Water quality

Rivers, chalk streams and blow wells

The River Freshney is a beautiful chalk-stream fed river that meanders through Grimsby.  The river rises from a series of springs – the furthest south just to the north of Beelsby. It flows north and is joined by another stream, which flows past earthworks, dating from the English Civil War, before both pass under the A18 Laceby to Barnoldby-Le-Beck road. Team Gate Drain rises just to the west of Waltham and flows to the west. It is joined by the stream from Welbeck Hill, which rises close to the A18 on the edge of the Wolds. Having combined, they flow northwards, passing under the A46 and the old course of the road through Laceby. The river is called Laceby Beck as it flows along the eastern edge of Laceby. Although it starts off as a chalk stream, at the Green Bridge Laceby Beck becomes the River Freshney, losing the characteristics of a chalk stream as the channel is wider, creating lower flows and more sedimentation.

The Lincolnshire chalk streams are part of the Lincolnshire Wolds landscape, which has been designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Rain that falls on the Wolds is filtered through the underlying chalk aquifer, which can soak up and hold rainwater like a sponge. Water then moves through fissures (cracks) in the chalk. The water emerges at ground level, from springs and blow wells, crystal clear and with a constant temperature of 10°C. These are ideal conditions to provide drinking water and is home to the most rare and threatened plants and animals, such as water crowfoot, water vole, otter, European eel and Brown trout. 

A blow well appears in the coastal plain, unlike a spring at the bottom of a hill. Between Louth and Barton-Upon-Humber, the right conditions for blow wells exist. The chalk from the Lincolnshire Wolds extends under the Lincolnshire Marsh and the Humber Estuary. Rainfall on the Wolds seeps down to the water table and moves through the chalk towards the Humber Estuary. The ground under the marsh is mostly clay, covering the chalk and the groundwater. This groundwater is under pressure, and if there’s an opening in the clay, it can rise to the surface. This is what makes a blow well different from other springs.