River Torne (England)

River Torne
The outfall from Candy Farm North pumping station into the Torne
Map
Location
CountryEngland
CountiesSouth Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire
Physical characteristics
Source 
 • locationSandbeck Hall, Maltby, South Yorkshire
Mouth 
 • location
Keadby, North Lincolnshire
River Torne
River Trent
Keadby sluice
Doncaster - Scunthorpe railway
Three Rivers
A18 Pilfrey Bridge and syphon
syphon + old course to Althorpe
Folly Drain to Derrythorpe
A18 syphon
syphon under North Engine Drain
Hatfield Waste Drain
A161 bridges
M180 motorway
Folly Drain
South Engine Drain
Idle Bank bridge
Tunnel Pits pumping stations
Candy Farm pumping stations
A614 Torne Bridge
Torne Bridge PS (IDB)
Aldam Drain
Kilham Farm PS (IDB)
B1396 Auckley Bridge
Doncaster - Gainsborough Railway
Mother Drain
A638 Bridges
East Coast Main Line Railway
from Potteric Carr
St Catherines Well Stream
Little Mother Drain
Tickhill PS and Middle Drain
A631 bridge, Tickhill
Al(M) bridge
Drains from Tickhill
Banks Carr Drain
Harworth Colliery Railway
A60 bridge, Tickhill Road
Sandbeck Hall Lower Lake
Upper Lake

The River Torne is a river in the north of England, which flows through the counties of South Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire. It rises at the Upper Lake at Sandbeck Hall, in Maltby in South Yorkshire, and empties into the River Trent at Keadby pumping station. Much of the channel is engineered, as it plays a significant role in the drainage of Hatfield Chase, which it crosses.

The first major change occurred around 1628, when the drainage engineer Cornelius Vermuyden cut a new channel for the river across the Isle of Axholme, and built a sluice at Althorpe where it entered the River Trent. Nearly 90 years of civil unrest followed, before the issues of flooding were finally resolved. Drainage of the land bordering the river was carried out in the 1760s and 1770s. A new sluice was built at Keadby, lower downstream on the Trent in the 1780s, but the Torne was not re-routed to it until much later. The sluice at Keadby became a pumping station in 1940, and the option to pump water into the Trent at all states of the tide led to the abandonment of the Althorpe outfall, and the routing of the Torne to Keadby.

There are a number of pumping stations along the course of the river. Tickhill pumping station was built in the 1970s, to handle water from the Middle Drain, which crosses an area affected by mining subsidence. It was managed on behalf of the Coal Board by Tickhill Internal Drainage Board (IDB), now part of Doncaster East IDB. There are Environment Agency pumping stations at Candy Farm and Tunnel Pits.