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The River Poulter which rises near Scarcliffe in Derbyshire, England is a tributary river of the River Idle in Nottinghamshire. It supplied power to mills along its route, most of which are now gone, although their mill ponds remain. Cuckney mill building is used as a primary school. The river has been dammed to create several lakes in the Dukeries estates of Welbeck Abbey and Clumber House now the National Trust property of Clumber Park. The ornamental Gouldsmeadow Lake, Shrubbery Lake and Great Lake on the Welbeck estate are supplied by a tributary of the Poulter, while Carburton Forge Dam and Carburton Dam were built to power a forge and a mill. Clumber Lake, consisting of an upper and lower lake, which is spanned by a Grade II * listed ornamental bridge, is part of the Clumber estate, and has suffered from subsidence. Beyond the parklands, the river flows eastwards past Elkesley, to join the River Idle just outside the village close to the A1 road. The river's water quality is good, with most indexes showing that it is not far from being unpolluted enabling it to support populations of fish, while the lakes provide significant habitat for large numbers of birds. ==Course== The Poulter rises at a spring to the south west of Scarcliffe in Derbyshire, close to the contour, and skirts around the southern edge of the village, before flowing in a north-easterly direction towards Nether Langwith.〔Ordnance Survey, 1:25000 map, Sheet 269〕 At the western edge of Langwith, it passes under the abandoned track of the railway which served Langwith Colliery, and skirts around a modern fish farm. Owl Sick, a stream which rises at Owl Spring in Scarcliffe Park joins it near the village, and is joined by a stream which rises near Whaley Hall Farm, and flows in a south-easterly direction through Whaley and the Poulter Country Park.〔Ordnance Survey, 1:25000 map, Sheet 270, ISBN 0-319-23818-0〕 The country park was the location of Langwith Colliery's waste tip. The colliery closed in 1978 and by 1987 most of the site had been cleared, although a shaft was retained to pump water from the pit into the river to keep the neighbouring Creswell Colliery drained. The waste tips were landscaped in 1988 to form the country park. The streams flow into the millpond which supplied Scarcliffe Mill, one of four mills known to have existed along this stretch. Records from Newstead Priory indicate there was a mill here in 1432, and it was marked on maps of the late 19th century. By 1938 the last mill was no longer in use and was demolished in the 1960s. The mill pond has become silted as a result of the poor condition of the dam and sluice, but could form a central part of a conservation area based on Apsley Grange, a large building on the opposite side of the road.〔(Bolsover District Council, Apsley Grange Conservation Area, Appraisal and Management Plan, October 2008 ), accessed 2010-07-03〕 Below the mill site, a small brick building once held the pumps used to regulate water levels in the river and pump water to Langwith Colliery. Next the river passes through an arch of a two-arched viaduct built in the 1870s by the Midland Railway. Although passenger traffic ceased in 1964, as part of the Beeching cuts, the line remained open for goods trains, and became part of the Robin Hood Line from Worksop to Nottingham in 1998.〔 The other arch crosses the Whaley Thorns road, under which the river flows immediately afterwards. Passing through Langwith, the river splits into two channels which pass either side of some houses and rejoin at an open space where a stone sign indicates it the site of a sheep dip in 1896. The first of a series of lakes, "The Lake", covering an area of ,〔(''Habitat Action Plan'', (2008), Eric Palmer, Notts Wildlife Trust ), accessed 2010-06-27〕 lies to the east of Nether Langwith, beyond which the flow is augmented by the treated output from Langwith Sewage Treatment Works. Langwith Mill House marks the location of a cotton mill built in 1786. It had four storeys and was one of the largest of its type in the region. It closed in 1848 and was used as a corn mill from 1886. The building is in a poor state of repair, and on the Buildings at Risk Register. The mill house is a Grade II Listed building, and housed a restaurant for a time, but is now empty. Soon the river splits, the northern channel dropping down, while the southern artificial channel maintains its level as it supplied the first of two mills at Cuckney. There have been mills here for several centuries, for a cotton mill was destroyed by fire in 1792. A lake called Cuckney Dam, covering ,〔 provided the water to power its replacement, which ceased operation on 12 July 1844. After the machinery had been removed, the Duke of Portland turned the building into a National School.〔(Genuki - White's Directory (1853), Entry for Cuckney ), accessed 2010-06-21〕 The mill is now part of Cuckney Primary School, and its weir and sluices have been retained.〔(Cuckney CofE Primary School, ''History'' ), accessed 2010-06-21〕 The drop in level of some between the mill pond and the river beyond has enabled the school to harness the river to generate electricity. Its 7 kW crossflow turbine〔(Derwent Hydroelectric Power, Project List ), accessed 2010-06-24〕 generating a significant proportion of the energy used by the school,〔(Cuckney CofE Primary School, ''Prospectus'' ), accessed 2010-06-24〕 was funded by a grant from Powergen's Green Plan fund and a Clear Skies grant. Flowing around the northern edge of Cuckney, the river reaches the site of a second corn mill which was situated to the east of the village. The mill has been demolished, but the sluices and weir are still visible. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「River Poulter」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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