Gypsey Race
.jpg)
The Gypsey Race is a winterbourne stream running through the northern parishes of the East Riding of Yorkshire.
The stream rises to the east of Wharram-le-Street and flows through the villages of Duggleby, Kirby Grindalythe, West Lutton, East Lutton, Helperthorpe, Weaverthorpe, Butterwick, Foxholes, Wold Newton, Burton Fleming, Rudston and Boynton. The stream plunges into the North Sea in Bridlington harbour. It is the most northerly of the Yorkshire chalk streams.[1]
The Gypsey Race rises in the Great Wold Valley[2] through a series of springs and flows intermittently between Duggleby and West Lutton where it runs underground in the chalk aquifer before re-surfacing in Rudston. It has been known during very wet conditions for the stream to re-appear at Wold Newton[3] four and a half miles north-west of Rudston. Water from the aquifer running between West Lutton and Wold Newton also heads south to re-appear at Elmswell feeding West Beck and the River Hull.[3]
According to folklore, when the Gypsey Race is flowing in flood (The Woe Waters), bad fortune is at hand.[4] It was in flood in the year before the Great Plague of 1665–66, the restoration of Charles II (1660) and the landing of William of Orange (1688), before both the First World War and the Second World War, plus the bad winters of 1947 and 1962.[5]
The stream also badly flooded the village of Burton Fleming in 2012 when the water was two feet deep in places.[6]
Villagers in Boynton have an annual duck race on the stream in May. Hundreds of yellow plastic ducks are paid for and race the Race in aid of funds for the village hall.[7]
Pictures
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Gypsey Race) |
-
Burton Fleming -
Burton Fleming
.jpg)
.jpg)
References
- ↑ Gypsey Race: East Yorkshire Chalk Rivers Trust, April 2008
- ↑ "Great Wold Valley Heritage Trail" (PDF). Ryedale District Council. p. 1. http://luttonsandweaverthorpe.ryedaleconnect.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Trail-leaflet-A4-final-270913.pdf.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Gypsey Race – Summary". Environment Agency. http://environment.data.gov.uk/catchment-planning/OperationalCatchment/3214/Summary.
- ↑ Cooper, A. N. (1921). The Curiosities of East Yorkshire. Scarborough: E. T. W. Dennis. OCLC 19825990.
- ↑ Hulbert, Linda (21 May 2008). "Origin of the Gypsey Race". Bridlington Free Press. http://www.bridlingtonfreepress.co.uk/news/your-say/origin-of-the-gypsey-race-1-1723797.
- ↑ Townend, Jon (27 December 2012). "Burton Fleming residents bailing out after floodwater enters homes". Hull Daily Mail. http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/burton-fleming-residents-bailing-floodwater/story-17693130-detail/story.html.
- ↑ "Bottoms up at Boynton". Bridlington Free Press. 6 May 2010. http://www.bridlingtonfreepress.co.uk/news/bottoms-up-at-boynton-1-1735242.