Humber

The **Humber** is a large coastal plain estuary and tidal river in eastern Great Britain, draining the entirety of the Humber Basin. It is formed at the confluence of the rivers Trent and Ouse, with additional inputs from the Foulness, Ancholme, Hull, Freshney and Lud (via the Louth Navigation). It flows eastwards along the boundary between the English counties of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, and enters the North Sea near the town of Grimsby.

### River or estuary?

Owing to the arbitrary nature of delineations between rivers and estuaries, the Humber has a somewhat ambiguous identity. If considered as a river, it is one of the largest in Great Britain, draining the largest land area of any river in Great Britain. Indeed, it has been historically referred to as the **River Humber**. If considered as an estuary, it is shared between the Trent and Ouse but dominated by neither, comparable in scale to Britain's other large estuaries and indeed several in Europe such as the Gironde, the Dollart Bay, and those of the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt Delta. In reality, most of the Humber is as much a river and as much an estuary as the tidal lower reaches of the Trent and Ouse which combine to form it, and part of that ambiguity arises from the fact that it is associated with two equally-sized rivers rather than a singular stream.

## Course

The Humber begins at Trent Falls (not an actual waterfall despite the name), where the Trent meets the Ouse, immediately widening to about double the width of its source rivers. A channel diverges to the North, forming Whitton Island, and collects the waters of the Foulness (via the Market Weighton Canal) on the left bank. Once the two channels recombine, the Humber has doubled in width again and now spans almost 2 kilometres. The channel then bends to the southeast picks up Ellerker Drain (left bank) and Haven Drain (right bank), before widening to over 3.5 kilometres and bending back to an eastwards alignment. On the right bank is Read's Island, and the Ancholme joins immediately downstream. The Humber then narrows somewhat to around 2 kilometres. Passing under the Humber Bridge, the channel proceeds eastwards and is joined by Barton Haven (right bank), Fleet Drain (left bank) and Barrow Haven (right bank). The city of Kingston-upon-Hull occupies swathes of the left bank at this point, and with it arrives the waters of the Hull river and the Holderness Drain (both left bank). Having gradually widened to 3 kilometres, the channel bends to the southeast and leaves the city behind, picking up Old Fleet (left bank), Burstwick Drain (left bank), Thorngumbald Drain (left bank) and East Halton Beck (right bank). Further downstream, the Humber is joined by Keyingham and Ottringham Drains (left bank), North Beck Drain (right bank), Middle Drain (right bank), OIdfleet Drain (right bank) and Mawmbridge Drain (right bank). The Freshney (right bank) joins at the town of Grimsby, at which point the channel has widened to approximately 5 kilometres. The Humber widens once more to over 11 kilometres, bulging northwards to form Spurn Bight, then narrows as Spurn Head spit protrudes into the estuary on the left bank. Here the Humber is joined by its final tributary, the Lud, which is diverted into the estuary via the Louth Navigation, and thereafter flows into the North Sea.