Whitewell Brook

The Whitewell Brook flows from Bent Hill, on the moors above Clough Bottom Reservoir. It weaves its way through the Whitewell Valley before meeting the River Irwell in the centre of Waterfoot.

Geography Fieldwork

This trip involves standing in a river pretty much all day. You arrive at school in the morning, get shipped off in one of a host of borrowed minibuses to one of the six sites on the Whitewell Brook. Most of the day is spent timing how long it takes for a Bonio dog biscuit to pass two wooden poles. This is school's 'scientific' method of measuring the velocity. There is then the fun task of measuring the depth while trying to avoid the rubbish that litters the floor of the Whitewell Brook (artefacts found to include everything from trolleys to traffic cones to steering wheels). If you're REALLY lucky, it might not rain to make this day even more enjoyable.

It has been known to snow heavily the day before, meaning it is almost impossible to get down the bank to the river without falling into it. Still, this trip is better than a day at school, and it's very funny when someone steps down into the water and finds that the water is much deeper than they thought, resulting in being wet.

Site 4 is notoriously deep, although gave some students an opportunity to be massively smug by utilising their waders, as the other students who previously mocked them muttered apologies.