DERWENT (

See also:

• CELTIC

Celtic Dwr-gent, clear

See also:

• WATER

water)  , the name of several English rivers . (I) The Yorkshire Derwent collects the greater part of the drainage of the North Yorkshire moors, rising in their eastern part . A southern head-stream, however, rises in the Yorkshire Wolds near Filey, little more than a mile from the North Sea, from which it is separated by a morainic deposit, and thus flows in an inland direction . The early course of the Derwent lies through a flat open valley between the North Yorkshire moors and the Yorkshire Wolds, the upper part of which is known as the Carrs, when the river follows an artificial drainage cut . It receives numerous tributaries from the moors, then breaches the low hills below Malton in a narrow picturesque .valley, and debouches upon the central plain of Yorkshire . Its direction, hitherto westerly and south-westerly from the Carrs, now becomes southerly, and it flows roughly parallel to the Ouse, which it joins near Barmby-on-the-Marsh, in the level district between Selby and the head of the Humber estuary, after a course, excluding minor sinuosities, of about 70 M . As a tributary of the Ouse it is included in the Humber basin . It is tidal up to Sutton-upon-Derwent, 15 M. from the junction with the Ouse, and is locked up to Malton, but the navigation is little used . A canal leads east from the tidal water to the small market town of Pocklington . (2) The Derbyshire Derwent rises in Bleaklow Hill north of the Peak and traverses a narrow dale, which, with those of such tributary streams as the Noe, watering Hope Valley, and the Wye, is famous for its beauty (see DERBYSHIRE) . The Derwent flows south past Chatsworth, Matlock and Belper and then, passing Derby, debouches upon a low plain, and turns south-eastward, with an extremely sinuous course, to join the Trent near Sawley . Its length is about 6o m .

It falls in all some 1700 ft . (from Matlock 200 ft.), and no part is navigable,

save certain reaches at Matlock and elsewhere for pleasure boats . (3) The Cumberland Derwent rises below Great End in the Lake District, draining Spinkling and Sty Head tarns, and flows through Borrowdale, receiving a considerable tributary from Lang Strath . It then drains the lakes of Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite, after which its course, hitherto N. and N.N.W., turns W. and W. by S. past Cockermouth to the Irish Sea at Workington . The length is about 34 m., and the fall about 2000 ft . (from Derwentwater 244 ft.); the waters are usually beautifully clear, and the river is not navigable . At a former period this stream must have formed one large lake covering the whole area which includes Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite; between which a flat alluvial plain is formed of the deposits of the river Greta, which now joins the Derwent from the east immediately below Derwentwater, and the Newlands Beck, which enters Bassenthwaite . In time of high flood this plain is said to have been submerged, and the two lakes thus reunited . (4) A river Derwent rises in the Pennines near the borders of Northumberland and Durham, and, forming a large part of the boundary between these counties, takes a north-easterly course of 30 M. to the Tyne, which it joins 3 M. above Newcastle .