High Force is a
waterfallA waterfall is a place where flowing water rapidly drops in elevation as it flows over a steep region or a cliff.-Formation :Typically, a river flows over a large step in the rocks that may have been formed by a fault line. As it increases its velocity at the edge of the waterfall, it plucks...
on the
River TeesThe Tees is a river in Northern England. It rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the Pennines, and flows eastwards for about 85 miles to reach the North Sea between Hartlepool and Redcar. It drains an area of 708 square miles and subsumes no important tributaries...
, near
Middleton-in-TeesdaleMiddleton-in-Teesdale is a small market town in County Durham, in England. It is situated on the north side of Teesdale between Eggleston and Newbiggin, a few miles to the north west of Barnard Castle.-Administration:...
,
Tees ValleyThe Tees Valley is an area in the North East of England. It can be described as "greater Teesside" and consists of the four unitary authorities created by the breakup of the County of Cleveland in 1996: Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar & Cleveland, and Stockton-On-Tees along with the borough of...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. High Force, along with the rest of the River Tees, marks the boundary between the historic counties of
YorkshireYorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the British Isles. Because of its great size, functions were increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have been subject to periodic reform. Throughout these changes, Yorkshire has continued to be recognised as...
and County Durham but since 1974 has fallen within the administrative county of
County DurhamCounty Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in North East England. The county town is Durham.The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington. The county has an industrial heritage and its economy was historically based on coal and iron mining...
. Despite popular belief, it is not, at 20 metres (70 ft), the highest waterfall in England:
Cautley SpoutCautley Spout is England's highest waterfall above ground. . The broken cascade of falls tumbles a total of 650 feet down a cliff face at the head of a wild and bleak glacial valley that comes down from a high plateau called The Calf...
, in
CumbriaCumbria is a shire county in the North West of England. Cumbria came into existence as a county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972...
's
Howgill FellsThe Howgill Fells are a small group of hills in Cumbria in northern England, bounded approximately by a triangle drawn between Sedbergh, Kirkby Stephen and Tebay...
, is almost 180 metres (600 ft) high; and
Hardraw ForceHardraw Force is a waterfall on the Hardraw Beck in Hardraw Scar, a wooded ravine just outside the hamlet of Hardraw at the foot of Buttertubs Pass and the head of Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales...
, in
North YorkshireNorth Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county, located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county in that region and also partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest ceremonial...
, has an unbroken drop of 30 metres (100 ft).
High Force is, however, undeniably stunning, with the whole of the
River TeesThe Tees is a river in Northern England. It rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the Pennines, and flows eastwards for about 85 miles to reach the North Sea between Hartlepool and Redcar. It drains an area of 708 square miles and subsumes no important tributaries...
plunging over a precipice (cliff edge which is almost vertical) in two stages.
High Force is a
waterfallA waterfall is a place where flowing water rapidly drops in elevation as it flows over a steep region or a cliff.-Formation :Typically, a river flows over a large step in the rocks that may have been formed by a fault line. As it increases its velocity at the edge of the waterfall, it plucks...
on the
River TeesThe Tees is a river in Northern England. It rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the Pennines, and flows eastwards for about 85 miles to reach the North Sea between Hartlepool and Redcar. It drains an area of 708 square miles and subsumes no important tributaries...
, near
Middleton-in-TeesdaleMiddleton-in-Teesdale is a small market town in County Durham, in England. It is situated on the north side of Teesdale between Eggleston and Newbiggin, a few miles to the north west of Barnard Castle.-Administration:...
,
Tees ValleyThe Tees Valley is an area in the North East of England. It can be described as "greater Teesside" and consists of the four unitary authorities created by the breakup of the County of Cleveland in 1996: Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar & Cleveland, and Stockton-On-Tees along with the borough of...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. High Force, along with the rest of the River Tees, marks the boundary between the historic counties of
YorkshireYorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the British Isles. Because of its great size, functions were increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have been subject to periodic reform. Throughout these changes, Yorkshire has continued to be recognised as...
and County Durham but since 1974 has fallen within the administrative county of
County DurhamCounty Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in North East England. The county town is Durham.The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington. The county has an industrial heritage and its economy was historically based on coal and iron mining...
. Despite popular belief, it is not, at 20 metres (70 ft), the highest waterfall in England:
Cautley SpoutCautley Spout is England's highest waterfall above ground. . The broken cascade of falls tumbles a total of 650 feet down a cliff face at the head of a wild and bleak glacial valley that comes down from a high plateau called The Calf...
, in
CumbriaCumbria is a shire county in the North West of England. Cumbria came into existence as a county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972...
's
Howgill FellsThe Howgill Fells are a small group of hills in Cumbria in northern England, bounded approximately by a triangle drawn between Sedbergh, Kirkby Stephen and Tebay...
, is almost 180 metres (600 ft) high; and
Hardraw ForceHardraw Force is a waterfall on the Hardraw Beck in Hardraw Scar, a wooded ravine just outside the hamlet of Hardraw at the foot of Buttertubs Pass and the head of Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales...
, in
North YorkshireNorth Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county, located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county in that region and also partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest ceremonial...
, has an unbroken drop of 30 metres (100 ft).
High Force is, however, undeniably stunning, with the whole of the
River TeesThe Tees is a river in Northern England. It rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the Pennines, and flows eastwards for about 85 miles to reach the North Sea between Hartlepool and Redcar. It drains an area of 708 square miles and subsumes no important tributaries...
plunging over a precipice (cliff edge which is almost vertical) in two stages. In former times flooding created two separate falls, but after the completion of
Cow Green ReservoirCow Green Reservoir, is a water reservoir long built between 1967 and 1971 to supply the industries of Teesside in England.Environmentally this part of Upper Teesdale is of national importance, and the plan to construct this reservoir had been strongly opposed by local conservationists...
in the upper Teesdale this seldom happens now. Also, in harsh winters the falls would freeze, creating really really cool cathedral-like ice formations. Again, this very rarely happens nowadays.
High Force was formed where the River Tees crosses the
Whin SillThe Whin Sill is a tabular layer of igneous rock, or sill, in County Durham and Northumberland, in the northeast of England. It lies partly in the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and partly in Northumberland National Park...
- the rock system followed by
Hadrian's WallHadrian's Wall is a stone or turf and timber fortification built by the Roman Empire across the width of what is now northern England. Begun in 122, during the rule of emperor Hadrian, it was the first of two fortifications built across Great Britain, the second being the Antonine Wall in what is...
. The
waterfallA waterfall is a place where flowing water rapidly drops in elevation as it flows over a steep region or a cliff.-Formation :Typically, a river flows over a large step in the rocks that may have been formed by a fault line. As it increases its velocity at the edge of the waterfall, it plucks...
itself consists of two different types of rock. The upper band is made up of
whinstoneWhinstone is a term used in the quarrying industry to describe any hard dark-coloured rock. Examples include the igneous rocks basalt and dolerite as well as the sedimentary rock chert....
, a hard rock which the waterfall takes a lot of time to erode. The lower section is made up of
carboniferous limestoneCarboniferous Limestone is a term used to describe a variety of different types of limestone occurring widely across Great Britain and Ireland which were deposited during the Dinantian stage of the Carboniferous period. They were formed between 363 and 325 million years ago...
, a softer rock which is more easily worn away by the waterfall. The wearing away of rock means that the waterfall is slowly moving upstream, leaving a narrow, deep gorge in front of it. The length of the gorge is currently about 700 metres. The bedload (rocks that the river is carrying) is mainly composed of large boulders, which are rolled along the river bed. Upstream of the waterfall, the river is narrow; downstream, it widens and meanders.
Notable visitors
J.M.W. Turner, the celebrated painter, arrived at High Force at 10:00 A.M. on 3 August 1816 to sketch the scene. He then travelled upstream to
Cauldron SnoutCauldron Snout is a waterfall on the upper reaches of the River Tees in Northern England, immediately below the dam of the Cow Green Reservoir. It is well upstream of the High Force waterfall, and is on the boundary between County Durham and Cumbria, England....
and eventually made his way to
DuftonDufton is a village in Cumbria, England. It lies in the Eden Valley and below Great Dun Fell. It is mostly around 180m above sea level. The permanent resident population of the village is around 300 and a number of houses are used as holiday cottages or second homes...
, across the fells, in inclement weather.
Arthur YoungArthur Young was an English writer on agriculture, economics and social statistics.- Birth and early life :...
came with his wife on horseback from
DurhamDurham is a city in the North East of England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county....
in 1771:
- The whole river (no trifling one) divided by one rock into two vast torrents pours down a perpendicular precipice of near fourscore feet: The deluging force of the water throws up such a foam and misty rain, that the sun never shines without a large and brilliant rainbow appearing ...
- After preaching at Cuthberton and in Teesdale, I went a little out of my way, to see one of the wonders of nature. The river Tees rushes down between two rocks, and falls sixty feet perpendicular into a basin of water sixty feet deep ...
External links