The Gypsey Race (Woe Waters)

The Gypsey Race is a mysterious winterbourne stream that flows through the Yorkshire Wolds. (Article taken from the Dec 2022 issue of the newsletter and updated)

PLACESFOLKLORE FEATURED

Al Best

2/11/20242 min read

The Lords River at Butterwick a part of the Gypsey Race
The Lords River at Butterwick a part of the Gypsey Race

This month’s photograph was taken by Rod Buckley. It shows the Gypsey Race in flow at Butterwick. Rod informs me that the Gypsey Race becomes the Lord's River as it flows through Butterwick it its early stage.

I thought it would be a good time to write a few words about this winterbourne, chalk stream which is shrouded in mystery.

The name itself is something that always struck me as strange. Some say it’s because the stream wanders like a gypsy and others think it may have come from Gupos, which is supposedly Greek for chalk. However, Wikipedia states the name comes from the old English Gypsia meaning to suddenly spring into life, which is what the stream does. Sometimes dormant and sometimes leaping to life, I’ve also found reference to a number of gypseys in the area that flow irregularly.

The Gypsey Race rises to the east of Wharram-le-Street and flows through the villages of Duggleby, Kirby Grindalythe, West Lutton, East Lutton, Helperthorpe, Weaverthorpe, Butterwick, Foxholes, Wold Newton, Burton Fleming, Rudston and Boynton before flowing into the sea at Clough Hole in Bridlington Harbour. It once had lock gates but I don’t know why as its not really navigable.

Much of the Gypsey Race’s course is underground through chalk aquifers and in the early part of the stream’s journey it is a series of springs and flows. If you walk its length it can be seen bubbling up in fields and vanishing a bit further on. It finally starts to assert itself more from Rudston onwards but can be seen flowing above ground in other places like Wold Newton after a wet season.

When in full flow the stream has another name, the Woe Waters. This is because of a superstitious belief that it is a portent of some disastrous event to come. It is said to have been in flood before the two world wars, the landing of William of Orange, the Black Death, and the bad winters of 1947 and 1962.

In 2012, so much water passed along the race that Burton Fleming was flooded. Sandbags are out again in 2024 as the Gypsey race once again comes perilously close to bursting its banks due to months of persistent rain.

After writing this short article about the Gypsey Race and shortly after the article was published, Rod from Butterwick was in touch to say that on its path through Weaverthorpe and Butterwick, the stream is known as the Lord’s River.

I’ve tried to find out why it has this change of name but to no avail. At first, I wondered if there were any religious connotations and decided to dig a little deeper. To complicate research, I’ve turned up five Butterwicks all with rivers or streams. Even more strange the Butterwick in County Durham, like the village in Yorkshire has a Lord’s River!

The County Durham river took its name from the lord of the manor of Butterwick in the 16th century. I suspect the local Lord’s River has a similar reason for its name. Do you know differently?

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