95 members attended to listen to our speaker Keith Small on his talk about The River Trent - In history and in life. Keith’s talk was very detailed covering the history and landscape of the third longest river in UK at 185 miles. Only the Thames and the Severn are longer, however only 94.8 miles of the Trent are navigable. Its history dates to the Ice Age and it rises in Biddulph Moor in Staffordshire as a disappointing trickle of water and travels to the Humber Estuary before emptying into the North Sea.

The Trent is the only river in Britain to flow North and is tidal but only after passing Newark, from Staffordshire to Nottingham it is freshwater and non-tidal. It is one of the most historically important river trade routes in the UK and passes through seven major cities and towns: Stoke on Trent, Nottingham, Stone, Rugeley, Burton upon Trent, Newark on Trent and Gainsborough. It flows through six counties: Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. Over 80 bridges cross the Trent with the most famous being Swarkestone Bridge, Britains longest stone bridge, almost a mile, was made in the 13th century about 6 miles south of Derby.

Keith talked of breweries, castles, coal fired power stations, and National Trust houses all finding their home along the banks of the River Trent Keith’s talk was very informative but sadly had to be curtailed just as we reached Newark! We may be able to invite him back to cover the area that we were all eager to hear about.