Catchment Overview
The Trent rises on Biddulph Moor near Stoke-on-Trent and its 274km course flows through Burton, Nottingham, Newark and Gainsborough before entering the Humber Estuary. The river falls more than 180 m in its first 32 km, and only another 90 m over the remaining 242 km to sea level. The river is therefore mostly a lowland watercourse.
Major tributaries include the Sow (draining the Stafford area), the Tame (draining the Birmingham area), the Soar (draining the Leicester area), and the Dove and Derwent (draining large parts of Staffordshire and Derbyshire). The former three rivers have a lowland character, whereas the Dove and Derwent have steeper gradients, running off the southern end of the Pennines.
The headwaters of the Trent and Tame drain large urban areas (Stoke and Birmingham respectively) and this has a major influence on water quality. Industrial and domestic effluents caused chronic pollution in the first half of C20th, with long reaches of river downstream of the conurbations unable to support life. The distribution of fish within the catchment was restricted and the more sensitive species such as salmon extirpated.
Decline of heavy industry, better regulation and improved sewage treatment vastly improved the situation in the latter half of the C20th. However, the problems associated with urban drainage are not completely resolved, and major fish kills have occurred in 1995 and 2009 on the Tame, and in 2009 on the Trent below Stoke.
Rivers within the catchment have been heavily modified for land drainage and flood defence. Also, the lower Trent is regulated for navigation between Sawley (near the M1 crossing) and the Humber, with nine weirs and locks impounding the river. All this has had a profound impact on natural in-stream habitats, greatly reducing their quantity and quality.