River Nent at Blagill

Also within

Cumbria County North Pennines Scenic Area

Condition (Natural England)

Habitats

Fast flowing river and stream

Geology & landscape

Landscape processes: Fluvial

Description

Description This reach of the River Nent lies 500 metres south of the small village of Blagill, which is some 2.5 kilometres north east of Alston on the North Pennines. The site is important for the information it provides on the development of river channels and their changes over time. Changes in the position of the river channel and the landforms of the river bed have been documented for this reach of the River Nent over the last 200 years from large scale topographic maps and aerial photographs. Additionally, lichenometric dating of relict and unvegetated gravel units within and adjacent to the river bed allow the pattern of channel bar development and abandonment to be examined in detail from c. 1896 to 1950. Taken together, these data sources provide the longest and most detailed record of river channel change currently available for any site in northern England. The pattern of river channel change in the Nent reflects three main episodes of activity and associated landform development. These are: 1. from about 1775 until 1840 the river occupied a laterally stable and single thread channel of low sinuosity; 2. from about 1840 until the 1940s the river channel and its flood plain altered significantly during a period of considerable bank erosion and gravel deposition associated with a change to a laterally mobile braided channel system, three from the 1940s onwards the river channel stabilised again and the river reverted to a single thread channel. The significance of these changes is that the site can be used to study the factors including sediment supply, human impact from mining activity and flood plain re adjustment which combine to influence the stability of river channels and the landforms which they produce.

Plant communities