Eller Beck

Eller Beck
River
Eller Beck just below the Water Street culvert, showing the overflow from the canal and some redundant sluices which formerly controlled flow to the mills downstream.
Country	England
Counties	North Yorkshire
Source
- location	Out Fell
Mouth
- location	River Aire below Skipton

Eller Beck is a small river in North Yorkshire, England, which flows through the town of Skipton and is a tributary of the River Aire. Its channel was heavily modified to supply water for milling in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and although all milling has ceased, the water now supplies power to the National Grid, generated by a turbine at High Corn Mill. There are several underground culverts within the town, and these contribute to the flood risk. In order to alleviate flooding in Skipton town centre, a scheme involving two flood water storage reservoirs has been designed, but the start of the work to implement it was delayed in October 2014 by a shortfall in funding for the project.

Eller Beck is formed from a series of streams rising in the hills to the north of Skipton. These include Black Sike, which rises above the 1,410-foot (430 m) contour on Out Fell, to the west of Upper Barden Reservoir, and several more which rise in Bilton Ings, close to the 1,395-foot (425 m) contour, to the south west of the reservoir. With the flow from a spring called Boiling Well, they form Waterfall Gill Beck, which then becomes Eller Beck. It flows around the northern and western edges of Nettlehole Wood and Crookrise Wood, to be joined by Sandy Beck before passing under the freight-only railway line to Swinden Quarry. The railway bridge is below the 560-foot (170 m) contour.

The railway follows the valley of the beck as it is joined by Owlet House Beck, passes under two farm access bridges, and under Tarn Moor Bridge, which carries a minor road to Embsay. The bridge dates from the late eighteenth century, and was altered in the mid nineteenth century. It has a single round arch, is constructed of squared rubble with stone dressings, and is a Grade II Listed structure. The river then meanders through Skipton Golf Club, where it acts as a water hazard for the back nine holes, before it is joined by Haw Beck, which flows from the east alongside the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway for most of its length. It passes under the A65 Leeds to Kendal road through two large round tubes, to enter Skipton Woods.