THE WOE WATERS OF THE WOLDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 145, 20 June 1936, Page 29

THE WOE WATERS OF THE WOLDS

On the Yorkshire Wolds the Gypsey 1 1 Race, a stream of ill repute, is once 1 more flowing, alter having been dry < for several years, writes a special cor- 1 respondent of "The Times. This j stream is known both as the woe 1 Waters of the Wolds and as the War i Waters of the Wolds; and its reappearance is said to foretell disaster or mis- i fortune, usually national, sometimes ; local. , ' As long ago as the twelfth century the stream had a bad reputation. William of Newburgh said that its running was supposed to be "a never-failing presage of famine." According to Drayton, the breaking out of the waters indicated "penurious dearth ; Defoe foretold from it that there would certainly ensure famine or plague. This mysterious stream as a rule flows once in several years, its bed meanwhile being thickly grown with grass. It flows lor a few months only, disappearing usually in early summer. It is said by geologists to be fed by subterranean reservoirs. When me water in one of these reservoirs rises to a certain level it sets in motion an underground siphon. The water then comes to the surface in the form of springs, known as the Gvoseys—pronounced, locally, with a hard g. The springs rise in the winter often in February, as this year, but they have been known to rise in November— a particularly bad sign. There is a number of Gypsey springs on the Wolds, but those which supply the Gypsey Race with its water rise at Wharram-le-Street. They then flow through a number of Wold villages, including Duggleby. Kirby-Grindalythe, and Weaverthorpe, and suddenly disappear near Boythorpe, not far from Foxholes. Presumably the water then finds its -way underground to Wold Newton,

where it comes to the surface, not in the form of a stream, but in a number of widely scattered springs. This year they are numerous. in a grass field by the roadside between Foxholes and Wold Newton an area of over an acre is covered thickly with springs; the water is crystal clear and every blade of grass, and grain of soil or sand can be seen. Many of the springs are indicated only by the rising of slight bubbles; others have the appearance of water slowly boiling. Some, indistinguishable themselves, have churned bare patches among the grass, and here the sand turns over and over, its movement suggesting that in a collection of hourglasses without glass. The largest of all the springs boils and twists and forces itself above the level of the surrounding water in coils the thickness of one's wrist. Though most of toe springs emerge from no appreciable opening this one comes up from a hole the size of a "clenched fist. The surrounding ground is firm. At the opposite end of the field the water forms a small mere and then flows in the shape of a stream —the Gypsey Race—through Wold Newton and Burton Fleming and on to Rudston, where is the famous monolith. Then, turning to the east, it empties itself into the sea at Bridlington. According to tradition the Gypsey Race was running before the restora- ; tion of Charles 11. before the Great ' Plague, and—apparently —before the '■ landing of William of Orange. It is ' said to have been flowing before the ■ fall of the great but harmless meteor , at Wold Newton in 1795, before many • bad storms and floods, and before the l Great War. Some of the people on the Wolds still associate its rise with 5 national misfortune and believe that. , the War Waters mean war.