The River Tonge is a short

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the ...

, splitting

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish weavers settled in the area in the 14th ce ...

from

contiguous Contiguity or contiguous may refer to: *Contiguous data storage, in computer science * Contiguity (probability theory) *Contiguity (psychology) * Contiguous distribution of species, in biogeography *Geographic contiguity of territorial land *Conti ...

Tonge, both in

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tamesid ...

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 ...

. The Tonge is formed at the ''Meeting of the Waters'', where Astley Brook, from Smithills in the west, meets the

Eagley Brook Eagley Brook (also known during the formative part of its course as Belmont Brook) is a small river of Lancashire and Greater Manchester in England. Rising at the confluence of several smaller streams at Old Man's Hill in the West Pennine Moors, ...

drawing on more sources to the north. The Tonge meanders southwards, to the east of Bolton, past Springfield where it is joined by Bradshaw Brook, at the end of its route from the Jumbles and Wayoh reservoirs, close to Tonge Fold. The Tonge joins the smaller and thus counterintuitively superseding Croal at Darcy Lever, shortly before the Croal's confluence with the

River Irwell The River Irwell ( ) is a tributary of the River Mersey in north west England. It rises at Irwell Springs on Deerplay Moor, approximately north of Bacup and flows southwards for to meet the Mersey near Irlam. The Irwell marks the boundary b ...

. Tonge Bridge section is a tract north of Tonge Bridge designated as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI). The site comprises the steep west

right bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography, as follows. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrai ...

of the river. It was designated an SSSI 1987 for its geological interest, principally the fluvial

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

which has yielded pteridosperm seeds, known as '' Trigonocarpus''. The well preserved nature of the seeds make it of considerable sedimentological and palaeogeographic interest. It is one of only seven geological SSSIs in Greater Manchester. In 2017, invasive

walking catfish The walking catfish (''Clarias batrachus'') is a species of freshwater airbreathing catfish native to Southeast Asia. It is named for its ability to "walk" and wiggle across dry land, to find food or suitable environments. While it does not trul ...

''Clarias'' were recovered from the river.

Tributaries

* Bradshaw Brook (left bank) *

(left bank) * Astley Brook (right bank)

References

{{authority control Tonge, River Tonge, River Tonge, River 1Tonge

Tributaries

See also

References