Bolton Strid: A Stream That Takes The Lives Of Many People
This extremely dangerous, natural booby trap can be found between Barden Tower and Bolton Abbey in Yorkshire, England. It's a tiny, harmless-looking mountain stream, approximately six feet across, named Bolton Strid, or simply the Strid. However, under the water's surface, there is a deep gorge with strong undercurrents that pulls whoever falls into it to certain death. According to the rumors, not even a single person that has fallen into the Strid has managed to come out of it alive. Even their bodies haven't been found. If you have doubts about how a small mountain brook can be so deadly, you need to walk upstream. In less than 100 yards, this "harmless" stream will turn into a river 30 feet across. This river is called River Wharfe which runs through Yorkshire, but when it comes to the area of Bolton Abbey the river has to go through a small gap which causes the water to gain enormous speed and depth. The small gap on the Strid is merely an illusion as both banks are significantly undercut. Underneath is a network of hidden caverns and tunnels with the rest of the water of the river inside them. Nobody has an idea about how deep the Strid actually is.
You can see the Strid here in this photo- At first glance, the Strid appears to be completely harmless and the banks are so close to each other that many reckless visitors in the past have thought they could jump across it, or walk across its stones as it only seems knee-deep. This is not surprising as many people believe the name Strid comes from the word "stride". You can see warning signs on trees around the area warning people not to try and jump across it. However, the stories of people slipping and getting sucked viciously into the underwater caves and eroded tunnels are abundant. According to the rumors, one of the victims of the Strid was young William de Romilly, the son of Lady Alice de Romilly. William tried to leap across the Strid in 1154 and died as a result of this. His mother was so saddened by this loss that she contributed to the surrounding land to build the Bolton Priory Monastery. This tragic story also inspired the poem "The Force of Prayer" by William Wordsworth.
In this photo, you can see a police officer standing on the River Wharfe at Bolton Abbey after an 8-year-old kid got drowned in March 2010.
This is Bolton Abbey and Wharfe.
Another photo of the River Wharfe in Bolton Abbey.
