Background Information

The River Irwell is a 39 mile (63km) long river which flows through the Irwell Valleys in the Counties of Lancashire and Greater Manchester. The rivers source is at Irwell Springs on Deerplay Moor, approximately 1.5miles (2.4km) north of Backup.
The river flows through and separates the City centres of Manchester and Salford, before joining the River Mersey near Irlam.

Flooding from the River Irwell has been a problem for many years. In December 1816 rapidly thawing snow caused the river to flood, sweeping away a considerable amount of property including building materials and livestock, Locals at the time reported that this flood was almost as great as the flood back in 1768.

In 1866 the “year of the great flood” rain fell for 3 days continuously commencing on Tuesday 13th November, by the end of the first day the river had risen 14 feet above normal at Peel Park, street lamps could not be lit and mills were brought to a stop. In all £1 million of property was damaged , 1,100 acres of land was flooded and 700 people had to be rescued from wrecked homes, but only 1 man died by drowning.
The height of the flood was marked on obelisk in Peel Park where the floods of 1870 were also measured.

The construction of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1896 was seen to have reduced the risk of flooding by providing a larger outlet below Regent Bridge. This was until 1946 when a further flood happened causing damage to 5,300 properties in Salford and then again in 1954 when a further 600 properties were damaged due to flooding.

To alleviate such problems two flood basins with a capacity of 650,000 cubic meters have been constructed to the west of Littleton Rd in Lower Kersal. As part of the River Irwell Flood Defence Scheme, the defences help to protect 3, 00 properties in Lower Kersal and Lower Broughton against a 1 in 75 year flood. Concerns have been raised that a 1 in 100 year flood would breach these defences and cause some £55 million damage to property.

The Defences proved successful in January 2008, when the worst flooding to hit the region in 30 years caused the Irwell to burst its banks further downstream in the centre of Manchester

You can sign up for Flood Warnings at: - https://fwd.environment-agency.gov.uk/app/olr/home

You can also sign up for Floodline Warnings Direct by calling Floodline on: - 0845 988 1188 or
Typetalk: – 0845 602 6340.

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