The rivers around the town
- The River Wiske flows south past Appleton Wiske and Yafforth and runs just west of Northallerton, close to Romanby.
- The River Swale runs further west, past Morton-on-Swale and Scruton.
- Sun Beck and Willow Beck run through the town itself, and smaller becks and stells drain the farmland around the villages.
The Environment Agency's flood map shows Flood Zone 2 and Flood Zone 3 land along all of them. Flood Zone 3 has the highest chance of flooding from rivers; Flood Zone 2 a medium chance.
Check your address
You can look up any address on the government's flood map for planning. It shows whether your home is in Flood Zone 1, 2 or 3. A separate map shows the risk of surface water flooding, which happens when heavy rain can't drain away fast enough. On flat clay ground around Northallerton, surface water is often the more common problem.
Why a drive matters
Paving over a front garden changes where rain goes. Grass and soil soak up water; a hard surface sends it somewhere else, quickly. Across a whole street, that adds to the load on drains and becks. That's why, since 2008, a new impermeable front drive over five square metres that drains onto the road needs planning permission.
Near rivers there are two extra risks:
- Raising ground levels can divert flood water towards your house or your neighbours'.
- A drive that falls towards the house can carry water to the door or the air bricks.
How we design for it
On every job, and especially near a flood zone, we:
- choose a permeable surface where we can, or drain the drive into your own garden,
- keep levels the same or lower, never building up the ground against walls,
- keep the surface at least 150 millimetres below the damp-proof course, with air bricks clear,
- add channel drains across the bottom of slopes, linked to a soakaway or border,
- test the ground first, because a soakaway in wet clay or high groundwater won't work.
Sand, gravel and clay
On free-draining sand and gravel, such as much of Morton-on-Swale and Scruton, a permeable drive and a soakaway usually handle normal rainfall easily. On boulder clay, water drains slowly, so we use a deeper open-graded base to hold water while it seeps away, sometimes with an overflow. During a river flood none of this stops floodwater, but it does mean the drive isn't adding to the problem the rest of the time.
After a flood
If your drive has been under floodwater:
- let it dry and check for sinking or loose blocks, which can mean the base has washed out,
- clear silt from channel drains and gullies,
- on block paving, re-sand the joints once dry,
- call us if a section has dropped; it's usually the base, not the surface, that needs work.
Before you start
If you're in or near a flood zone, tell us when you get in touch. We'll look at levels, drainage and where the water goes on our visit, and explain what we'd do in the quote.