Gypsey Race chalk stream spanning from North to East Yorkshire to be protected in £110,000 Government project

Yorkshire boasts the most northerly chalk streams in Britain and some of the most northerly in Europe.

The Environment Agency is currently working with various partners to restore, enhance and protect them for future generations.

A £110,000 project on the Gypsey Race, which is the UK’s most northerly chalk stream and winds its way from Duggleby to Bridlington harbour, is helping reduce pollution while boosting the area’s wildlife.

New ponds have been created that collect the run-off of water from the land, reducing the amount of silt and nutrients entering the water while also creating 140m of habitat in the river floodplain.

There’s also been improved in-channel and bankside habitat along a 600m length of Gypsey Race, ‘including berms to help create meanders and woody debris to create a change in flow patterns, which alters the bed morphology, moving silt and uncovering gravels’.

Trials are also taking place to understand the most effective ways to reduce farming impacts on the waterway and groundwater in the chalk under the fields.

The environmental benefits of these projects are being monitored throughout 2023.

Amanda Foster, Environment Agency catchment co-ordinator involved in these projects, said:  “Chalk is a defining feature of the landscape and underlies a huge area of East Yorkshire.

"The crystal clear springs and chalk river systems they support are globally rare habitats, providing rich and diverse biodiversity and are a vital resource for local communities and beyond.  

“Collaboration is at the heart of what we are doing and by working together with partners across the region we are supporting the delivery of a range of projects to enhance and protect Yorkshire’s chalk streams.”

More than £1.5 million has been invested by the Environment Agency to support 53 chalk stream restoration partnership projects nationwide.

Over the next year, the agency will contribute a further £1 million for 32 chalk stream projects with its partners.

Go to tinyurl.com/mwhsnfxz to find out more about the Chalk Stream Strategy.