Eller Beck

Eller Beck
River
256px Eller Beck just below the Water Street culvert, showing the overflow from the canal and some redundant sluices which formerly controlled flow to the mills downstream.
Country	England
Counties	North Yorkshire
Source
- location	Out Fell
Mouth
- location	River Aire below Skipton

Eller Beck
Legend
Bilton Ings Black Sike Waterfall Gill Sandy Beck Railway bridge Owlet House Beck Tarn Moor Bridge Haw Beck A65 bridge Footbridge in Skipton Woods Long Dam Sluice and feeder Weir and Round Dam Sougha Gill Footbridge in Skipton Woods Old Saw Mill Thanet Canal High Corn Mill Dam High Corn Mill x20px B6265 Mill Street bridge Water Street culvert Sluices and canal overflow Site of Mill Dam Site of Millfields Mill x20px Coach Street bridge Coach Street culvert Leeds and Liverpool Canal Belmont Street culvert A6069 Belmont Street bridge Morrisons carpark culvert Jn with Waller Hill Beck Skipton Railway Station Carleton New Road bridge Carleton Road bridge bridge A629 bridge River Aire

Eller Beck is a small river in North Yorkshire, England, which flows through the town of Skipton and is a tributary of the River Aire. Its channel was heavily modified to supply water for milling in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and although all milling has ceased, the water now supplies power to the National Grid, generated by a turbine at High Corn Mill. There are several underground culverts within the town, and these contribute to the flood risk. In order to alleviate flooding in Skipton town centre, a scheme involving two flood water storage reservoirs has been designed, but the start of the work to implement it was delayed in October 2014 by a shortfall in funding for the project.

Course

Eller Beck is formed from a series of streams rising in the hills to the north of Skipton. These include Black Sike, which rises above the 1,410-foot (430 m) contour on Out Fell, to the west of Upper Barden Reservoir, and several more which rise in Bilton Ings, close to the 1,395-foot (425 m) contour, to the south west of the reservoir. With the flow from a spring called Boiling Well, they form Waterfall Gill Beck, which then becomes Eller Beck. It flows around the northern and western edges of Nettlehole Wood and Crookrise Wood, to be joined by Sandy Beck before passing under the freight-only railway line to Swinden Quarry. The railway bridge is below the 560-foot (170 m) contour.

The railway follows the valley of the beck as it is joined by Owlet House Beck, passes under two farm access bridges, and under Tarn Moor Bridge, which carries a minor road to Embsay. The bridge dates from the late eighteenth century, and was altered in the mid nineteenth century. It has a single round arch, is constructed of squared rubble with stone dressings, and is a Grade II Listed structure. The river then meanders through Skipton Golf Club, where it acts as a water hazard for the back nine holes, before it is joined by Haw Beck, which flows from the east alongside the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway for most of its length. It passes under the A65 Leeds to Kendal road through two large round tubes, to enter Skipton Woods.

The river through the woods was engineered to provide water which powered wool, corn and saw mills for two centuries. A dam across the river creates the stretch known as the Long Dam, and a sluice above the dam feeds water into the Round Dam, from where water enters a culvert and a high-level channel called Sandy Goit that once fed the mill near the entrance to the woods. Sougha Gill adds to the flow just below the dam, and further down, the water from the mill channel flows under the footpath through a stone lined channel to rejoin the river. The mill began life as a cotton mill in 1785, and was built by Peter Garforth, John Blackburn and John Sidgwick. Wooden frames for spinning the cotton yarn were powered by water, but the water supply was not adequate to support two shifts, and production was scaled down. In 1825, the mill was extended, and the new section used steam power. By 1882, some weaving was carried out at the mill, but it was marked as disused on the 1891 Skipton Town plans.

Town section

As it leaves the woods, the river is separated from the Thanet Canal (or Springs Branch) by a high, narrow towpath. Some of the water enters the canal, but the main flow continues towards the town, through a channel which is in parts paved with stones. The pond for High Corn Mill is adjacent to the river, with an overflow into it. The mill was originally called Soke-Mill, and was first documented in 1310, when it was the only place where tenants of the Manor of Skipton were allowed to have their corn ground, and they had to pay a "mulcture toll", which entitled the miller to keep a proportion of the product. The Earl of Thanet protected the monopoly of the mill vigorously, and the toll was only lifted in the nineteenth century. The mill, along with other properties owned by Skipton Castle Estates, was sold off in 1954. It was acquired by George Leatt in 1965, who began a major programme of restoration. A new waterwheel was fitted in 1967, to replace the original wheel which had been removed around 1900. Since 2010, the water supply has been used to drive a water turbine, to supply power to the national grid. The building has been refurbished to provide accommodation for shops and businesses. It straddles the beck with a single arch, and the present three-storey structure is thought to date from the eighteenth century.

Below the mill, the river passes under a Grade II Listed ashlar bridge, dating from the nineteenth century, which carries the B6265 at Mill Street, and continues in the first of several culverts that carry it through and under Skipton. It passes under Water Street, and then surfaces to run beside the canal again. Some old sluices once controlled the flow to Mill Dam, which supplied the water for Millfields Mill, located just above Coach Street. In 1822, the mill was occupied by James Wilson, who was a spinner of worsted. The lower floor was used as a paper glazing mill, but from the 1840s, Messrs. Mason and Hallam used the entire building for spinning worsted. By 1882, it had become a spindle works, making spindles for the textile industry. Mill Dam was still shown on the 1969 map, but had become a car park by 1979. The river continues, passing under Coach Street and some buildings, including a former chapel which was adapted to serve as a base for the fire engine, before turning sharply to the south. It passes under the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, and under buildings and the A6069 at Belmont Street. The Environment Agency maintain a gauging station near the Morrisons supermarket to measure water levels, before the river enters a culvert, which carries it under the supermarket carpark to the east of Skipton railway station and the railway itself. Underground, it is joined by Waller Hill Beck, which is also known as Wilderness or Skibeden Beck, and which is also partially culverted under Skipton. To the south of the railway, it runs through a business park, to the east of Sandylands playing fields, and past the Waltonwrays cemetery and crematorium. A final bridge carries it under the A629 Rotherham to Skipton road, before it joins the River Aire.

Flood prevention

Skipton has suffered from flooding in 1908, 1979, 1982, 2000, 2004 and 2007. This results from high volumes of water entering the town through Eller Beck from the north and Waller Hill Beck from the east. Both are culverted within the town, and Eller Beck in particular is prone to carrying woody debris from Skipton Woods into the culverts, resulting in blockages. As a result, a Skipton Flood Alleviation Scheme was developed by the Environment Agency, which would cost an estimated £9.7 million to implement. The three component parts are a flood storage reservoir on Eller Beck, to the north of the A65 road, a similar structure on the Waller Hill Beck, and the construction of flood walls at strategic points within the town.

The Eller Beck storage reservoir will consist of an earth dam with a length of 355 yards (325 m) and a maximum height of 46 feet (14 m). It will be 13 feet (4 m) wide at the crest, and will contain 124,000 cubic yards (95,000 m³) of material. This will enable the storage of a maximum of 15.3 million cubic feet (430 Ml) of flood water. A 100-yard (91 m) culvert will be constructed through the dam, to carry normal river flows. The bottom of the culvert will include baffles to retain materials which will create a low-flow channel to aid fish migration. Flows up to 600 cubic feet per second (17 m³/s) will not be restricted, but greater flows will be limited by a control structure, so that the excess water will be stored in the reservoir.

Material for the construction of the dam will be obtained from a pit near to the similar structure on Waller Hill Beck, and will be transported to the site along the A65. One of the main objectors to the scheme was the golf club, where the 16th and 17th holes would have to be moved, and three other holes would be flooded when the flood gate is closed. Following consultation, agreement was reached on how the golf course would be remodelled. Within the town, three sections of flood wall will be built along the banks of Eller Beck. At Morrisons open culvert, to the north of the underground culvert beneath their carpark, 50 yards (46 m) of wall with a maximum height of 2 feet (0.6 m) will be built on the left bank, and on the right bank, there will be 32 yards (29 m) of wall with a maximum height of 4.3 feet (1.3 m). Another 16-yard (15 m) wall will be built on the right bank of the beck immediately above the Coach Street culvert.

In October 2014, the Environment Agency (EA) announced that the start of the scheme had been postponed, due to a shortfall in funding. The total cost for the complete project was £13.8 million, of which the EA were supplying £8.8 million. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) were contributing £1.7 million, with a further £2.1 million coming from Craven District Council, North Yorkshire County Council, the Yorkshire Regional Flood and Coastal Committee, and Yorkshire Water. This left a shortfall of £1.2 million. Discussions had taken place with a number of possibly funding sources, including those particularly affected by flooding, but no additional contributions had been offered. At the end of October, a bid was made to the North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership, which had recently received additional government funding for its Local Growth Deal fund. The shortfall was eventually supplied by the York, North Yorkshire and East Riding Local Enterprise Partnership, on the basis that the scheme would support economic growth in Skipton. The member of Parliament for Skipton, Julian Smith, stated that around 500 jobs would be created as a result of the completed scheme. Work began at the golf course site in June 2015, with the raising of the defence walls through the town expected to take place in the autumn.

External links

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