River Hipper

The River Hipper is a tributary of the River Rother in Derbyshire, England. Its source is a large expanse of wetlands, fed by the surrounding moors between Chatsworth and Chesterfield, known as the Hipper Sick on Beeley Moor, which is part of the Chatsworth Estate.[1] It then passes through Holymoorside[2] and down into Chesterfield, just south of the town centre, before flowing into the River Rother.[3] In July 2007, parts of Chesterfield flooded when the River Hipper burst its banks during a substantial storm that caused extensive flooding in North Derbyshire and South Yorkshire.[4]

River Hipper
At this point the Hipper comes off Beeley Moor and flows towards Holymoorside, becoming the river Hipper on the way
Location
Country	England
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	Beeley Moor
Mouth
• location	River Rother

Water Quality

The Environment Agency are responsible for measuring the water quality within each of the river systems in England. Each is given an overall ecological status, which may be one of five levels: high, good, moderate, poor and bad. There are several components that are used to determine this, including biological status, which looks at the quantity and varieties of invertebrates, angiosperms and fish, and chemical status, which compares the concentrations of various chemicals against known safe concentrations. Chemical status is rated as good or fail.[5] However, a survey by the Wild Trout Trust sound that the Hipper had been impounded by a number of weirs and that its channel had been straightened. The impoundements prevent genefow between populations of fish in the different pools created while the straightening of the channel reduces the variety of habitats available to wildlife.[1]

The water quality of the Hipper was as follows in 2015.

Section	Ecological Status	Chemical Status	Overall Status
Hipper from Source to River Rother[6]	style="background: #ffff99; text-align: center;" | Moderate	style="background: #7af58a; text-align: center;" | Good	style="background: #ffff99; text-align: center;" | Moderate

References

1. Paul Gaskell (17 May 2016). "River Hipper: Advisory Visit" (PDF). Wild Trout Trust. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
2. "River Hipper at Holymoorside". RiverLevels.uk. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
3. "River Rother Walk". Visit Chesterfield. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
4. "CHESTERFIELD FLOODS 10 YEARS ON: 25 pictures from that awful day Exactly a decade ago, disaster struck Chesterfield". Derbyshire Times. 25 June 2017. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
5. "Catchment Data Explorer Glossary (see Biological quality element; Chemical status; and Ecological status)". Environment Agency. 17 February 2016.
6. "Hipper from Source to River Rother". Catchment Data Explorer. Environment Agency.