HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The River Douglas, also known as the River Asland or Astland, flows through parts of
Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
and
Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...
in
North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,4 ...
. It is a
tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''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 into which they ...
of the River Ribble and has several tributaries, the major ones being the River Tawd and the River Yarrow. In 1720, an act of Parliament, the ( 6 Geo. 1. c. 28), authorized
Thomas Steers Thomas Steers was thought to have been born in 1672 in Kent and died in 1750. He was England's first major civil engineer and built many canals, the world's first commercial wet dock (the Old Dock at Liverpool), St. George's Church at the site o ...
and William Squire to make the River Douglas navigable to small ships between Wigan and its mouth. Despite financial irregularities, the Douglas Navigation was not completed until 1742. By 1783, it had been replaced by the
Leeds and Liverpool Canal The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool. Over a distance of , crossing the Pennines, and including 91 locks on the main line. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal has several small branc ...
, and the river reverted to its natural state. Although the remnants of several locks are still visible between Parbold and Gathurst. The Rufford Branch of the canal joins the river at Tarleton. The river rises on Winter Hill in the
West Pennine Moors The West Pennine Moors is an area of the Pennines covering approximately of moorland and Reservoir (water), reservoirs in Lancashire and Greater Manchester, England. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The West Pennine Moors are separa ...
, and flows for through several towns before reaching the Ribble estuary near Tarleton, with the last being tidal. In 1892, the Douglas was diverted in Wigan to allow the construction of Wigan Central railway station.


Etymology

The ''Douglas'' is derived from the Brittonic elements ''dūβ-'', meaning "black", and ''*glẹ:ss'', "stream, rivulet, watercourse" ( Welsh ''du-glais''). This etymology is shared by like-named rivers in The Old North, such as the Douglas Water in Scotland.


Route

The River Douglas rises at Douglas Springs, a series of springs on Rivington Moor close to the contour close to the summit of Winter Hill. The River Yarrow, one of its major tributaries, rises at springs less than a mile (1.6 km) to the north-west. Nearby are Anglezarke Reservoir,
Upper Rivington Reservoir Upper Rivington Reservoir is situated centrally in the Rivington chain of reservoirs, on the West Pennine Moors in Lancashire, England, between Rivington and Anglezarke. The engineer for the Rivington reservoirs was Thomas Hawksley and construc ...
, and Lower Rivington Reservoir, which are part of the Rivington Chain, a network of reservoirs built to supply the drinking water needs of Liverpool. This reservoirs alter the natural drainage patterns of both rivers. The Douglas descends rapidly, dropping below the contour before flowing into the Lower Rivington Reservoir, just north of Horwich. Below the dam, the river's flow is maintained by compensation water released from the reservoir, marking the county boundary between Greater Manchester and Lancashire. The river is crossed by the
M61 motorway The M61 is a motorway in North West England between Manchester and Preston, Lancashire, Preston, linking the M60 motorway, M60 Manchester orbital motorway with the M6 motorway, M6 motorway. It runs from the A580 near Wardley, Greater Manchester ...
near Rivington services, and then turns to the north-west to reach the southern edge of Adlington. It flows in a generally southwesterly direction and is crossed by the
Leeds and Liverpool Canal The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool. Over a distance of , crossing the Pennines, and including 91 locks on the main line. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal has several small branc ...
, via a
grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...
aqueduct designed by John Rennie in the 1790s. The aqueduct has a round arch and is constructed of rock-faced stone. The river then bypasses Worthington Lakes, three reservoirs built in the 1860s to provide drinking water for Wigan, and now managed as a country park by
United Utilities United Utilities Group plc (UU) is the United Kingdom's largest listed water company. It 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 En ...
. The river ceases to form the county boundary just before the lakes and re-emerges from a tunnel below the reservoir dam, passing east of Standish. It continues southwards to
Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...
, where it flows through a long culvert under the railway near Wigan North Western station, is crossed again by the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, and heads northwest, closely paralleling the canal. It is crossed by 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 motorway, M1 and the western end of t ...
and the Manchester-Southport line near Gathurst station, passes by the village of Appley Bridge, and at Parbold the canal crosses for the third time, as the river turns to the north and north-west. The aqueduct was designed by John Longbotham, has a semi-elliptical arch, and dates from 1791 to 1792. The river drops below the contour at Parbold, and continues across open countryside where it is joined by the River Tawd, flowing north from Skelmersdale, becoming tidal before it reaches the village of Rufford. White Bridge at Rufford is a grade II listed structure with three spans, constructed of squared sandstone. It carries the B5246 Station Road over the river, and dates from the time of the construction of the Douglas Navigation, between 1720 and 1742. Below the bridge, the channel is rather straighter. Until 1805, the river was joined by the Rufford Branch of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Sollom Lock, but the lock was abandoned and a new one built further downstream at Tarleton. In order to do this, a new channel was created for the river further to the east, and the original channel was reused by the canal. On the new section, Great Hanging Bridge is similar to White bridge, both in date and in its three arches, and it carries the A581 road. Below it, the river is joined by the River Yarrow, which has taken a more direct route from its source to this point. At Tarleton, another three-span bridge carries the
A59 road The A59 is a major road in England which is around long and runs from Wallasey, Merseyside to York, North Yorkshire. The alignment formed part of the Trunk Roads Act 1936, being then designated as the A59. It is a key route connecting Merseysi ...
over the river. It is built from rock-faced sandstone blocks, and the keystone on the southern side indicates it was constructed in 1821. The north side is of red sandstone, with indications that it might once have been part of a narrower bridge. After its junction with the canal at Tarleton Lock, the final of the river to its junction with the River Ribble, here also known as the River Asland, is used by boat traffic transferring from the Leeds and Liverpool Canal to 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 (Historic counties of England, historically in Westmorland). The section around the crossing of the River ...
since the opening of the Ribble Link in 2002.


Hydrology

The reservoirs of the Rivington Chain capture and store run-off from Winter Hill and Rivington Moor, much of which is used to provide a public water supply to areas of Lancashire and Greater Manchester. However, as a result of the original statutes that allowed them to be built, the water company is required to maintain some flow in the river below the reservoirs, and this compensation flow provides a fairly steady baseline flow in the river throughout the year. It is only normally exceeded if the reservoirs become full. On the upper reaches of the Douglas, the river bed is relatively steep, and consequently the river level can change quickly as a result of rainfall. As the river progresses to the west, the gradient lessens, and level changes occur more slowly. There are two locations on the river where water is abstracted to maintain levels in the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. On many sections of the river, flows are augmented by the discharge from sewage treatment works. Major treatment works are located at Horwich on the upper river, at Wigan Wastewater Treatment works in Lathom on the lower section, and at Skelmersdale on the River Tawd. Upgrades to the Wigan and Skelmersdale Treatment Works have been carried out, to improve the quality of the final effluent before discharge into the river system, while in Wigan, the sewage system has been improved, to reduce the amount of raw sewage discharged into the river by combined sewer overflows. In Standish, the pumping station at Chorley Road has been upgraded to reduce its impact on the river, while in Horwich, there was an ongoing scheme in 2014 in which volunteers walked the river to identify pollution points, which were then followed up by officers from the Environment Agency. Run-off of nutrients and other pollutants from agricultural land has also been addressed through the Catchment Sensitive Farming project, run jointly by
Natural England Natural England is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It is responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, ...
, the Environment Agency and the
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for environmental quality, environmenta ...
. Another joint initiative between the Environment Agency and the
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a Charitable_organization#United_Kingdom, charitable organisation registered in Charity Commission for England and Wales, England and Wales and in Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, ...
has seen sea defences improved and of saltmarsh created as part of the Hesketh Outmarsh Coastal Realignment project.


Tributaries

*Longton Brook *Centre Drain *Carr Heys Watercourse *Tarra Carr Gutter **Hall Pool *Dunkirk Dib *Rakes Brook *Carr Brook *Strine Brook * River Yarrow **tributaries of the Yarrow listed under River Yarrow


Water quality

The Environment Agency measure the water quality of the river systems in England. Each is given an overall ecological status, which may be one of five levels: high, good, moderate, poor and bad. There are several components that are used to determine this, including biological status, which looks at the quantity and varieties of
invertebrate Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordata, chordate s ...
s,
angiosperm Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed within a fruit ...
s and fish, and chemical status, which compares the concentrations of various chemicals against known safe concentrations. Chemical status is rated good or fail. The water quality of the River Douglas system was as follows in 2016. The section marked Ribble covers the tidal River Ribble and the lower of tidal River Douglas. Reasons for the quality being less than good include sewage discharge for most of the river, together with physical modification of the channel and poor nutrient management of agricultural land on the lower sections.


Bibliography

* * * * *


References


External links


Ribble Link TrustA few views of the River Douglas in a personal 'blog'
{{Authority control Douglas Douglas West Pennine Moors