Don and Rother catchment
• Woodthorpe • Derbyshire • ID: F0103 • Level
(24m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 131 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.
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Current Level
0.132 m
▼ Easing
24h Max
0.163 m
24h Min
0.118 m
Typical Range
0.10 - 1.70
m
Highest Recorded
2.68 m
EA official record
2.68 in our data (since Jul 1970)
Current level is 5% 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 8 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.
5 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 4.8 km away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 5 report not discharging.
Yorkshire Water · into Park Brook · 5.0 km away in a straight line · its watercourse is not on the river map
10 spills · 13 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
4 more within 6 km whose connection is not known.
18 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 Woodthorpe flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 3 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
0.43
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
734 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +2% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
6.0%
partly urbanised
Median Annual Flood
11.10 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
22.25 m³/s
20 Oct 2023 · 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.
Rectangular flume affected by subsidence in the past.
More detail
The catchment
A catchment draining a lowland, predominantly rural catchment southwest of Chesterfield. Draining both sides of the motorway, the river runs north, close to the M1 for most of its length. Mixed geology comprising Coal Measures, Permian Marls and Magnesium Limestone. Predominantly rural catchment. Substantial areas of mining tips with areas of urbanisation in lower reaches including Bolsover. Decline of coal mining industry over the period of record.
The station
Rectangular critical-depth flume (throat width 3m, bed-hump 0.3m) in concrete trapezoidal channel (2:3 side slopes, 5.5m wide). Hump and downstream slopes form the control. No cableway. Constructed by diversion of river. Mining subsidence caused the flume to tilt. The flume appears to have been stable since 2002.
How it measures flow
No known bypassing. Two ratings applied across period of record. Theoretical rating used initially but then structure affected by mining subsidence and current meter rating developed. First rating applied from July 1970, later revision only applied from September 1996 due to uncertainty in timing and impact of subsidence. Rating reviewed in 2019, change due to subsidence deemed likely to only impact at low flows, a revised rating was developed to combine low flow limb from 1970-1996 rating (B) with the high flow limb from current rating (C). This gives improved fit to high flow gaugings, pre-1996 AMAX now significantly increased.
Flow regime
Large abstractions made upstream for coal washing affect earlier records, ended with mine closures. Small net import, including sewage effluent and mine drainage.
The flow record
1969/70 is only a partial year and likely to have missed AMAX so peak is rejected. Truncation of early charts due to lack of range (1970-72) affected three PoT events, peaks estimated for these and considered reasonable. Pre-1996 high flows reprocessed and increased in 2019 and now considered reliable. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in August 2021 (WINFAP Files v10).
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Doe Lea at Staveley flooding today?
The current level is 0.13m, which is within the typical range of 0.10 to 1.70m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Staveley?
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.
Why is the level slowly falling?
When little or no rain has fallen for a while, a river level gradually drops as the water stored in the ground and soil drains away with nothing to replace it. This is called baseflow recession and is normal in dry spells. A gentle decline like this is expected and is not a sign of a problem — downstream gauges often recede a little faster than headwaters further upstream, and levels recover once rain returns.
What is a normal level for the River Doe Lea at Staveley?
The typical range at this station is 0.10m to 1.70m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.70m 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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Postcodes within 5 km with properties in the Environment Agency’s rivers-and-sea flood-risk bands:
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25 Nov 2012
25 Nov 2012
10 Nov 1983 Approach channel
Looking d/s; flume tilts to R due to mining subsidence
View downstream towards flume