Dovenby Village

Dovenby Floods

Fields drain into Dovenby Beck which flows through Dovenby village, constricted on one side by the boundary wall of Dovenby Estate and on the other side (normally) constricted by the wall at the side of the road.  

Trough House used to be a farm and opposite Trough House the boundary wall of Dovenby Hall estate has a bend where two stone troughs still exist, (though they are now sadly ignored and neglected now).  A ramp used to lead down to the troughs so that cattle could go from Trough House Farm to drink in the stone cattle troughs. 

Until recently (we have been here 33 years) when rainfall saturated the fields the runoff used to raise the height of water in the beck so it overflowed onto the road and continued to flow down the road until the slight rise in the bridge caused the flow to divert into Lime Tree House garden, one such flood was so extreme that the water height increased in that garden until the weight of water knocked over the solid stone boundary wall, so that its flow could continue into Dovenby Beck.

This is the only flooding that I am aware of that was caused by the upstream flow and it is less ikely to re-occur because the ramp down to the cattle trough was removed and a retaining wall now forces the flow to remain in its stone walled channel, except for some drainage holes in the wall near the bridge that villagers originally made during one of the floods by smashing the cobbles  to try to allow the water to go from the road back into the beck.

The flow of Dovenby Beck is further constricted when it goes under the bridge outside Dovenby Cottage and the White House.  Robin Faulder ex farmer neighbour told me that this was a ford, I think in his father’s time, and a bridge was put over it, but the bridge support and base were found to be inadequate and so a concrete foundation across the width of the bridge was constructed and acts as a barrier to the flow, an advantage to us villagers because it causes a shallow pond that fish, tadpoles and kingfisher have enjoyed along with various plants in normal times past.

The reinforcement of the bridge also required a concrete lintel so that the cross section of the potential flow of the beck is restricted between lintel and concrete plinth.  This constriction forces Dovenby Beck to overflow onto the road in high rainfall but the overflow is always downstream of the bridge because the road has a slight incline up the bridge.  Fortunately the responsible agencies measured the heights of the potential ingress points of nearby houses and calculated that upstream flood would now drain over the top of the bridge through extra large holes that they built on the  bridge side.

Thus the potential of flood water escaping from the cattle trough was removed by a retaining wall, the wall of Lime Tree House now has drain holes to stop the buildup of flood water in that garden, and the bridge outside The Cottages / the White House has an overflow opening.  So far so very good.

Then, to add further protection, the parish council persuaded West Cumbria Rivers Trust to create a system to slow the flow in high rainfall events.  The new system has been to create a pond to capture flood water and make clever “leaky dams” in the field drains at the side of the fields that drain into the upstream portion of Dovenby Beck. 

Walk past the Dovenby Ship and where the tarmac road ends look to the right and note the flood pond, then continue through the wood, bear left, over the stile on the right, keep to the left of the field and look in the drainage ditch on the left and note the logs piled as a “leaky dam” to hold some flood water and then let it more slowly flow to the pond.

To see the clever result in time lapsed film click this link Dovenby Flood Management.  Thanks to Caitlin Pearson Catchment Officer for this and the formal report on the monitoring of the effect of the scheme.

See also the Natural Flood Management Performance Monitoring report that shows the effect of the flood attenuation ponds.

One of the unintended consequences to the reduced flow of water in heavy rainfall seems to be (but inadequate data at present in 2023) a reduced sudden force of flood water that used to act like a jet washer and flush vegetation out of the beck.  Also, the slow water seems to have allowed some vegetation to take a stronger root than previously.  Also the slow water movement seems to have been favourable to the floating tiny leaved “fools watercress” on the surface that not only hides the fish from us and the kingfisher to enjoy, but may have caused a very damaging impact on fish life.  

Is there any fish expert in the village who can inform the parish council or Rivers Trust on the apparent degradation of fish habitat that may be linked to flood alleviation scheme?  The solution to a dilema may be the current work financed by the parish council to remove the vegetation in order to give the best opportunity for the flow to increase.