River Don Flooding & Flood Risk

The River Don rises high in the Peak District above Dunford Bridge and runs for around 70 miles through Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster before it reaches the Yorkshire Ouse near Goole. It is one of the most heavily engineered and closely watched rivers in England, and flooding from the River Don has repeatedly closed roads, shut businesses and forced people from their homes along its length — most seriously in the Sheffield floods of 2007 and the Fishlake floods of 2019. Unda prepares flood risk assessments and drainage strategies for sites across the River Don's floodplain. To talk it through, call 01293 214444 or email enquiries@unda.co.uk.

During the November 2019 floods the River Don reached its highest level ever recorded at Doncaster — 6.31 metres — and floodwater covered almost the whole village of Fishlake for more than a week; twelve years earlier, the same river's flash floods through Sheffield killed two people and shut Meadowhall shopping centre for months.

• Source to mouth. The Don rises on the moors above Dunford Bridge and flows about 70 miles (113 km) to the Yorkshire Ouse near Goole, through Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster.
• A Main River throughout. The Environment Agency regulates the Don along its length, so the 8 metre byelaw margin and Flood Risk Activity Permits apply to work near it.
• Repeatedly in the news. Serious floods in 2007 and 2019, a near-miss during Storm Babet in 2023, and flood warnings most winters since.
• Three live Environment Agency gauges at Rotherham, Sprotbrough and Doncaster feed the map below with real-time levels.

Check flood risk along the River Don

The map below draws the River Don's course in coral from source to the Yorkshire Ouse, with the Environment Agency's live gauges at Rotherham, Sprotbrough and Doncaster shown along it — click a gauge for its latest level, typical range and record peak. Enter a postcode near the river to zoom in and screen that location against the Environment Agency's open data for rivers and sea, surface water, reservoirs and the flood zones used for planning. It is an indicative screening tool, not a flood risk assessment.

Why does the River Don flood?

The River Don floods because its Pennine headwaters sit on steep, rain-soaked gritstone moorland that sheds water fast, while its lower reaches cross flat, low-lying carrland that drains slowly and can stay flooded for days rather than hours. The result is a river that can rise around Sheffield and Rotherham within hours of a storm, then hold floodwater across the Doncaster levels for a week or more.

From its source above Dunford Bridge the Don drops quickly off the Pennines, gathering the Little Don, the Loxley and the Rivelin before it reaches Sheffield, where the Sheaf and the Porter — both now largely culverted beneath the city centre — add still more water in a hurry. East of Sheffield it picks up the Rother at Rotherham and the Dearne below Mexborough, by which point its catchment covers roughly 1,430 square kilometres (around 1,850 km² including the Rother and Dearne). Below Doncaster the valley flattens into the Humberhead Levels, a stretch of reclaimed marsh so low-lying that the tide is felt as far upstream as Crimpsall, and the river's engineered lower course — much of it re-cut by the Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden in the seventeenth century — carries the flow on to its confluence with the Yorkshire Ouse near Goole.

• Flashy Pennine headwaters. Great Grains Moss and Winscar Reservoir sit between 450 and 480 metres, so intense rain reaches the river fast and can raise levels in Sheffield within hours.
• Culverted city tributaries. The Sheaf and the Porter run mostly hidden beneath Sheffield city centre and can back up quickly in heavy rain.
• Six major tributaries. The Little Don, Loxley, Rivelin, Sheaf, Rother and Dearne each add their own catchment before the Don reaches Doncaster.
• Tidal lower reaches. Tidal influence from the Yorkshire Ouse is felt as far upstream as Crimpsall, near Doncaster.
• Three live Environment Agency gauges at Rotherham, Sprotbrough and Doncaster, each updating every 15 minutes.

A history of flooding on the River Don

The River Don has flooded seriously and repeatedly in living memory, most notoriously in June 2007 and November 2019, and it remains one of the rivers the Environment Agency watches most closely every winter.

On 25 June 2007, after one of the wettest Junes on record, the Don burst its banks through Sheffield in the late afternoon. Meadowhall shopping centre was closed, with some ground-floor shops shut until late September, and Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough ground stood under six feet of water. A 14-year-old boy was swept away by the swollen River Sheaf and a 68-year-old man died trying to cross a flooded road in the city centre; the RAF winched people from buildings in Brightside. Around 700 residents of Catcliffe, near Rotherham, were evacuated after cracks appeared in the nearby Ulley reservoir dam, and days later the army was called in at Barnby Dun after the river flooded land near Thorpe Marsh power station. Rotherham and Doncaster both flooded for a second time within ten days.

The Don flooded again, more severely for the villages downstream of Doncaster, in November 2019. Two cold fronts trapped a band of warm, wet air over South Yorkshire, dropping 50 to 100 mm of rain in two days — around 150% of the month's average rainfall in 48 hours. Severe flood warnings were issued for Kirk Bramwith, South Bramwith, Willow Bridge, Bentley and Fishlake, and residents of Fishlake, Thorpe in Balne, Trumfleet and Bentley were told to leave their homes. A section of the secondary barrier bank protecting Fishlake was later found to be lower than its design standard; once the river overtopped it, floodwater spread through most of the village, flooding 173 properties. The Don reached its highest levels ever recorded at both Doncaster (6.31 m) and Sprotbrough (4.72 m) on 8 November 2019.

Storm Babet brought the Don close to a repeat in October 2023, with 15 flood warnings in place across Doncaster at the height of the storm and sandbags delivered to hundreds of properties at Trumfleet, Thorpe in Balne and Braithwaite; this time the post-2019 defence repairs held, and Doncaster avoided a repeat of the 2019 flooding. The river continues to reach flood alert or flood warning levels most winters, most recently around Fishlake, Stainforth and South Bramwith.

Which areas does the River Don put at risk?

Flooding from the River Don threatens communities along its whole length, from flash flooding in the steep Pennine valleys above Sheffield to slow, long-duration flooding across the low-lying carrland around Doncaster and Fishlake. The Environment Agency runs dedicated flood warning and alert areas the length of the river.

Upstream of Sheffield the risk is sudden and local, as heavy rain off the moors above Stocksbridge, Deepcar and Oughtibridge can flood roads and property within hours. Through Sheffield and Rotherham the risk comes from the Don backing up through culverted tributaries and low-lying industrial land in the valley floor, and below Doncaster its floodplain widens into the flat carrland around Barnby Dun, Kirk Bramwith, Stainforth and Fishlake, where floodwater can sit for days or weeks once it arrives. The table below summarises the main settlements at risk from source to mouth.

Sites in and around Sheffield and Doncaster are covered in more depth on our local pages for Sheffield and Doncaster. If your site sits within one of the areas above, the Environment Agency's flood map for planning is likely to place it in Flood Zone 2 or 3, which triggers the need for a site-specific flood risk assessment.

Is the River Don a Main River — and what that means for your site

Yes. The Environment Agency designates the River Don a Main River along its length, so the Agency — not the local council — regulates the channel and its immediate margins, and any Flood Risk Activity Permit needed for work nearby comes from the Environment Agency rather than a Lead Local Flood Authority.

That distinction matters if you are developing near the river. Works within 8 metres of the top of the bank generally need a Flood Risk Activity Permit from the Environment Agency before they start, sought alongside — not instead of — planning permission, and a site in the Don's floodplain will normally need a flood risk assessment to support a planning application. The becks, drains and field ditches feeding the Don, and tributaries such as the Sheaf, the Loxley and the Rivelin, are ordinary watercourses instead, regulated by the relevant council as Lead Local Flood Authority — Sheffield City Council, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council or the City of Doncaster Council, depending on location — and by the riparian owners whose land they cross.

• The 8 metre byelaw margin. Building, excavation or structures near the Don usually require a Flood Risk Activity Permit, sought alongside planning permission.
• Flood zones drive the assessment. A site in Flood Zone 2 or 3, or a larger site in Flood Zone 1, needs a flood risk assessment for planning.
• Know which watercourse you're on. The Don itself is Environment Agency territory; its tributaries and field drains are ordinary watercourses under the local council as Lead Local Flood Authority. We confirm this for every site.

Managing flood risk on the River Don: policy and contacts

Several bodies share responsibility for flood risk on the River Don. The Environment Agency regulates the Main River and publishes the flood map for planning; Sheffield City Council, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council and the City of Doncaster Council are the Lead Local Flood Authorities along its length; and the same three councils, plus Barnsley, are among the planning authorities that decide applications in the wider catchment.

The river sits within the wider Humber River Basin District, and the Environment Agency's River Don Catchment Flood Management Plan sets out how flood risk across the catchment should be managed over the next 50 to 100 years. Following the 2007 floods, Sheffield City Council and the Environment Agency delivered the Lower Don Valley Flood Alleviation Scheme, improving defences at more than 50 locations along an eight-kilometre stretch of the river through Attercliffe, Brightside and Meadowhall, protecting more than 500 businesses and around 5,000 jobs. After the 2019 floods, the Environment Agency carried out further repairs to bring the Fishlake barrier bank and the Bentley pumping station back up to their design standard.

• Environment Agency. Regulates the Main River, runs the gauge network and issues flood warnings for the Don.
• Lead Local Flood Authorities. Sheffield City Council, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council and the City of Doncaster Council manage surface water, groundwater and ordinary watercourses in their areas.
• The Lower Don Valley scheme. Over 50 defence locations across an eight-kilometre stretch through Sheffield, delivered with Environment Agency and Business Improvement District funding after 2007.
• The Don Catchment Rivers Trust. Works with landowners and communities across the catchment on natural flood management and river restoration.

How Unda helps with flood risk on the River Don

Unda understands how a working, heavily engineered river like the Don behaves in flood — from the flashy Pennine response above Sheffield to the slow, long-duration flooding that can sit across the Doncaster carrland for weeks. We know where the river's floodplain bites hardest, from Brightside and Meadowhall to Fishlake and Stainforth, and what the planning system and the Environment Agency expect from the reports that follow. We prepare assessments and drainage strategies for developers, planning consultants, architects, agents and homeowners with sites the length of the valley.

Every assessment we prepare rests on the same evidence the regulators use: the Environment Agency's flood mapping, the river's gauged levels and modelled flows, and the local planning policies that apply to your site. If you are working on a site near the River Don, talk to one of our experienced flood risk consultants about what your application will need.

Flood risk and drainage services for sites near the River Don

A development near the River Don can call for several different reports, and it helps to be clear that they answer different questions. A flood risk assessment, a sequential or exception test and a drainage strategy are three distinct reports. They often travel together in a planning submission, but they address separate things: whether the site is safe from flooding, whether the development should be located here, and where the surface water goes. Unda prepares each of them for sites across the River Don catchment.

• Flood risk assessments for planning. Site-specific assessments dealing directly with the Environment Agency's requirements for development in the river's flood zones. See our flood risk assessment for planning service.
• Assessments for property purchase and insurance. Independent reports for buyers, owners and lenders through our flood risk survey for property purchase and flood risk assessment for insurance.
• Drainage strategies and SuDS. Surface-water designs that manage runoff and meet the discharge limits set by the Lead Local Flood Authority — see our sustainable drainage strategy service.
• Sequential and exception tests. Locational justification where policy requires it, through our sequential and exception test reports.
• BREEAM and groundwater. A BREEAM flood risk assessment for the Pol 03 credit, and a groundwater flood risk assessment where a high water table near the river is in play.

Where national flood mapping is not detailed enough for a site right against a Main River like the Don — a common situation on its industrial valley floor — we can bring in hydraulic flood modelling to derive accurate flood levels and extents, and prepare the detailed scheme needed to discharge a drainage condition. Everything we do is framed by the NPPF and its planning practice guidance.

Live levels and emergency contacts on the River Don

• Live river levels. Check the Don's gauges directly on the Environment Agency service — River Don at Doncaster, River Don at Sprotbrough and River Don at Rotherham — or use our own live river levels map.
• Screen a location. Try our free flood risk map and, for drainage, our drainage calculators and BRE 365 infiltration calculator.
• Flood warnings. Sign up for Environment Agency flood warnings and call Floodline on 0345 988 1188.
• In a flood emergency. Call 999 if life is in danger, and 105 to report a power cut.
• Main Rivers explained. Read our guide to Main Rivers and ordinary watercourses, and see how a past flood can affect a sale in our guide to flood history declarations when selling a property.

River Don flood risk: your questions answered