East of Newark, the River Trent enters one of its most expansive and distinctive landscapes, where the river’s scale, function, and ecology become especially clear. Here, the Trent flows east and then north-east across the low-lying Trent Vale, a broad floodplain shaped by centuries of seasonal flooding and sediment deposition. The land is notably flat, sitting only a few metres above sea level in places, and this flatness defines both how the river behaves and how people have learned to live alongside it.

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This stretch of the river is strongly influenced by its proximity to the Humber Estuary. Tidal effects reach upstream to Cromwell Lock, just east of Newark, making the Trent the only major river in England where tidal waters extend so far inland. As a result, water levels and flow direction can change with the tides, and the river here is wider, deeper, and slower-moving than further upstream. Cromwell Lock marks a clear transition point: west of it, the river is freshwater and non-tidal; east of it, the landscape and river dynamics are shaped by the push and pull of the North Sea.