The River Idle

Back to Home Page

This is the River Idle, (or at least a few meters of it) it is formed from the rivers Maun, Meden and Poulter all of which carry the water from the lakes of the great parks situated in an area known as the Dukeries ie. Clumber, Rufford and Welbeck which were once part of the great forest of Sherwood ( yes, the home of Robin Hood ) 

The Idle is not a big river but in medieval times it was deeper, wider and a busy waterway with a thriving Port at Bawtry during the Twelfth Century. 

The river is a tributary to the River Trent which in turn feeds the River Humber and eventually as access to the North Sea via the Humber Estuary.  

The river has a good stock of fish which include Bream, Roach, Perch, Tench, Pike, Gudgeon, Chub, Bleak,  Barbel and of course those ever present  Eels, I can confirm that all those fish are here in fact I have caught them myself, from the very spot you see above. 

Almost unbelievable only 120 years ago the river was inhabited by some much larger fish, catch records in Retford Museum tell of Salmon and Sturgeon being caught. The following specimens were caught in the river 4 miles upstream of here at Bolham :-

1871 Sturgeon 84 lbs.
1876 Sturgeon 145 lbs which was 6 feet in length
1877 Sturgeon 8 1/2 lbs
1880 Salmon 14 lbs

The 6 foot long sturgeon was put on display in a nearby town "Retford" market square and people were charged 2d to view it, the next day it was put on display in another nearby town "Worksop" before being cut up and sold for food.

I think that the footbridge is a poor replacement for the former bridge, what you should be seeing there is the medieval 3 arched stone bridge (shown in the photograph left) which tragically was damaged and destroyed some 50 years ago after a dredger disturbed the foundations.  Look closely at the photograph above and you will see beneath the brick wall evidence of the original stone bridge and some of the stone has been re-used to form the foundations for the new bridge.

I would hazard a guess that the bridge has over the centuries been a haven for many a romantic couple, watching the fish rise and the swallows skimming the waters surface in the still summer evening air.

During the early part of November 2000 the river burst its banks as did many rivers all over the country. Thankfully we were lucky here and no property was damaged, the ancient folks of Mattersey knew of the annual floods and built their house and farms in elevated positions.

To the right is a photograph taken during summer 2,000 from the footbridge and below it is one taken from the same spot during the flood.

 

 

 

 

 

This Link Fishing the River Idle

 

 

 

 

Back to Home Page