River Dee, Wales
River Dee | |
---|---|
Native name | Afon Dyfrdwy (Welsh) |
Location | |
Country | England and Wales |
Cities | Chester |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | |
• location | slopes of Dduallt above Llanuwchllyn, Snowdonia, Wales |
• coordinates | 52°49′56″N 3°45′56″W / 52.8322°N 3.7656°W |
• elevation | 450 m (1,480 ft) |
Mouth | Dee Estuary |
• coordinates | 53°21′14″N 3°13′33″W / 53.3539°N 3.2258°W |
• elevation | 0 m (0 ft) |
Length | 113 km (70 mi) |
Basin size | 1,816.8 km2 (701.5 sq mi) |
Discharge | |
• location | Chester Weir |
• average | 29.71 m3/s (1,049 cu ft/s) |
Discharge | |
• location | Manley Hall |
• average | 31.03 m3/s (1,096 cu ft/s) |
Discharge | |
• location | Bala Lake |
• average | 13.06 m3/s (461 cu ft/s) |
Basin features | |
Tributaries | |
• left | Ceiriog, Wych Brook |
The River Dee (
The river
23 km (14 miles) long.History
The River Dee was the traditional boundary of the
The river name inspired the name of Roman fortress Deva Victrix.
It is the only river in the UK to be subject to a Water Protection Zone along its whole length down to Chester weir.[5]
Statistics
The total catchment area of the River Dee down to Chester Weir is 1,816.8 km2 (701.5 sq mi).[6] The estimated average annual rainfall over the catchment area is 640 mm (25 in), yielding an average flow of 37 m3/s. The larger
- Bala Lake (Welsh: Llyn Tegid): 400 acres (1.6 km2)
- Llyn Brenig: 370 acres (1.5 km2)
- Llyn Celyn: 325 acres (1.32 km2)
Catchment
Natural course
The River Dee has its source on the slopes of
At
Less than a mile east of the aqueduct at
.One of the major tributaries of the Dee, the
Approaching Churton and Aldford, the river crosses entirely into England, and passes the grand country house of Eaton Hall, seat of the Duke of Westminster. It then continues past the village of Eccleston and beneath the A55 North Wales Expressway, tracing northwards past the Roman Eaton Road to the Chester suburbs of Huntington and Handbridge before reaching the centre of Chester. In the city centre the river passes and around the Earl's Eye(s) meadow at Queen's Park. In this vicinity, the riverside is used as a recreation area with a bandstand, benches and boat cruises, being crossed by four bridges. The first is the Queen's Park Suspension Bridge, which forms the only exclusively pedestrian footway across the river in Chester. The second is the Old Dee Bridge, a road bridge and by far the oldest bridge in Chester, being built in about 1387 on the site of a series of wooden predecessors which dated originally from the Roman period.
Above the Old Dee Bridge is
On this weir is a
The other side of the Grosvenor Bridge is the
Canalised section
River Dee Navigation Act 1732 | |
---|---|
Act of Parliament | |
West of Chester, the river flows along an artificial channel excavated between 1732 and 1736. The work was planned and undertaken by engineers from the Netherlands and paid for by local merchants and Chester Corporation. It was an attempt to improve navigation for shipping and reduce silting. Chester's trade had declined steadily since the end of the 17th century as sediment had prevented larger craft reaching the city, spelling the end for the Port of Chester.
After four years' work, the river was diverted from its meandering natural course which passed
The manmade channel, which runs in a straight line for 8 km (5 miles), passes into Wales and Flintshire at Saltney. On the west shore is Hawarden Airport and the large Airbus factory at Broughton. This region is known as Deeside and contains several heavy industries. From here the Dee passes beneath three road bridges. The first two are adjacent to each other at Queensferry. They are a 1960s fixed-arch bridge carrying the A494 Queensferry to Dolgellau trunk road and its predecessor the Jubilee Bridge, which is a rolling bascule bridge completed in 1926. The third crossing, and the most recent, is at Connah's Quay. The Flintshire Bridge is a fixed cable-stayed bridge which opened in 1999.
Between the second and third road bridges is
A footbridge replaced the passenger ferry at Saltney in the 1970s.
Estuary
Beyond
The estuary is hugely important for birdlife and has been designated both as an
The estuary owes its origins to the scouring of a broad channel through the Triassic sandstones and Carboniferous mudstones by glacial ice during successive ice ages to form an iceway. The channel continues inland south of Chester but its higher reaches have long since been infilled with sand, gravel and mud. The process of infilling by mud continues to the present day as the rapid growth of the saltmarsh in the last century testifies, pushing the high tide line further out into the estuary.
Uses
Industry
Large parts of the catchment are devoted to agriculture and there a number of abstractions made from the river for summer irrigation. The volumes involved are not however significant.
From Chirk downstream, the river valley has supported a wide range of industries that were initially drawn to the area by the presence of coal mines and later by the deep deposits of Carboniferous clays used to make bricks and tiles.
The coal industry in particular gave rise to a number of chemical industries some of which survive to this day and which both take water from the river and discharge their cleaned up effluent back into the river. Industries in the valley include commercial chemicals manufacture, wood chip and
Previously the wings[7] for the Airbus A380, which were made at Airbus's manufacturing factory in Broughton, were taken downriver by barge to the Port of Mostyn because they were too large to be shipped in an Airbus Beluga.[8] However, the dredging of the river for the barge may be responsible for a weakening of the tidal bore.[citation needed]
Abstractions
There are a number of direct water abstractions upstream of Chester by three water companies and by the canal. The size of the abstraction is very large compared to the summer flow and the flow in the river is very highly regulated through the use of reservoirs to store water in the winter and release it in the summer. The whole system is managed as the Dee Regulation Scheme. Below Chester water is also abstracted as cooling water by the gas-fired power station at Connah's Quay. Process and cooling water is also abstracted for the paper mill and power station at Shotton.
Water sport
The Dee used to be a popular
In 2003, negotiations with the angling associations owning fishing rights on the Dee broke down. The anglers wanted to restrict the numbers of paddlers on the river when paddling was allowed but the Welsh Canoe Association wanted to renew the previous agreement. In November 2004, a protest about the lack of access on the Dee, and to rivers across England and Wales, was held in Llangollen. Following the failure of the access agreement, the Welsh Canoeing Association advises canoeists to use their own judgement about using the river, which in practice means many canoeists use the river at will from the numerous access points along its banks.
Canoeing is permitted on one 100 m long rapid, 1 km upstream of Llangollen. Wildwater and slalom races are still held at Serpent's Tail rapid upstream of Llangollen.
A major tributary of the Dee, the
Each July the Chester Raft Race is held on the Dee in aid of charity.
The Deva (Chester) Triathlon uses the Dee for the swim leg of the race.[9]
The rowing clubs on the Dee are Royal Chester Rowing Club (hosting also Chester University Rowing Club) and Grosvenor Rowing Club. King's School Rowing Club and Queens Park High School are school-dedicated rowing clubs. All these share the slightly meandering Chester/lower reach above the weir.
Fishing
The river has been famed as a mixed fishery with salmon and trout fishing, mostly in the upper waters and a good coarse fishery in the lower reaches. A major pollution incident in the middle reaches in the late 1990s did extensive damage to the fishery from which it is now largely recovered.
Notification | 1995 |
Site of Special Scientific Interest
Afon Dyfrdwy (River Dee) is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in the preserved county of Clwyd, along the River Dee, with the River Dee (England) SSSI in England.[10]
The river has been designated as a Special Area of Conservation because of its role as a habitat for
See also
- Aerfen, the Celtic Goddess of the river.
- List of crossings of the River Dee, Wales
- List of SSSIs in Clwyd
- "Miller of Dee", a traditional folk song
References
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 921.
- ^ a b Fitzpatrick-Matthews, K. "Harleian Genealogies". Harleian MS 3859. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
- ^ "Welsh Place Names: D". Domesday Maps. Retrieved 30 January 2013.
- ^ "BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION". The Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard. Aberystwyth. 7 September 1877. p. 6. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
- ^ "Water Protection Zone". Croner-I. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
- ^ "National River Flow Archive". CEH Wallingford. Archived from the original on 12 February 2007. Retrieved 15 November 2008.
- ^ Eyres, John. "Airbus A380 barge 'Afon Dyfrdwy' at Queensferry blue bridge 15/02/10". Flickr.com. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
- ^ "marine safety in the Dee Conservancy" (PDF). Environment Agency Wales. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 May 2008.
- ^ "Swim Route". Retrieved 16 March 2017.
- ^ "SITE OF SPECIAL SCIENTIFIC INTEREST CITATION –GWYNEDD/DENBIGHSHIRE/WREXHAM/FLINTSHIRE – AFON DYFRDWY (RIVER DEE)" (PDF). naturalresources.wales. Countryside Council for Wales (now Natural Resources Wales). 1995. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 January 2022. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
- ^ "River Dee and Bala Lake/ Afon Dyfrdwy a Llyn Tegid - Special Area of Conservation - SAC - Habitats Directive". jncc.defra.gov.uk. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
References
- Place, G. W. (1994). The Rise and Fall of Parkgate, Passenger Port for Ireland. ISBN 9780948789939.
- Emery, Gordon (1999). Curious Chester. ISBN 1-872265-94-4.
- Emery, Gordon (1998). Chester Inside Out. ISBN 1-872265-92-8.
- Emery, Gordon (2003). The Chester Guide. ISBN 1-872265-89-8.
- Emery, Gordon, ed. (October 2005). The Old Chester Canal. ISBN 1-872265-88-X.
- Emery, Gordon (2002). Chester Electric Lighting Station. ISBN 1-872265-48-0.
- Wilding, Roy (1997). Miller of Dee. ISBN 1-872265-95-2.
- Wilding, Roy (2003). Death in Chester. ISBN 1-872265-44-8.
- Lewis, P. R. (2007). Disaster on the Dee: Robert Stephenson's Nemesis of 1847. ISBN 978-0-7524-4266-2.
External links
Media related to River Dee, Wales at Wikimedia Commons