2011. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, visited Stockton on 18 July 2012 to officially reopen the International White Water Course as part of their Diamond Jubilee tour of the United Kingdom.

Popular culture

The TBIWWC was used in a segment of the film ''

1917 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Fo ...

''. In the scene, the actor George MacKay jumps into a river in France and is flung over rapids and a waterfall. These scenes were filmed at the course. An episode of ''Emmerdale'' was filmed at the TBIWWC where the character Victoria Sugden fell down a waterfall.

Note

The Tees Barrage International White Water Course is not to be confused with The River Tees Watersports Centre, Dugdale Street, Stockton-on-Tees 1 km further upriver on the same side near the Princess of Wales Bridge or indeed the Castlegate Quay Water Sports Centre a little further up-river near Teesquay Millennium Bridge.

References

List of artificial whitewater courses The first whitewater slalom race took place on the Aar River in Switzerland in 1933. The early slalom courses were all set in natural rivers, but when whitewater slalom became an Olympic sport for the first time, at the 1972 Munich Games, the ve ...

, West = Teesdale Business Park,
Stockton-on-Tees , Centre = Tees Barrage International
White Water Course , East =

Maze Park Nature Reserve Maze Park is a urban nature reserve in Middlesbrough, England on the south bank of the Tees on part of the former Tees Marshalling Yard. It was created by the Teesside Development Corporation and is owned and run by the Tees Valley Wildlife T ...

,
Tees Viaduct , Southwest =

, South = '' River Tees'',
Teesdale Way , Southeast = Teesside Park {{UK Artificial White Water Courses {{Canoeing and kayaking {{stockton Sports venues in County Durham Artificial whitewater courses in the United Kingdom Sport in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees River Tees