Braided river
The meandering River Trent arose from a braided river. Braided rivers are composed of multiple channels separated by short slices of land between the river’s true edges. Modern day rivers tend to meander all over the river valley, but braided rivers didn’t have as much water, it was locked up in glaciers. Rivers like the Trent draining eastwards had a greater distance to travel because of Doggerland, and so a lower velocity. Braided rivers tended to stay within a narrow course.
During excessive periods of drought, Ice Age braided rivers held particularly low water levels. Many channels became isolated by sandbars making an easy crossing for animals and humans.
Figure 1: the Sunwapta River (Alberta, Canada), a proglacial braided river characterized by multiple interweaving channels. Credit: Walter Bertoldi
We believe that migrating ungulates from their over-winter pastures on Doggerland to the high lands west of the Trent in Spring, or their return in Autumn provided a food source. Deer can swim and easily cross a river, but at between 2 to 4 mph rather than 30 mph on land.
The River Trent is now a meandering river and has left numerous palaeochannels over time. The graphic below shows how this patterns the landscape in an Indian example.
The River Trent below no longer meanders at least since 1984, but still floods regularly.