A STAVELEY councillor was shocked to discover a river ‘disappearing’ at the bottom of his garden.


Stan Collins' video of the river.

The River Gowan, which had always been a feature enjoyed by Stan Collins, just wasn’t there any longer.

“The river was flowing normally and then it just disappeared into a whirlpool and no water went any further,” said Mr Collins.

Investigations established that a ‘capstone’ had come off an old mill race running under the river – and all the water was pouring in to the resulting hole.

The Environment Agency has now placed sandbags around the hole to divert the flow past the collapsed section until it can be repaired.

In the meantime there are fears that the white-clawed crayfish population of the river is under threat.

Mr Collins said the crayfish were in small pools of water in the dried-up section of river bed but would be easy prey for predators.