Hebden Water
- Details
- Last Updated on Wednesday, 21 September 2011 12:36
- Written by Andy Craven, Paul 'Heffy' Heffernan. Nov 2005.
GUIDE TO HEBDEN WATER
NAME OF RIVER: Hebden Water.
WATER LEVEL, ACCESS AND HAZARD UPDATES:Here.
WHERE IS IT?: A tributary of the West Yorkshire Calder flowing into Hebden Bridge. Map.
PUT-INS/ TAKE-OUTS:
Put-in...Blake Dean OS103 958313 or From the footpath halfway between Blake dean and Hebden Hey Scout Hostel.
Take out 1...Hardcastle craggs car park.
Take out 2...Hebden Bridge OS103 992 272.
APPROX LENGTH: 7 km.
TIME NEEDED: 90 mins - 2 hours
ACCESS HASSLES: No current known access problems, Put in is a public path on open moorland, Take out is a public car park.
WATER LEVEL INDICATORS: Needs heavy prolonged rain in the area, probably best paddled when still raining.
Indicator...bottom car park on Bridge gate; look at the river, on the opposite bank a pipe comes out of the riverbank wall. If the water is less than 4 inches below the pipe then it will run. Pipe covered - ace!
There's an online EA gauge at Nutclough. Does anyone have any calibrations for this?
GRADING: Generally grade III plus weir
MAJOR HAZARDS/ FALLS: 2nd weir after the middle egress has a strong towback. Fallen trees a regular issue. Stepping stones a hazard in low water.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION: A lovely rural wooded valley with continuous gradient and regular rapids. Boulder formed rapids no harder than grade III, all read and run. Probably the best local run of its kind in West Yorkshire. It does however need the level to be up. The start is on open moorland and we hear has been paddled as high as Widop reservoir.
Quickly you enter a picturesque wooded valley and the theme remains rural all the way into the town centre. The second half eases in gradient and grade.
1st section
From open moorland quickly into woodland several drops of grade III
2nd section
Footbridge and easy angled weir. followed by more grade III and two more easy gradient weirs to an old mill and bridge. Just after the bridge beware the stepping stones!
3rd section
Grade III through the woods, easy angled weirs and stepping stones to take out #1. Hardcastle Crags National Trust car park.
4th Section
Easy weir followed by a harder one which is in open fields not woods, can be seen from the access road? We portaged this recently, the towback looked ugly!
Easy rural section then towards town centre.
5th Section
Into the town centre two more weirs, first easy angled and leads into a short tunnel, second is diagonal from right to left and can be shot most areas. Short paddle to take out, use the eddy after the main bridge or you'll end up in the Calder!
OTHER NOTES: It took us ages to get the water level right for this one, but it was well well worth the wait. See also 'White Water Lake District' pg 321.
CONTRIBUTED BY: Andy Craven, Paul 'Heffy' Heffernan. Nov 2005.
Does anybody know anything about this run? The guide was written in 2005 - has anything changed?
Also whats the chance of it running on Sunday?
Cheers,
Scott.
On the main river (below Blake Dean) overhanging trees are a constant hazard, and trees in the river are common. Hence line of sight is difficult and small groups are recomended. There is one tree below the mill that has been there a while, and is a portage. There was a second, which just went hard left. Some of the footbridges are problematic in high water - one is rigged with scaffolding. There are several weirs, all of which go in low water, but their are a couple of bigger ones further down which need respect.
However it is a superb run - almost continuous upper end grade 2/3 with constant interest. Needs lots of water, because of all the reservoirs on the tribs, but should be going now.
Enjoy!
Had a cracking little run down it. This one is obvious but worth mentioning
Also after a little incident with one of group we moved the 30ft tree hidden just under the water in this pic to the side. (from up stream it was visible right of the rock but river left it wasnt until you hit it as it was submerged).
We left it tied to the side with a couple of slings.
my name's Jonah, I'm a river ecology student from Durham University. I've
recently set up some monitoring equipment on Hebden Water, Alcomden Water
and Graining Water above Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire. The gear
consists of a cable loop running across the river bed and returning about
one foot above water level (at low flow). The equipment is to monitor fish
movements. The loops are clealry visible at low flows but may become
submerged if the levels rise much. They are an obstruction to canoeists
unfortunately, but can be easily portaged and will be removed in the last
week in October. The lowest site is about 150m below the road bridge and
confluence at Blake Dean with two further upstream on Graining Water and
one upstream on Alcomden Water.
I've emailed all the local canoeing clubs to let them know what I'm up to,
and I spoke to some paddlers on site on the day of the last flood (I guess
the only time the river has been navigable recently) but they didn't show
much interest. Could you post something to warn people please? If anyone
is interested I'm quite happy for them to contact me. Also, if you've got
any advice on how to let more canoeists know could you let me know?
Sorry to interupt the paddling, but it is for the good of the river and
only temporary!
Jonah
Jonah Tosney
Postgraduate Research Student
Geogrpaphy Department
Durham University
He gave a phone number and email address, but I won't post these to avoid him getting sp@mmed. If anyone needs to contact him please pm me.
Jonah