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The Strid (AKA Bolton Strid: River Wharfe, Yorkshire)

EnolaGaia

I knew the job was dangerous when I took it ...
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This is a deceptively dangerous little stretch of river. According to local folklore no one who's fallen into its waters has ever survived.

The Strid is a deceptive series of waterfalls caused by the dramatic narrowing of the River Wharfe. Placid when dry weather prevails they soon become a dangerous torrentafter rain. In the dry the foolhardy can leap across the river at the narrowest point but it not advised as people have perished here, most notably a newly married couple a few years ago. The Strid walk is very popular and walked from the car park at Bolton Abbey

SOURCE: https://web.archive.org/web/2013070...glishman.com/dalesguide/waterfalls/master.htm

The Strid is cited in the Haunted Waterways thread:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/haunted-waterways.22323/#post-548509
 
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Here's an explanation of the unique stream bed characteristics that make the Strid so dangerous.

The reason the Strid is so thin is not because they’ve ended up running off course of the river, but because the waters simply change orientation. Instead of flowing in a wide horizontal course, the waters begin to flow vertically in the tight shaft created by the natural rock.

This change in orientation has created a deceptively deep and powerful current, even carving out some area beneath the shore rocks to create a void where debris (and people) in the water can be trapped. Indeed while there do not seem to be any hard numbers about exactly how many people have perished in the Strid, the local legend is that no one who has dared enter the waters has ever made it out alive. The caves and naturally carved traps laying just under the surface of the photo ready river have been claiming lives for centuries. ...

SOURCE: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/bolton-strid
 
There's many a time I've stood in grave contemplation of that particular narrow gap between the rocks, although never once yet have I leapt. My paternal grandmother put the fear into me of the Strid, so there was a familiar shiver to see its name on the forum. I can heartily recommend the Strid and the Abbey as well worth the afternoon of any passing Fortean. I still have the fondest memories of seeing a family of Kingfishers sporting up and down a more placid stretch of the river: one of those sun-kissed summer days which, at least for this Yorkshireman in his home county*, seem to exist only in rose-tint memory.

* Emphatically not, be it noted, a Home County.
 
I've been in the area and been unable to go and view it - in the same way as I've /almost/ seen Corryvreckan several times. I just cannot get my legs to walk towards them! It's something akin to Panic fear? Rational mind and lizard hind brain competing and producing stasis!

There is an interesting Gertrude Atherton short story about the place, with a lingering nightmare quality to it....

SHUDDER

EDIT: I really really want to see cross sections and maps of the complex! Also, could one net the river below and dispose of willing corpses - I mean people who have died wanting to help with the experiment - and use it as an alternative to burial and cremation in order to test the idea that human shaped things that go in don't readily come out again?
 
Also, could one net the river below and dispose of willing corpses - I mean people who have died wanting to help with the experiment - and use it as an alternative to burial and cremation in order to test the idea that human shaped things that go in don't readily come out again?
There's a lot in your post to unpack (which, on re-reading, sounds like a negative comment, although that is not how I mean it), but may I say your last suggestion is tremendous - to the extent that I may need to re-write my will to remove the clause which specifies my ashes are to be scattered by means of a firework and to insert a clause that my mortal remains are to be consigned to the Strid.
 
Here's an explanation of the unique stream bed characteristics that make the Strid so dangerous.
[...]
SOURCE: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/bolton-strid

Not far from the capital city of Podgarica in Montenegro is a local landmark called 'Niagara Falls'. It appears to be a slightly artificially enhanced waterfall on the Cijevna River. The river is largely dry a lot of the time. Immediately downstream of this feature is a slot canyon that looks very much like what I suspect the Strid would look like if it had no water in it.

Picture from the (dry) waterfall looking downstream at the Strid-like slot canyon: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.383...k-no-pi-0-ya333.17426-ro0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

More info:
https://montenegro-for.me/2013/03/cijevna-the-niagara-falls-in-montenegro/
https://www.itinari.com/cijevna-montenegrin-colorado-canyon-and-niagara-falls-u5io
 
This is a deceptively dangerous little stretch of river. According to local folklore no one who's fallen into its waters has ever survived.
Depends whom you believe. Lots of people have drowned in it, definitely, and I've seen it quantified as near 100% mortality for people who accidentally fall in, but not all who enter do so by mistake. Cave and underwater rescue teams have been in on numerous occasions, usually to recover bodies, but IIRC there are areas even they regard as too hazardous to navigate.
 
Cave and underwater rescue teams have been in on numerous occasions, usually to recover bodies, but IIRC there are areas even they regard as too hazardous to navigate.

Very interesting. I've not heard this. Do you know if any of them have written about their experiences? In particular I am curious about the depth and underwater shape of the location.
 
A bit off topic, apologies. Having lived nearby the Niagara River for many years it's considered one of the most dangerous rivers in the world having resulted in at least 5000 known deaths. From the region above the falls to the whirlpool and on to Devils Hole an immense quanity of water passes thru it at ~ (25 to 30)/MPH.
http://nyfalls.com/niagara-falls/faq6/
 
A bit off topic, apologies. Having lived nearby the Niagara River for many years it's considered one of the most dangerous rivers in the world having resulted in at least 5000 known deaths. From the region above the falls to the whirlpool and on to Devils Hole an immense quanity of water passes thru it at ~ (25 to 30)/MPH.
http://nyfalls.com/niagara-falls/faq6/

Very interesting. Never heard that about the Niagara River before.
 
I thought that I'd bump this since I've recently developed a morbid fascination with this stretch of water and have a desire to see it. If we can find dog friendly accomodation it may be a visit for me and wife and our dog in the summer.
 
Our dog Dolly is a Bedlington Terrier. as a dog bred for hare coursing she is never off the lead (on a harness) unless in a secure, enclosed field. With no necessity whatsoever, I will include a photo of Dolly:
 

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How can a terrier have such elegantly long legs? :D
 
Because after greyhounds and whippets they are the fastest dog around. The back legs are longer than the front and they launch from the back legs, the front legs allow them to turn on a six pence at high speed.

The tassels on the ears were for rat catching. The rat would bite the fluff letting the dog 'neck' the rat.

But they are a fantastic family pet as long as you keep them on a lead as the prey drive for small fast animals s strong.
 
The Strid is extraordinarily dangerous.

Something to do with 'stopper' type currents that are near impossible to get out of.

As kids we were told NEVER to attempt to jump across the water anywhere near it.
 
Interesting to me that it's joined to the river wharfe. Played in it as a kid in sowerby bridge, Halifax , west Yorks. Good times. . Parts of that we're dangerous though, I got carried way off downriver after a rope swing snapped. Went home soaked and covered in leeches. My grandmother was very mad as her little brother drowned in it at 3yrs old, back in the 30s. Yes it's a dodgy river that one.
 
Our dog Dolly is a Bedlington Terrier. as a dog bred for hare coursing she is never off the lead (on a harness) unless in a secure, enclosed field. With no necessity whatsoever, I will include a photo of Dolly:


What a lovely dog!!! I recall seeing one for first time as a child and asking why the old man had a lamb on a lead.
 
From that link.

BenL says

Does anyone know whether a proper geological survey has been carried out here? The sign nearby has a pictorial silhouette of a diver in what presumably is an artist's impression of a 9 metre deep cross-section. Probably a difficult thing to do in peat-stained fast flowing water, but this must be possible these days?

I agree! so where is it?
 
Interesting to me that it's joined to the river wharfe. Played in it as a kid in sowerby bridge, Halifax , west Yorks. Good times. . Parts of that we're dangerous though, I got carried way off downriver after a rope swing snapped. Went home soaked and covered in leeches. My grandmother was very mad as her little brother drowned in it at 3yrs old, back in the 30s. Yes it's a dodgy river that one.

I think you'll find that its the Calder which flows through Sowerby Bridge
 
I spoke to a bloke a few years ago who was a member of a local West Yorkshire diving club, and an instructor I believe, who reckoned he dived in the Strid before. He may have been lying, but I had no reason not to believe him as it was just a general chat and it was just mentioned in passing, so he wasn't trying to big himself up in any way.
 
I spoke to a bloke a few years ago who was a member of a local West Yorkshire diving club, and an instructor I believe, who reckoned he dived in the Strid before. He may have been lying, but I had no reason not to believe him as it was just a general chat and it was just mentioned in passing, so he wasn't trying to big himself up in any way.
There are stretches of it people can safely swim or dive in. Nobody could survive the really fast bits.
 
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