The River Ouse
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NRA Southern 37 THE RIVER OUSE National Rivers Authority Southern Region Guardians of the Water Environment document in the British Museum, THE “thefirst cast peece that was ever made in the realme of England was made in Buckstede in the RIVER County o f Sussex by Ralph Hogge, the Quenes gonstone maker and OUSE gonfounder of Yron The success of the Roman iron HISTORY industry required good communications links and two of It was the ironstone of the Wealden their Wealden roads forded the Clay which gave birth to the iron upper reaches of the Ouse. ITie industry in this country and all the London to Lewes Way, which was upper tributaries of the River Ouse probably built in the 1st Century, are characterised by abandoned forded the Shortbridge Stream at iron working sites. Iron ore, in the Piltdown and recrossed the main form of nodules and tubular masses, river at Barcombe. The London to was extracted from the base of the Portslade Way forded the river in Wadhurst ('.lay, initially in the Iron its headwaters above Lower Age but later by the Romans and Ryelands Bridge. sporadically through the ages until The Saxons used the river for the industry reached its peak in transport and in Norman times the Tudor Times. Only one iron small town ofSeaford became working area was reported in established. This had developed at Sussex in the Domesday Book but the river’s mouth which had been in 1253 for example, Henry III diverted eastwards by a shingle spit called on the Sheriff of Sussex to extending across the Bay from the provide the royal army with 30,000 west. Such shingle banks, which are horseshoes and 60,000 nails. a common feature of the Sussex Gunfounding gave Sussex its coastline, are created by reputation. Prior to about 1540 “longshore drift”, a process by bronze cannons were widely used which sand and shingle are moved and they hurled stone cannon balls. continuously from West to East by Then in 1543 according to a the action of wind and tides. The waterfront, Lewes Seaford declined as a port in the 14th and 15th centuries due to silting up of the river’s mouth which had made it inaccessible to the large ships being built at that time. In 1539 a man-made cut was made to take the river directly to the sea, where the new exit was appropriately named Newhaven. The Ouse from Lewes to its source was known as the Middewinde, the last evidence for this name being up to 50 km inland. The Upper lost earlier this century when Ouse Navigation finally extended Midwyn Bridge was re-named some 35 km and 18 locks above Lindfield Bridge. From Lewes to the Lewes, but the development of the sea it was The Great River of railway network in the middle of Lewes’, pronounced Looze, from the 19th century brought an end to which the modern Ouse derived its the undertaking. Ironically the present name. bricks for Balcombe railway During Medieval times Lewes viaduct were carried in the barges was the main port, with Cliflfe from Newhaven. The original Bridge providing the most names of Inns set up to cater for downstream crossing point for road barges still survive; The Anchor at traffic from Pevensey, Seaford, Barcombe, The Sloop at Freshfield Hailsham and Uckfield. It was not and The Horse and Barge at until 1784 that a lower crossing Piltdown. was established when a drawbridge was built at Newhaven. Evidence of embanking dates from medieval times. The Bill of COURSE AND GEOLOGY Sewers was passed by Parliament in ITie River Ouse is the second the time of Henry VIII. Organised largest o f the Sussex rivers, draining drainage of the Lewes and Uughton some 430 sq km to the point where Levels was financed by a rate it breaches the chalk escarpment of known as the “scot” (the origin of the South Downs at Lewes, but with the expression “scot free” ). The an overall catchment area to its scot per acre ranged from 4d to mouth of some 664 sq km. is 6d. The main river is approximately In 1767, John Smeaton the 62 km long including a tidal length famous engineer ( and builder of from Barcombe to Newhaven of the Eddystone Lighthouse ), was 21 km. The total non-tidal channel commissioned to advise on land length, including the River Uck and drainage in the lower Ouse valley. other tributaries is 252 km. Major straightenings and bank ITie headwater areas are raisings were carried out, but his characterised by deeply incised full proposals were never stream lines, and the topography is implemented. As the demand for a mixture of gently undulating improved transport systems slopes in the Vale of Sussex and increased, the Ouse was improved more hilly areas of the High Weald under Acts of 1790 and 1791. These in the North. The main Ouse rises created two bodies:— The Company at Slaugham from the springs of the of Proprietors of the River Ouse Tunbridge Wells Sands some 90 m Navigation, and The Trustees of the above sea level. Apart from a faulted Newhaven and Ouse Lower area of Weald Clay in the west Navigation, which improved the of the upper catchment, the whole river for the navigation by barges of the headwaters area is floored ■ tenanted M o PL Cartoqraph/ prepared and published by ESTATE PUBLICATIONS HEATHLAND with the editorial assistance of the HDO SOUTHERN TOURIST BOARD 1EST FARM Based upon the ORDNANCE SURVEY maps with the sanction of the controller of HM Stationery Office C Estate Publications Crown copyright reserved HEATH LAN Do Nutley ®i BORDE HI GDNS. 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Coastal Defence S o s f n r i BASS Mus ) IUI 1 COD MARTELLO TOWI CONGER MUSEUM by Hastings Beds, the Tunbridge works in Sussex. The NRA sets Community structure - fish biomass The main spawning migration Wells Sand predominating. The stringent conditions on the quality Ardingly Sheffield Pork generally takes place at the end of impermeable areas are mainly and quantity o f all permitted the fishing season when large confined to the Wadhurst Clay, effluents to ensure that the river is numbers of sea trout run up the Grinstead Clay and the Weald protected to the appropriate stream. Many of the fish show a Clay. standard. These standards are preference for the tributaries The tributaries o f the Upper known as Environmental Quality which spring from the scarp face Ouse include the Northlands Wood Objectives and the River Ouse has o f the South Downs, but redds are Stream, the Ardingly and Shell an objective o f class IB (high cut in the gravels of all the head Brooks (which have now been im water quality suitable for game streams which the sea trout can pounded below their confluence and high class fisheries) except freely reach. to create Ardingly Reservoir), the for a 3-5 km stretch between Cockhaise Brook, draining the Scaynes Hill and Sheffield Park Horst ed Keynes area, the Sc rase which has an objective of Class 2 HYDROLOGY Bridge Stream, the Sheffield Stream, (suitable for reasonably good the Pellingford Br<x>k, the Searles coarse fisheries). This stretch is The River Ouse provides the Mid- Stream and the Shortbridge Stream also protected by an EC Directive Sussex Water Company with its draining the Maresfield area. for Cyprinid Fisheries which re major sources of supply, com The River Uck is the largest tri quires a quality encompassed by prising abstractions from the reservoir at Ardingly, Cockhaise butary'. It rises in the High Weald the top o f Class 2. The Cockhaise Key and finds its way to the main river Brook above Holywell is unusual BT Brown Trout, Bu Bullhead. Ch Chub. Brook at Holywell and the Ouse at at Isfield by way o f Uckfield. Other in having an objective of Class 1A; I) Dace. K Kels. (i Gudgeon, M Minnows, Barcombe. These abstractions O Other, P Perch, K Roach. Rd Rudd tributaries o f the middle Ouse are this stream is a source of water for are licensed by the National Rivers the Longford and Bevern Streams domestic supply and the objective the fertilising effects of the sewage Authority and are subject to con which spring from the South of 1A (water of high quality, effluent. Continuing urban develop ditions which ensure that the Downs escarpment and flow north suitable for potable supply ment in the early eighties resulted water environment is protected and east through the Weald clay in deteriorating river water quality and that the water resources are before joining the non-tidal river.