River Mersey tidal bore – end of the line. 2019

The Mersey bore starts somewhere behind John Lennon airport. It travels all the way (disappearing in some stretches of the river) to the Howley Weir in Warrington, where it meets its end.

The first part of the video was filmed from the riverside footpath near Apley Road, between Warrington Bridge and the railway bridge. The bore came into view as it passed under Park Boulevard bridge. It then passed under the railway bridge and become very undular before passing under Warrington bridge and being forced into a sharp right hand bend. As usual, the river and bore look smaller on video than they actually are.

The second part of the video was filmed a month earlier from Knutsford Road (A5061). It was difficult holding the camera steady above the wavy metal fence that runs besides the river. The bore came into view having just passed under Warrington bridge roundabout. It then passed behind the Riverside Retail Park and almost disappeared. The side of the bore by the road became a loud breaking wave as it passed me, then hit a curved wall. There is a sand bank hidden beneath the river by the curved wall which probably contributed to it becoming a breaking wave. As can be seen, the wave was then deflected by the concave curve and became quite complicated. Wave reinforcement happened and a breaking wave was produced that travelled back towards me. An amazing site to see.

The part of the river near the front of the weir is deep and the bore disappeared before it could reach the weir. It took just twenty minutes for the river to rise and top the weir, causing the river behind the weir to start flowing backwards.

Dates filmed: 22nd February (near the weir) and 22nd March (near Apley Rd), 2019

Expected high tides at Liverpool Gladstone Dock: 10.1m/10.1m @ 13:04/12:00

The bore passed the filming location near Arpley Rd at 11:46 (14min before HT at Gladstone Dock)

The bore reached Howley Weir at 1:02 (2min before HT at Gladstone Dock)

Note: the time taken for the bore to reach the weir from near the Apley Rd viewing location was actually only about 4-5mins. The difference is bigger (12mins) from the above timings as they were taken from bores on different dates.

All times GMT. If you are interested in other tidal bores of North West England, search YouTube for : tidal bore rob bridges