Millhouse, Main hub & Meeting place of Castle Sowerby Parish

The Disappearing River Caldew, April/May 2020

The yellow arrow indicates the location of the April/May 2020 Swallow Hole.

The River Caldew passes close to the village of MILLHOUSE in it's junior stage, sourcing on the eastern face of Skiddaw, on Skiddaw forest, terminating into the river Eden near the Sheep Mount sports ground, at the lower end of Bitts Park in Carlisle, which in turn feeds into the channel of the River Esk, with a final destination of the Solway Firth.
It also passes close-by to the villages Mosedale, Haltcliff Bridge, Hesket Newmarket, Sebergham, Dalston and Cummersdale, before making it's way through the western side of the city of Carlisle.

Our stretch of the Caldew has a very unique feature. During periods of low rain fall there are lengthy stretches of the river between Haltcliff Bridge and Hesket Newmarket which completely dry-up and cease to flow. The smaller volume of river during these times is literally swallowed up by open limestone crevices in the river bed, locally named "Swallow Holes". Extensive research, (several years ago) by specialists, has proven that the water taken in by these "swallow holes" actually flows underground in limestone caverns for a distance of more than 5 miles, the majority reappearing back into the Caldew at Howgill just upstream from the village of Sebergham. but has also been proven to reappear as far downstream as Bridge End, Dalston.

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For the sake of the inhabitant's future welfare and the crucial sustainability of property value/demand, this website has gone to great lengths to demonstrate in detail how the village of MILLHOUSE has been inadvertently reintroduced to regular flooding from the river Caldew, undoubtedly caused by rapid multiplying stacking behind the low capacity bridge, inflamed by inadvertent significant man made changes on the west bank in 2003.

This website uniquely demonstrates via an intricate photo Survey, the recently reintroduced flooding phenomenon to MILLHOUSE :

https://www.millhouse-hesketnewmarket.com/Desmond/Survey

The quite unique photo survey was carried out soon after the storm Desmond flooding event, with the full intentions of it being a vital aid to provide realistic information to the Environment Agency, to enable a necessary fast-trac remedial plan to be promptly put in to action.

To date, NO such (credible) plan has been instigated.

The reintroduced flooding routine is completely reversible, with a very logical common sense credible rectification to the inadvertent man made changes.

The reintroduced flooding routine commenced in 2005, after a break of more than 40 years. MILLHOUSE enjoyed a blissful Holiday from river orientated flooding, onwards from the completion of the long awaited construction of the village flood defense bank in the 1960's. It was during this period of 40 years when most of the recent flood victim residents of MILLHOUSE bought their homes at a then sustainable market value. The January 2005 flood event was a rude awakening, when unprecedented stacking was experienced behind the 110 year old single arch low capacity bridge, (Funnel/Dam).

3 more repetition flooding events have since occurred, undoubtably due to the incapability of the low capacity bridge, now deprived of its overflow bypass by the 2003 man made changes:

November 2009,

June 2012,

and storm Desmond December 2015.

Until the recommended logical credible remedy is carried out to rectify the low capacity bridge, (now deprived of it's original overflow path) the vulnerable properties of MILLHOUSE have an unsustainable flood resilience.

The realistic facts are that the vulnerable properties of MILLHOUSE will be flooded once again during the crescendo of the next extreme storm if no logical action is taken to rectify the serious problem of the low capacity bridge.

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We do welcome you to offer your views about the 4 reintroduced flooding events within the space of a decade which MILLHOUSE has endured since 2005.

(a) Is this phenomenon of 4 repetitive flooding events, and the 2003 blockage of the bridge overflow path just coincidence?

(b) Can global warming be to blame for the 4 flooding events?

(d) Is the capacity of the MILLHOUSE single arch bridge realistically

large enough for the river Caldew in full spate during an extreme storm?

(e) Has the repetitive flooding phenomenon increased or decreased the value and demand of properties in MILLHOUSE and the associated community post code?

(f) Are you willing to offer support towards a united front to push for a logical common sense remedy to get the repetitive flooding phenomenon rectified permanently?

(g) Are you willing to just sit back & take your chances that it may not happen again?

(h) Would you like the property values/demand in MILLHOUSE to become more sustainable?