Scarpe (river)
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "other uses". Template:Expand French Template:Main otherScript error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Template:Main other The Scarpe (Script error: No such module "IPA".) is a river in the Hauts-de-France region of France. It is a is Template:Convert long left-bank tributary of the river Escaut (Scheldt).[1][2] The source of the river is at Berles-Monchel near Aubigny-en-Artois. It flows through the towns of Arras, Douai and Saint-Amand-les-Eaux. The river ends at Mortagne-du-Nord, where it flows into the Scheldt. Scarpe Mountain in Alberta, Canada, was named after the river. The navigable waterway and its coal barges also feature in the novels by the 19th-century author Émile Zola.
The river was made navigable by 15 weirs and locks over about two thirds of its length (Template:Convert),[2] divided into the Upper Scarpe (Script error: No such module "Lang"., 23 km, 9 locks) from Arras to Courchelettes,[3] the Middle Scarpe through Douai, and the Lower Scarpe (Script error: No such module "Lang"., 36 km, 6 locks) from Douai to the Escaut.[4][5] The Middle Scarpe is no longer navigable, bypassed by the high-capacity Canal Dunkerque-Escaut.
History
This river was navigated from the Escaut up to Douai as early as 638, but improvements with flash locks were required to give access to the important town of Arras, reached in 1613. This remained a shallow navigation, with locks of varying width and length, until it was improved to the Becquey gauge in the 1840s. The enlargement to Freycinet gauge was completed by about 1890. Today the Lower Scarpe is closed from the Douai junction to Saint-Amand-les-Eaux pending dredging and identification of a new owner and operator.
The river and its valley were important battlegrounds in the Battle of the Scarpe in the First World War. The valley of the Scarpe has been designated as a protected Ramsar site since 2020.[6]
References
External links
- River Scarpe with further maps and details of places and moorings, by the author of Inland Waterways of France
- Navigation details for 80 French rivers and canals (French waterways website section)
- ↑ Template:Sandre
- ↑ a b Template:Sandre
- ↑ Fluviacarte, Scarpe supérieure
- ↑ Fluviacarte, Scarpe inférieure
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedRSIS
- Pages with script errors
- Pages with broken file links
- Rivers of Nord (French department)
- Rivers of the Pas-de-Calais
- World War I in the Pas-de-Calais
- Rivers of Hauts-de-France
- Rivers of France
- Ramsar sites in Metropolitan France
- Hauts-de-France region articles needing translation from French Wikipedia
- Pages with reference errors