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Quiz yourself on River Processes and LandformsGet your flashcardsBuild my revision planTrack my progress📋 River Tees: A Named UK River Example
The River Tees flows 137 km from its source at Cross Fell (893m) in the North Pennines to its mouth at Teesmouth on the North Sea coast. It is an ideal named example for GCSE because it displays every major fluvial landform within a single river system.
| Course | Location | Key Features | Named Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upper course | North Pennines, County Durham moorland | V-shaped valleys, interlocking spurs, waterfalls, gorges, steep gradient | High Force — 21m waterfall on the Whin Sill; 700m gorge downstream |
| Middle course | Cleveland Hills, North Yorkshire | Widening valley, meanders developing, river cliffs and point bars | Barnard Castle section — meanders clearly visible, valley floor widening |
| Lower course | Teesside / Middlesbrough | Wide floodplain, historic ox-bow lakes, levées, industrial development on flat land | Middlesbrough floodplain — flat industrial land built on alluvial deposits; Tees Barrage controls lower river flow |
- Source elevation: 893m (Cross Fell, North Pennines)
- Total length: 137 km
- High Force: Drops 21m; hard Whin Sill dolerite over softer limestone; gorge 700m long
- Whin Sill: Intrusive igneous rock (dolerite) — one of the hardest rocks in northern England, also forms Hadrian's Wall foundation
- Low Force: Second waterfall 1.5km downstream — a younger, less-retreated stage of the same waterfall formation process
- Teesside floodplain: One of the most industrially developed floodplains in the UK — flat alluvial land made it ideal for iron, steel, and chemical industries in the 19th–20th centuries
Quick Check: Why is High Force on the River Tees so much taller (at 21m) than Low Force (about 7m) further downstream, when both waterfalls form on the same Whin Sill rock?
Both waterfalls form where the hard dolerite of the Whin Sill meets the softer limestone/shale beneath. High Force is taller because it has had longer to develop — it formed earlier and has been retreating upstream for longer, allowing more undercutting and overhang formation to occur over a greater vertical height. Low Force is a younger stage of the same process — it has had less time to develop, so the step between the hard and soft rock is smaller. In a sense, Low Force is what High Force looked like thousands of years ago. Both illustrate the same process of differential erosion — just at different stages of development.
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