The Mighty Trent Aegir and other Trent traditions

By R B Parish

Trent Aegir, a bore, a less well known example compared to its brother on the Severn, but nevertheless an impressive structure, for at its strongest with the High Spring tides with heights ranging from 8 feet to 13 feet. However in 2013, July and August have the highest predicted Aegir and much of its impact has been reduced by dredging. 

Brown’s (1874) Notes about Notts describes it as:

“Near the mouth of the Trent at spring-tides the influx of sea water causes that of the river to mount up into a tidal wave six or eight feet high which rolls on its onward course between the confined banks in a remarkable manner. Boatman call it the Eagre, and woe betide the craft that upon such occasion has not a man standing by to pay out a sufficient of cable.”

Firth’s (1915) Highways and Byways of Nottinghamshire notes:

“At Littleborough if you have good fortune, you may see the Aegir. This is the bore, or wall of water, which rushes up the Trent during the spring tides, followed by a series of waves known as the ‘Whelps’. It is caused by the tide moving up the Humber to the mouth of the Trent where they are met by the big volume of water coming down. A wall rises and flows rapidly up the river, sweeping round the bends with great speed and with a curious rippling sound. Sometimes the wall of water is six feet high, and it brings disaster to any boats which it catches unprepared. George Elliott speaks of the Aegir and the floods in the Mill on the Floss, for the Floss is the Trent.”

Swinnerton’s (1910) Nottinghamshire History notes:

“The influence of the spring tide is felt as far as Sutton, but for some miles above Stockwith it is shown as remarkable bore.”

Sadly although West and East Stockwith (the former a Nottinghamshire Parish of course) is still a good place to see it, weirs to the north of Newark and dredging beyond means that locations such as Littleborough are no longer good view points.

Origin of the name

Marsden’s Lincolnshire stated that it derived from a Norse god of the sea.  Kaye (1989) in Lincolnshire and South Humberside, suggests that it took its name from ‘Oegir the Terrible’ a Danish god and significantly refers to St. Oggs in the Gainsborough area but of course this may be a back derivation from Mill on the Floss. In Norse Mythology by John Lindow (2001) states that it could itself also mean Ogre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo6eyq2AwWg

A sacrifice to appease the god

The Trent was a dangerous river, a cutting in Nottingham Local studies library notes that three lives a year and that children are swept from the steps between the tall warehouses of Gainsborough and drowned. This account’ goes on to state these drowning legends are dim memories of a time when the rivers ‘needed’.  This may relate to the suggestion of an origin from a pre-Christian God, is indicated by the fact that sacrifices were given to the Aegir. I have been unable to find any clear reference of the custom in the county but the following is recorded by Sutton in her Lincolnshire Calendar. Animal sacrifice was according to Sutton (1996) to be celebrated in the Gainsborough area within living memory:

“It was said that the river Trent was a greedy river and would take seven lives a year, so in March when many of the lambs were born a farmer would sacrifice to the river a cade or weak lamb. He believed that by his action a human life would be saved.”

Latter perhaps the giving of a coin was good enough:

 “It was the custom to throw a coin into the Aegir to appease the anger of the flow. A number of people believed that the more money the less angry it became.”

From Gainsborough in the 1920s:

“When I was a boy it was the custom to throw a piece of silver into the Trent during the Aegir at the high spring tide and the autumn tide (the equinox). The piece of silver was a toll fee to prevent you from drowning in the Trent. I’ve done it a few time myself as a boy; the silver was a silver three-penny bit, or a tanner (6d). I was once out on the river in a cob-boat during an Aegir and was lifted very high on the tidal wave. It was very scary at the time but being a kid I didn’t realise just how lucky I was to get away with it. The Aegir always dumped plenty of mud along the river bank and when the mud dried out it was like Fuller’s Earth, a kind of fine powder. It was custom for local mothers to gather this mud for babies’ nappy rash: it was very effective for a sore bottom.”

Other Nottinghamshire Trent traditions

It was at some point believed to be lucky to cross the river by boat and it conferred healing in some cases, this as may explain why the ferryman across the Trent received a very warm welcome at Clifton, where every Christmas he received a free meal and hospitality on the Parish. The family at North Clifton were famously said to be haunted by a great fish which appeared in the river as a harbinger of doom for one of its members. Notes on it suggest it was a considerable sized surgeon.

The Trent is still a mysterious and foreboding river, much of its route quiet and remote...that is until the sound of the tidal wave appears.

The author is doing research into customs of Nottinghamshire, any correspondence on the matter is gratefully received. rossparish@hotmail.com