Derwent West Cumbria and Duddon catchment
• Allerby • Cumberland • ID: 754016 • Level
(33m ago) • 1 reading/hr • 110 views
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You'll be notified when this gauge is rising more than 0.10 m/hr — a sign of rapidly increasing water levels.
You'll be notified when a new storm-overflow (sewage) discharge starts within ~3 km of this gauge, based on the water companies' near-real-time feeds.
Get notified when recent rainfall near this gauge crosses its learnt rise trigger — an early "watch"
signal, typically hours before a rise. Experimental; not an official flood warning.
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Current Level
0.537 m
▼ Easing
24h Max
0.630 m
24h Min
0.392 m
Typical Range
0.24 - 1.50
m
Highest Recorded
2.51 m
EA official record
2.48 in our data (since Jan 1976)
Current level is 21% of this
🚽Sewage overflows nearby
Recent Water Levels
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day
EA forecast (official)
Prediction V2
Prediction Eris
Nimbus beta
Experimental model fusing soil moisture, river flow, groundwater and catchment
character. The shaded band is its 10–90% range, widened so that about 80% of recent outcomes fall inside it.
Under evaluation — not yet promoted, so treat as a second opinion.
River Flow
90 days
Daily mean discharge (m³/s) with the daily min–max band, from the EA Hydrology API. Flow is the volume of water passing the gauge — often a more direct flood signal than level.
Flow Data: Daily mean flow (m³/s) to 7 Oct (2 days behind — the EA publishes each day's mean a day or two after it ends; unchecked, provisional)via EA Hydrology
Storm overflows whose water reaches this gauge on the mapped river network, nearest first by distance along the river. The status is each water company's monitor: it says whether an overflow is discharging, not how much or what it contains.
13 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 300 m away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 12 report not discharging, and for 1 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.
United Utilities · into Brides Beck · 5.0 km away in a straight line · not connected to this gauge on the river map
34 spills · 101 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
5 more within 6 km whose connection is not known.
2 other overflows within 6 km are downstream of this gauge or on another branch of the river network, so they are not listed.
These are the water companies' monitor statuses; a spill does not by itself explain a change in the gauge level. River connections and distances are traced on OS Open Rivers (edition 2026-04), which leaves out many small channels. Explore the sewage map →
Warnings apply to a whole flood area, not necessarily this exact spot. Years before 2006 aren't covered by the EA's historic record.
See also the Allerby flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 12 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.
🌊 Fairly flashyResponds fairly quickly to rain, with moderate baseflow between events.
Your catchment is all the land that drains rainfall into the river above this gauge. Its character — how
steep, wet, wooded, urban or chalky that land is — decides how fast rain here turns into a rising river. A steep, bare or clay
catchment is “flashy” (rises and falls quickly, floods easily); a flat, chalk or well-wooded one is
slow and steady. The tiles below put numbers to that; the flow-duration curve reads left-to-right
from the river’s typical high flows (Q5) down to its low flows (Q95) — a steep curve means a flashy river.
The physical character of the land that drains to this gauge, and how it shapes its flood response — from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).
Baseflow Index
0.49
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,254 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +9% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.6%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
35.10 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
46.80 m³/s
5 Dec 2015 · daily mean, not the instantaneous peak
Flow-Duration Curve
Daily flow (m³/s) exceeded each % of the time — a steep curve is flashy, a flat one is steady. Q5 high · Q50 median · Q95 low.
Land Cover (2023)
Woodland 3%Grassland 83%Arable 11%Urban 2%
Flow affected by: public water supply, groundwater abstraction.
Photos
Gauging-station photographs from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).
Flat V weir gauging catchment with steep headwaters in the Uldale Fells. Some abstractions and effluents with limited impact on runoff.
More detail
The catchment
Steep headwaters drain Uldale Fells and flow westward. Lower reaches follow the E-W trend of the Coal Measures with Carboniferous Limestone to the south. Extensively overlain by Boulder Clay with alluvium within the main river valley. No catchment changes known.
The station
Flat V weir (1:20 side slopes) 11m wide installed in 1975. Right bank 1.77 m high, left bank 1.67m high.
How it measures flow
Full range covered with stable rating; drowns above 0.63m. Some bypassing below road bridge, cutting off bend on left bank. Suffers from slight accretion. It has been suggested that reductions in channel maintenance in recent years have increased water levels. Permanent cableway, and gauged above banktop (though only inbank). The photos include one taken during gaugings in the November 2009 event, with significant water on both floodplains. One rating applied across period of record - re-rated to take account of floodplain flow (Peak Flows v12). Station rated by current meter to 1.92 m, though out-of-bank flows are not included. Some scatter in the gaugings.
Flow regime
Chapel House reservoir near the top of the catchment along with several groundwater abstractions and discharges of sewage and industrial effluent impact the flow regime somewhat however the impact is fairly small. Flashy runoff regime.
The flow record
Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in August 2021 (WINFAP Files v10) and in September 2023 (WINFAP Files v12). Flows at end Sept 2023 missing due to dropout.
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Ellen at Bull Gill flooding today?
The current level is 0.54m, which is within the typical range of 0.24 to 1.50m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Bull Gill?
Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently falling slightly. The chart above shows the last 12 hours of measurements by default (up to 7 days), updated roughly every 15 minutes.
What is a normal level for the River Ellen at Bull Gill?
The typical range at this station is 0.24m to 1.50m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.50m are higher than usually seen and may indicate a flood risk.
How often is this river level data updated?
Readings are supplied by the Environment Agency gauge. FloodRadar checks for updates roughly every 15 minutes; the timestamp above shows how recent the latest available reading is.
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📮 Flood risk by postcode near this gauge
Postcodes within 5 km with properties in the Environment Agency’s rivers-and-sea flood-risk bands:
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12 Mar 2019 High flow current meter gauging
11 Oct 2017 Station during high flow conditions
19 Nov 2009
31 Mar 2004 Looking upstream
31 Mar 2004 From the left bank
31 Mar 2004 Looking downstream. Note the wrack against the fence from the February event
Looking upstream; weir; wing walls. Recorder hut on right bank; cableway visible
Looking downstream from above weir
Looking downstream; algal blooms evident
