The River Foulness is a river in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Its name is derived from Old English fūle[n] ēa, meaning “dirty water”. Maintenance responsibilities for the river transferred from the Environment Agency to the Market Weighton Drainage Board on 1 October 2011. Market Weighton Drainage Board subsequently amalgamated with the Lower Ouse Internal Drainage Board on 1 April 2012 to create the Ouse and Humber Drainage Board. The river discharges into the Humber Estuary via Market Weighton Canal. Water levels within the river, its tributaries and the canal are managed and controlled by the Environment Agency. The river lies in an area known as the Humberhead Levels. Course The river rises as a series of drains in the fields to the north-west of the village of Shiptonthorpe, which is close to the town of Market Weighton. It passes under Clayfield Lane, where the former York to Market Weighton line also crossed. The station immediately to the north of the crossing was called , rather than Shiptonthorpe, and opened in 1847. The line was recommended for closure in the Beeching report of 1963 and closed in November 1965. The stream flows southwards along the eastern boundary of Shiptonthorpe, and is joined by East Beck which rises to the north-east in Londesborough. Below the junction it is crossed by the A1079 road at Shipton Bridge. Whereas it has previously been named Drain on the Ordnance Survey (OS) maps, it now becomes the River Foulness or Shipton Beck. It continues in a broadly south-westerly direction, and is joined by Skelfrey Beck, which flows westwards from Market Weighton. From this point onwards, it is called the River Foulness and is managed by the Ouse and Humber Drainage Board, an Internal drainage board (IDB) which is responsible for land drainage in the district, and maintains many drains which feed into the river. At Harswell, the river is crossed by Harswell Bridge, and is then joined by two drains. Many of the drains have alternative names, as the Ordnance Survey calls them Fox Drain and Eller Ings Dyke, whereas the IDB call them Acre Drain and Castle Eller Drain. To the north-west of Holme-on-Spalding-Moor it is joined by Black Dike (OS) or Lowmath Drain (IDB), flowing from the east, and then by Black Beck (OS) or Seaton Main Drain (IDB). As it approaches the former Selby and Market Weighton Railway, the river used