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Smallhope Burn water levels

Live levels from 1 monitoring station across County Durham, updated every 15 minutes.

1stations
0above typical high

Gauges

Monitoring stations, source to mouth

StationTownLevel nowStatusTrend
Lanchester Front StreetLanchester0.23 m 46m agoNormal—

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.

Gauged tributaries

Streams and rivers with a gauge whose water joins Smallhope Burn above one of its gauges, from the source down. Named streams without a gauge that have a page here are listed at the end.

No gauged tributary joins Smallhope Burn above Lanchester Front Street on the river map. Streams without a gauge are not counted here.

Where Smallhope Burn goes

Below Lanchester Front Street, its water next reaches Burn Hall, a gauge on River Browney, 20.7 km by river downstream.

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.

Streams without a gauge

Named streams on the river map that flow into Smallhope Burn and have no gauge of their own. Each has a page with what is known about it: the next gauge downstream, and any storm overflows or water-sampling points placed on it.

Storm overflows upstream

5 storm overflows are traced upstream of Lanchester Front Street, Smallhope Burn’s lowest gauge on the river map: on Smallhope Burn itself, on its gauged tributaries, and on smaller streams that join above there.

  • 0 report discharging now
  • 5 not discharging
  • 0 offline or silent: 0 monitor offline, 0 status unknown, 0 no live feed

Official figures for 2025, for the overflows traced upstream of Lanchester Front Street: 200 spills over 786 hours in total, across all 5.

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 Smallhope Burn includes the smaller streams that join it there.

Above Lanchester Front Street, Smallhope Burn’s highest gauge5 overflows
  • Crookhall STW Not discharging
    Northumbrian Water · into Stockerley Burn, Tributary Of · 5.3 km by river above Lanchester Front Street · 2025: 62 spills, 164 h
  • Crookhall STW Not discharging
    Northumbrian Water · into Stockerley Burn, Tributary Of · 5.3 km by river above Lanchester Front Street · 2025: 33 spills, 240 h
  • Butsfield Lane CSO Der092 Not discharging
    Northumbrian Water · into Smallhope Burn · 5.0 km by river above Lanchester Front Street · 2025: 46 spills, 70 h
  • East Of Knitsley Grange Farm CSO Not discharging
    Northumbrian Water · into Smallhope Burn · 4.9 km by river above Lanchester Front Street · 2025: 18 spills, 32 h
  • Knitsley Sewage Treatment Works Not discharging
    Northumbrian Water · into Smallhope Burn · 4.6 km by river above Lanchester Front Street · 2025: 41 spills, 280 h

Near these gauges, connection not known

Within 3 km of one of Smallhope Burn’s gauges in a straight line, but the river map cannot say whether their water reaches it.

  • Hollinside STW No live feed
    Northumbrian Water · into Browney, Tributary Of · 2.2 km from Lanchester Front Street in a straight line · its watercourse is not on the river map · 2025: 0 spills, 0 h
  • Cricket Ground Holmside Lane CSO Not discharging
    Northumbrian Water · into Tributary Of Iddeston's Sike · 2.6 km from Lanchester Front Street in a straight line · its watercourse is not on the river map · 2025: 4 spills, 0.5 h
  • Burnhope Sewage Pumping Station Monitor offline
    Northumbrian Water · into Ibbetsons' Sike (River Wear) · 2.9 km from Lanchester Front Street in a straight line · its watercourse is not on the river map · 2025: 25 spills, 15 h

5 other overflows within 3 km of these gauges are placed below Smallhope Burn’s lowest gauge or on another river, so not listed.

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: © Northumbrian Water 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.

Water samples

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.

5 sampling points on the Smallhope Burn and the streams that join it above Lanchester Front Street. 3 have a sample from the last 12 months; 3 have any sample banked. Listed from the source down, grouped by the next gauge each one's water reaches.

Above Lanchester Front Street Smallhope Burn 5 points, 3 with samples
Sampling pointWatercourse (map)Above the gaugeLast sampleLatest results (river water)
Smallhope Burn upstream of Knitsley sewage treatment worksSmallhope Burn5.1 km15 Dec 2025 · 10 months agoOxygen 99.1%Temp 8 °CpH 7.94Ammonia below 0.03 mg/l
Stockerley Burn at Bogle Hole BridgeStockerley Burn4.7 kmLast sampled 9 Mar 2020, before the imported period
Smallhope Burn downstream of Knitsley sewage treatment worksSmallhope Burn3.4 km5 May 2026 · 5 months agoOxygen 98.9%Temp 10.7 °CpH 7.85Ammonia 1.1 mg/l
Stockerley Burn at Stockerley BridgeStockerley Burn3.2 km5 May 2026 · 5 months agoOxygen 95.3%Temp 9.6 °CpH 8.33Ammonia 0.048 mg/l
Smallhope Burn upstream of Newhouses Burn and downstream of Stockerley BurnSmallhope Burn1.2 kmLast sampled 7 Dec 2021, before the imported period

Distances are along the river to the gauge named. England's samples only.

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.