River Waveney

Waveney
River
The River at Beccles
Country	England
Counties	Norfolk, Suffolk
Cities	Diss, Bungay, Beccles
Source
- location	nr. Redgrave, Suffolk
Mouth	Breydon Water
- location	Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, UK
- elevation	0 m (0 ft)

The Waveney is a river which forms the boundary between Suffolk and Norfolk, England, for much of its length within The Broads.

Course

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The source of the River Waveney is a ditch on the east side of the B1113 road between the villages of Redgrave, Suffolk and South Lopham, Norfolk. The ditch on the other side of the road is the source of the River Little Ouse which continues the county boundary and, via the Great Ouse, reaches the sea at King's Lynn. (See map).^[1] It is thus claimed that during periods of heavy rainfall Norfolk can be considered to be an island.^{[citation needed]} The explanation of this oddity is that the valley in which the rivers rise was formed, not by these rivers but by water spilling from Lake Fenland.^{[citation needed]} This was a periglacial lake of the Devensian glacial, fifteen or twenty thousand years ago. The ice sheet closed the natural drainage from the Vale of Pickering, the Humber and The Wash so that a lake of a complex shape formed in the Vale of Pickering, the Yorkshire Ouse valley, the lower Trent valley and the Fenland basin. This valley was its spillway into the southern North Sea basin, thence to the English Channel basin.

The river flows in an easterly direction though the towns of Diss, Bungay and Beccles. From its source it forms the southern boundary of Bressingham and Roydon before reaching Diss. Next come Scole--site of its crossing by the Roman Road--Billingford with its windmill, Brockdish and Needham before passing south of Harleston. Then come Mendham with its links to the artist Alfred Munnings, Wortwell, Homersfield with its famous bridge, now the oldest bridge in England constructed from concrete,^[2] which is a Grade II listed structure and was restored in 1995,^[3] followed by Denton and Earsham.

At Bungay, the historic head of its navigation, the Waveney forms a wide oxbow meander, carrying with it the Norfolk/Suffolk border. Next come Ditchingham, Broome and Ellingham before Geldeston, where an isolated pub stands next to the remains of a derelict lock and a dyke that leads to the village. This is the current limit of navigation. Gillingham comes next before the river gathers waters at Beccles, as it enters the Broads. Although the old town bridge there restricts navigation to craft with an airdraft of less than 6.5 feet (2.0 m), its quay beyond that abruptly changes the nature of the river from a gentle rural feature to a gateway to the North Sea. Beccles was a fishing port for many years, and the parents of Lord Nelson were married in the church of St Michael.^[4] The river then meanders past Burgh St Peter to Somerleyton. Here Oulton Dyke branches off the Waveney and through Oulton Broad towards Lowestoft. A lock, dividing fresh from seawater, links Oulton Broad with Lake Lothing and the North Sea.

At Somerleyton the Lowestoft to Norwich railway line crosses the Waveney on a swing bridge,^[4] while at St. Olaves, the Haddiscoe Cut branches off left to connect the Rivers Yare and Waveney. The Cut was excavated in the 19th century to provide a direct route between Lowestoft Docks and Norwich.^[5] Finally the Waveney flows past Burgh Castle into Breydon Water at the confluence of the two rivers. It now forms part of the river Yare and reaches the sea at Great Yarmouth.

There was a special version of the Norfolk wherry in use on the Waveney, with boats measuring no more than 70 by 16 feet (21 by 4.9 m). There were also steam wherries.

Daniel Defoe enlivens this account of the Waveney's Broads course:

The River Waveney is a considerable river, and of a deep and full channel, navigable for large barges as high as Beccles; it runs for a course of about fifty miles, between the two counties of Suffolk and Norfolk, as a boundary to both; and pushing on, tho' with a gentle stream, towards the sea, no one would doubt, but, that when they see the river growing broader and deeper, and going directly towards the sea, even to the edge of the beach; that is to say, within a mile of the main ocean; no stranger, I say, but would expect to see its entrance into the sea at that place, and a noble harbour for ships at the mouth of it; when on a sudden, the land rising high by the sea-side, crosses the head of the river, like a dam, checks the whole course of it, and it returns, bending its course west, for two miles, or thereabouts; and then turning north, thro' another long course of meadows (joining to those just now mention'd) seeks out the River Yare, that it may join its water with hers, and find their way to the sea together.

^[6]

Navigation

[ v t e ] River Waveney

Legend Source TM 039 789 B1113 Redgrave Fen Bressingham Steam and Gardens Denmark Bridge Button's Mill, Diss TM 123 792 Great Eastern Main Line B1077 A140 Scole Bridge A143 Billingford Windmill TM 167 786 River Dove Scole Flax Mill TM 139 790 Oakley Mill TM 171 770 B1118 Mouth of R Dove TM 177 784 Hoxne Mill TM 189 778 Syleham MillTM 213 790 Luck's MillTM 225 805 Needham MillTM 229 811 Weybread MillTM 241 819 B1116 Mendham Mill TM 271 833 Mendham Paper Mill Limbourne Mill, Wortwell TM 282 844 Homersfield Mill TM 285 854 B1062 Homersfield Bridge Mill Holm TM 292 866 Flixton Mill Earsham Mill TM 326 887 A143 (Formerly Waveney Valley Line) Ditchingham Mill TM 334 908 A143 (Formerly Waveney Valley Line) Bungay Staithe Bungay Mill TM 341 898 Wainford Mill TM 351 902 Wainford Lock (now a sluice) Ellingham Mill TM 365 917 Ellingham Lock (now a sluice) Daniel Mills Lock (disused) Geldeston Mill TM 390 909 Geldeston Lock (disused) Geldeston Dyke Beccles Beccles Old Bridge A146 Beccles New Bridge Yarmouth to Beccles Line Lake Lothing and North Sea Mutford Sea Lock Oulton Broad Oulton Dyke Burgh Ferry Somerleyton swing bridge (Wherry Line) Herringfleet Windmill TM 466 976 Yarmouth to Beccles Line Haddiscoe A143 bridges St Olaves Haddiscoe Cut River Yare St Olaves Mill TM 457 998 Fritton Marshes Mill TM 450 998 Toft Monks Mill Upper Seven Mile House Mill, Chedgrave TG 446 028 Caldecott Mill TG 465 021 Black Mill, Belton TG 467 035 Breydon Water Lockgate Mill TG 480 071 A12 Breydon Viaduct, (Formerly Great Yarmouth to Lowestoft Line) River Bure Southtown Bridge A1243 Great Yarmouth To North Sea

The River Waverney was improved for navigation under an Act of Parliament obtained in 1670, which empowered five traders from Bungay and one from Downham Market to carry out the work. This included the construction of three locks, at Geldeston, Ellingham and Wainford, to extend navigation as far as Bungay Staithe. The navigation remained in private hands, and was not under the control of the Yarmouth Commissioners, who were responsible for the lower river. A second Act obtained in 1772 ensured that Suffolk magistrates received a 5 per cent share of all tolls obtained from the carriage of coal, with which to maintain the Waveney.^[5]

The short section of the river from Haddiscoe to Burgh Ferry was part of a grand scheme to link Norwich to the sea at Lowestoft. The scheme originated in 1818, but was opposed by the merchants of Yarmouth, and it was not until 28 May 1827 that an Act of Parliament authorised the Norwich and Lowestoft Navigation Company, giving then powers to raise £100,000, with an additional £50,000 if required. From Burgh Ferry, boats would use a widened Oulton Dyke to reach Oulton Broad, and a new sea lock would be constructed to link the broad to Lake Lothing. This had four sets of gates, so that it could be used at all states of the tide, was capable of holding vessels which were 150 by 50 feet (46 by 15 m), and used a system of sluices to enable the channel through Lake Lothing to be flushed with water from Oulton Broad. Completed in 1829, it was demonstrated in 1831, and although four operations of the sluices were estimated to have removed 10,000 tons of gravel and shingle out to sea, its subsequent operation was not as effective.^[5]

In the other direction, construction of Haddiscoe Cut began, to link the river at Haddiscoe to the River Yare at Reedham, enabling vessels from Norwich to bypass Yarmouth. With funds running low, a decision was taken to borrow the additional £50,000 which the enabling Act allowed, and so a request was made to the Exchequer Bill Loan Commissioners for this amount. Work was completed on the cut and the upgrading of the river to Norwich, and the formal opening took place on 30 September 1833.^[5] The venture was a commercial failure, as development of Norwich as a port did not occur, and Lowestoft harbour was subject to silting.^[4] With income failing to match expenditure, the Exchequer Bill Loan Commissioners could not be repaid, so they took over the navigation in 1842, and sold it to the railway contractor Sir Samuel Morton Peto.^[5]

With the decline in the use of wherries for commercial trade on the rivers prior to the Second World War, navigation ceased on several stretches of the Broads, including the 4.2-mile (6.8 km) section of the river from Geldeston Lock to Bungay, where navigation rights were removed in 1934. Wainford and Ellingham locks have since been converted into sluices, but the Environment Agency has negotiated with local landowners to allow the use of this section by canoes and unpowered craft. To aid this, it has improved the facilities for portaging boats at the locks.^[4]

Mutford lock links Oulton Broad to Lake Lothing, and is the only working lock on the whole of the Broads. Two swing bridges carry the Lowestoft to Ipswich railway line and the A12 road over the cut to the east of the lock. The lock was refurbished in 1992, and is managed by Waveney District Council, but there were discussions taking place in 2009 to transfer it to the Broads Authority, who manage the rest of the Broads.^[4]

Location

See also

• Rivers of the United Kingdom

References

Gallery of crossings

• 

  First crossing, at source, Redgrave & S. Lopham Fen

• 

  Second crossing, as channel forms, Redgrave Fen

• 

  Denmark Bridge, Diss

• 

  View of Waveney nr Roman road: Scole Bridge towards A143

• 

  Billingford Bridge & weir, January

• 

  Homersfield Bridge: oldest concrete bridge in Great Britain

• 

  Bungay: Earsham St bridge, (beyond private footbridge)

• 

  Staithe weir gates and footbridge, Bungay

• 

  Beccles: upstream view of Bridge St bridge, showing height limit

• 

  Beccles quay: downstream view from Bridge St bridge

External links

• River Waveney Literary Links

v t e Rivers and Watercourses of Suffolk River Alde River Blyth Butley River River Deben River Dove River Gipping River Lark River Little Ouse River Ore Oulton Dyke River Rat River Stour Stour Brook River Waveney River Yox

v t e Rivers and watercourses of Norfolk River Ainse (or Eyn) River Ant River Babingley Beeston Beck River Bure River Burn River Chet River Cong River Gadder Gaywood River River Glaven River Great Ouse Gur Beck Hagon Beck River Heacham River Hor River Hun River Ingol River Little Ouse River Mun River Nar River Nene North Walsham & Dilham Canal Panford Beck Penny Spot Beck Scarrow Beck Spring Beck River Stiffkey River Tas River Tat River Thet River Thurne River Tiffey River Tud River Waveney River Wensum Wisbech Canal River Wissey River Yare