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Live levels from 11 monitoring stations across Greater Manchester, Lancashire, updated every 15 minutes.
| Station | Level now | Status | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Throstle Mill | 0.41 m 1h ago | Normal | ||
| 5.0 km by river | ||||
| Holt Mill Bridge | 0.14 m 1h ago | Normal | ||
| 6.4 km by river | ||||
| Irwell Vale | 0.25 m 1h ago | Normal | ||
| 1.9 km by river | ||||
| Stubbins | 0.07 m 1h ago | Normal | ||
| 2.0 km by river | ||||
| Ramsbottom Weirstructure | 0.28 m 1h ago | Normal | ||
| 9.2 km by river | ||||
| Bury Ground | 0.29 m 1h ago | Normal | ||
| 7.7 km by river | ||||
| Pioneer Mills | 0.23 m 1h ago | Low | ||
| 6.9 km by river | ||||
| Kearsley | 0.72 m 1h ago | Normal | ||
| 8.4 km by river | ||||
| Littleton Road River | 0.76 m 1h ago | Low | ||
| 4.4 km by river | ||||
| Manchester Racecourse | 0.85 m 1h ago | Normal | ||
| 2.2 km by river | ||||
| Adelphi Weirstructure | 0.20 m 1h ago | Normal | ||
Stations are listed from source to mouth as the water flows, traced on the river map (OS Open Rivers) and the Environment Agency’s own links between its gauges. A distance “by river” is along the river, and is shown only where the map traces the path.
Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database rights 2026.
Streams and rivers with a gauge whose water joins the Irwell above one of its gauges, from the source down. Named streams without a gauge that have a page here are listed at the end.
Joins the Irwell between Throstle Mill and Holt Mill Bridge, no more than 590 m by river above Holt Mill Bridge.
| Thornfield Avenue | 0.34 m 1h ago | Low |
Its water passes Holt Mill Bridge and every gauge below it on the Irwell. It does not pass Throstle Mill or the gauges above it.
Joins the Irwell between Holt Mill Bridge and Irwell Vale, no more than 4.5 km by river above Irwell Vale.
| Rawtenstall | 0.10 m 1h ago | Normal |
Its water passes Irwell Vale and every gauge below it on the Irwell. It does not pass Holt Mill Bridge or the gauges above it.
Joins the Irwell between Holt Mill Bridge and Irwell Vale, no more than 1.7 km by river above Irwell Vale.
| Little Bridge | -0.03 m 1h ago | Low |
Its water passes Irwell Vale and every gauge below it on the Irwell. It does not pass Holt Mill Bridge or the gauges above it.
Joins the Irwell between Bury Ground and Pioneer Mills, no more than 2.4 km by river above Pioneer Mills.
| Littleborough | 0.10 m 1h ago | Normal |
| 4.5 km by river | ||
| Albert Royds Bridge | 0.32 m 1h ago | Normal |
| 4.8 km by river | ||
| Rochdale | 0.11 m 1h ago | Normal |
| 14.9 km by river | ||
| Blackford Bridge | 0.07 m 1h ago | Normal |
Its water passes Pioneer Mills and every gauge below it on the Irwell. It does not pass Bury Ground or the gauges above it.
Joins the Irwell between Pioneer Mills and Kearsley, no more than 2.5 km by river above Kearsley.
| Farnworth | 0.08 m 1h ago | Normal |
Its water passes Kearsley and every gauge below it on the Irwell. It does not pass Pioneer Mills or the gauges above it.
No gauge below Adelphi Weir is known on the river map.
Tributaries and where they join are traced on the river map (OS Open Rivers, edition 2026-04) and the Environment Agency’s links between its gauges. The map holds distances between gauges, not the junctions themselves, so a junction is placed between two gauges, and no further up than the tributary’s own lowest gauge. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database rights 2026.
199 storm overflows are traced upstream of Adelphi Weir, the Irwell’s lowest gauge on the river map: on the Irwell itself, on its gauged tributaries, and on smaller streams that join above there.
Official figures for 2025, for the overflows traced upstream of Adelphi Weir: 4,972 spills over 20,221 hours in total, across all 199.
Each overflow is listed in the stretch above the first gauge its water reaches, from the source down, as on the Gauges tab. A stretch of the Irwell includes the smaller streams that join it there. Where a stretch or a tributary has more than 4, the 3 discharging now or nearest its gauge are listed, the rest are counted, and every one is in that gauge’s “Upstream of here” list. Show every overflow in every stretch →
and 2 more: show all 5 overflows on this stretch → All above Throstle Mill, nearest first →
and 10 more: show all 13 overflows on this stretch → All above Holt Mill Bridge, nearest first →
and 2 more: show all 5 overflows on this stretch → All above Thornfield Avenue, nearest first →
and 5 more: show all 8 overflows on this stretch → All above Irwell Vale, nearest first →
and 4 more: show all 7 overflows on this stretch → All above Bury Ground, nearest first →
and 7 more: show all 10 overflows on this stretch → All above Pioneer Mills, nearest first →
and 44 more: show all 47 overflows on the Roch and the streams that join it → All above Blackford Bridge, nearest first →
and 16 more: show all 19 overflows on this stretch → All above Kearsley, nearest first →
and 55 more: show all 58 overflows on the Croal and the streams that join it → All above Farnworth, nearest first →
and 9 more: show all 12 overflows on this stretch → All above Littleton Road River, nearest first →
and 3 more: show all 6 overflows on this stretch → All above Manchester Racecourse, nearest first →
Within 3 km of one of the Irwell’s gauges in a straight line, but the river map cannot say whether their water reaches it.
86 more near these gauges whose connection is not known.
A status is the water company’s own monitor: it says whether an overflow is discharging, never how much or why, and a spill does not by itself explain a change in a river level. A status older than two hours is shown as unknown. Annual figures are the official returns: 12/24-hour spills for England and Wales, overflow events for Scotland (Scottish Water counts differently, so the two cannot be compared). “No data” means the monitor produced no usable data that year, not zero. Overflows are placed on OS Open Rivers (edition 2026-04), which leaves out many small channels: an overflow the map cannot place may still drain here. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database rights 2026. Sewage in Britain’s rivers →
Live status: © United Utilities storm overflow activity data, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Annual figures for England: Environment Agency Event Duration Monitoring return, © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right, Open Government Licence v3.0.
Dated samples taken by the Environment Agency, not live readings. Results are published days to months after the sample is taken, and many points are sampled only a few times a year, or have not been sampled for years.
166 sampling points on the River Irwell and the streams that join it above Adelphi Weir, and below it. 30 have a sample from the last 12 months; 41 have any sample banked.
Sampled most recently, anywhere on the Irwell and its streams:
| Where, from the source down | Sampling points | Newest sample |
|---|---|---|
| Above Throstle Mill | 9 points0 sampled | none banked |
| Above Thornfield AvenueWhitewell Brook · joins the Irwell above Holt Mill Bridge | 2 points0 sampled | none banked |
| Above Holt Mill Bridge | 6 points1 sampled | 24 Mar 2025 |
| River Roch and its streamsjoins the Irwell above Pioneer Mills | 47 points9 sampled | 24 Jul 2026 |
| Above RawtenstallLimy Water · joins the Irwell above Irwell Vale | 13 points0 sampled | none banked |
| Above Little BridgeOgden Brook · joins the Irwell above Irwell Vale | 4 points1 sampled | 18 Dec 2025 |
| Above Irwell Vale | 7 points1 sampled | 26 Aug 2026 |
| Above Stubbins | 1 point | 4 Mar 2024 |
| Above Ramsbottom Weir | 3 points0 sampled | none banked |
| Above Bury Ground | 6 points1 sampled | 5 Dec 2024 |
| River Croal and its streamsjoins the Irwell above Kearsley | 38 points16 sampled | 14 Sep 2026 |
| Above Pioneer Mills | 9 points4 sampled | 7 Sep 2026 |
| Above Kearsley | 13 points2 sampled | 4 Aug 2026 |
| Above Littleton Road River | 5 points3 sampled | 4 Aug 2026 |
| Above Manchester Racecourse | 1 point0 sampled | none banked |
| Above Adelphi Weir | 1 point | 12 Aug 2026 |
| Below the lowest gauge | 1 point | 19 Mar 2025 |
England's samples only. Each count opens the list of those points, nearest first, with the date of each one’s latest sample (the gauge’s “Upstream of here” list).
FloodRadar does not grade these results: there is no overall score, and official river classifications are a separate dataset. A sample taken downstream of an overflow does not by itself show where anything in it came from. River connections and distances are traced on OS Open Rivers (edition 2026-04), which leaves out many small channels.
Water samples: Environment Agency Water Quality Archive, © Environment Agency and/or database right 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database rights 2026.
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