104 



WARPING. 



" The water of the tides that come up the Trent, Ouse, Dun 

 and other rivers which empt.v themselves into the great 

 Estuary of the Humber is muddy to an excess, insomuch that 

 in summer if a cylindrical glass, twelve or fifteen inches 

 long, be tilled with it, it will presently deposit one inch, and 

 sometimes more, of what is called ' warp.' Where warp 

 comes from is a dispute. The Humber at its mouth is clear 

 water ; and no floods in the countries washed by warp rivers 

 bring it, but on the contrary do much mischief by spoiling the 

 warp. In the very driest seasons and longest droughts it is 

 best and most plentiful. The improvement is perfectly simple 

 and consists in nothing more than letting in the tide at high 

 water, to deposit the warp and permitting it to run off again as 

 the tide falls ; this is the aim and effect." 



Such is the theory of warping as given by Arthur Young 

 {General Vieiv of the Agriculture of the County of Lincoln, 

 1799, page 276). According to the best information (Marshall, 

 in R. Econ. of York, Day, West Riding Report) warping was 

 first practised on the banks of the Humber by a farmer at 

 Rawcliff named Barker between the years of 1730 and 1740. 

 He is believed to have arrived at this method of improving 

 waste land from seeing deposits of warp left in ancient times 

 by this river on its banks. These deposits formed exceedingly 

 fertile land upon a foundation of what had been a sandy or 

 peaty waste. Barker's work was afterwards extended by 

 Richard Jennings, of Howden, and the process of warping was 

 first brought under public notice by Marshall in 1788. As 

 will be seen from Arthur Young's remarks, warp is the local 

 name for the earthy particles held in suspension by the tidal 

 waters of the rivers he names. The composition of warp is 

 shown in the table on opposite page. 



The districts where warping is carried on to the largest 

 extent are in North Lincolnshire and South-East Yorkshire, 

 though there are others where very limited areas of warp land 

 are to be found. 



The district dealt with in this paper is that with which the 

 writer is most familiar. It is the country surrounding the 

 outfalls of the Trent and of the Yorkshire Ouse. Again 

 referring to the quotation from Arthur Young, a tidal river 

 is essential for the process of warping. For a period of two or 

 three hours, during every twelve hours, the flow of the tide is 

 up stream, and the water level of the river is raised several 

 feet until high water level is reached and the strength of the 



