The River Wissey is a river in Norfolk, eastern England. It rises near Bradenham, and flows for nearly to join the River Great Ouse at Fordham. The lower are navigable. The upper reaches are notable for a number of buildings of historic interest, which are close to the banks. The river passes through the parkland of the Arts and Crafts Pickenham Hall, and further downstream, flows through the Army's Stanford Training Area (STANTA), which was created in 1942 by evacuating six villages. The water provided power for at least two mills, at Hilborough and Northwold. At Whittington, the river becomes navigable, and is surrounded by fenland. A number of pumping stations pump water from drainage ditches into the higher river channel.

Although navigation is known to have taken place since at least the time of the Domesday Book, there is less documentary evidence than for other neighbouring rivers, as there was no centre of population at the head of the navigation. A sugar-beet factory was built on the banks in 1925 at Wissington, which could only be accessed by river or railway, and started a period of relative prosperity, which ended in 1943, when the first road to reach the factory was built. All use of the river is now by pleasure craft.

Course

The river is a tributary of the Great Ouse, rising at Shipdham, near East Bradenham in Norfolk, and flowing for nearly through Necton, North Pickenham, South Pickenham, Great Cressingham, Ickburgh, Northwold and Stoke Ferry before joining the Great Ouse south of Downham Market, specifically in the small parish of Fordham. Its course has altered, as it originally flowed to Wisbech, which derives its name from the river, and historically, it has also been known as the River Stoke or Stoke River. The source, to the north of Shipdham, is close to the contour, and is close to the source of the River Yare, which flows in the opposite direction.

Upper reaches

To the south of the stream is Manor Farm, a Grade II listed building dating from the sixteenth century, although extended and refaced over the following 200 years. Much of the original timber frame has been replaced by brick.

Associated with the farm are some ancient fishponds. The course continues to the west, passing the Grade I listed Huntingfield Hall farmhouse, again dating from the sixteenth century, but with nineteenth-century alterations, and then flowing along the northern edge of Bradenham. The parish church is separated from the main centre of population by the river. It is a medieval building, constructed of flint, ashlar masonry and brick, much of it dating from the fourteenth century, though parts are a little earlier. To the west of the village is a small sewage treatment plant, located on the south bank, after which it passes to the north of Holme Hale and to the south of Necton. It turns to the south to pass under Station Road at Erneford Bridge, close to Erneford House, which is constructed of colourwashed bricks with a pantile roof and dates from 1700. It passes under a disused railway bridge, and continues to the east of North Pickenham,

At South Pickenham, the river passes through the parkland of Pickenham Hall, which covers an area of . It is marked on Faden's county map of 1797, and was extended in the mid-nineteenth century. Much of it is grassland with ancient oaks. are laid out as gardens and pleasure grounds, leading down to the river, which has been widened at this point. A rustic oak bridge dating from the early 1900s links the gardens to the park. The hall itself was built between 1902 and 1905 by the Arts and Crafts architect Robert Weir Schultz for the banker G W Taylor. The previous house, dating from around 1830, could not be preserved, as it was found to be unstable during the rebuild. At Great Cressingham, the former manor house sits on the east bank. It is Grade I listed, and includes moulded brick monograms belonging to John and Elizabeth Jenny, who bought the house in 1542. Turning briefly to the south-west, Home Lane crosses the river by a ford at Hilborough. To the south of the hamlet is Hilborough Mill and the miller's house, dating from 1819. Most of the machinery is still in place, although the paddles are missing from the cast iron waterwheel.

Further south is Bodney Hall farmhouse, which dates from the sixteenth century, with alterations made in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. There are ancient fish ponds marked on the Ordnance Survey map. The river passes Langford Church, a Grade I listed medieval building containing a monument to Sir Nicholas Garrard, which was designed by Christopher Horsnaile senior in baroque style in 1727. The windows are covered with corrugated iron sheets, because the building is within the Army's Stanford Training Area. A tributary, which rises near Merton and flows through a large lake called Stanford Water, joins the Wissey from the east. The nearby village of Stanford was one of six evacuated to make way for the Stanford Training Area in 1942.

Beyond the junction, the river turns to the west, and passes gravel pits near Ickburgh. Near the bridge under the A1065 road is Bridge House, remodelled as a pair of semi-detached houses in the nineteenth century, but still containing parts of the original leper chapel dating from the thirteenth century. Passing to the north of Mundford, the channel turns to the north-west, and passes between the lakes of Didlington Hall on the north bank and those formed by sand and gravel extraction to the south. The River Gadder, which rises to the north-east of Cockley Cley, and its distributary, the Oxborough Drain, enter the Wissey on its north bank. To the north of Whittington, there is a disused pumping station by the junction with the Stringside Drain,

Close to the junction is a pumping station which pumps water from the river to the Stoke Ferry drinking water treatment works. The United Kingdom's first two-way enclosed fish pass was installed in 2012 to enable fish to negotiate the flood defenses, and reach spawning grounds further upstream. It was funded by the Environment Agency, while Anglian Water supply the energy to operate it from the treatment works. It is similar in design to many in the Netherlands, but the siphon has been modified to enable a wider variety of fish species to use it.

Methwold Lode flows in from the south, and the river is then constrained by wide flood banks on both sides of the river. Wissington bridge is relatively new, as there was no road access to the sugar-beet factory below it when it was built in 1925. The road to the factory has since been bypassed, with the newer bridge providing more headroom than the old. To the south, the area from Whittington to the Methwold Drain is managed by the Northwold IDB, and from there to the mouth is managed by the Southery and District IDB. They control a much larger area, and the southern border of the IDB is formed by the River Little Ouse.

History

The "ey" part of the name means "river" thus the name is tautological. Documentary evidence for the history of the river is scarce, compared to the neighbouring River Lark and River Little Ouse, both of which had a sizeable town at the head of navigation, whereas the Wissey does not. The Wissey is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, when it was navigable from "Oxenburgh" to King's Lynn and Cambridge, and there are remains of a medieval settlement near the river at Oxborough Ferry. It was mentioned in 1575, when the Commissioners of Sewers, meeting at King's Lynn, ruled that it should be cleared and made wider between Stokebridge and Whittington, and that the bridge at Stoke Ferry should be repaired. This bridge was contentious, as the Abbot of Ely lost the ferry tolls when it was built. He destroyed it, to protect his income, but was required to re-instate it by the Hundred Court.

There were wharfs at Oxborough Hithe in the 1750s, handling trade in coal and grain, and evidence of boathouses further upstream at Northwold. The only Act of Parliament which covered the Wissey was passed in 1814, and this was more concerned with drainage than with navigation. Commissioners were appointed, who had responsibility for drainage in the parishes of Northwold, Stoke Ferry, Wereham, West Dereham and Wretton. They were empowered to widen the river between Hilgay Creek's End and Stoke Bridge, with the cost being borne by local landowners. They could also levy tolls on anyone using the north bank, although they could only use such tolls to repair the bank.

The water quality of the River Wissey was as follows in 2019.

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The reasons for the water quality being less than good include discharge from sewage treatment works, runoff of nutrients from agricultural land, and physical modification of the channel, which inhibits the free movement of fish in particular. Like most rivers in the UK, the chemical status changed from good to fail in 2019, due to the presence of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) and perfluorooctane sulphonate (PFOS), neither of which had previously been included in the assessment.

Bibliography

References

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