[1] Maintenance responsibilities for the river transferred from the Environment Agency to the Market Weighton Drainage Board on 1 October 2011.

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.

[6] The stream flows southwards along the eastern boundary of Shiptonthorpe, and is joined by East Beck which rises to the north-east in Londesborough.

Whereas it has previously been named Drain on the Ordnance Survey (OS) maps, it now becomes the River Foulness or Shipton Beck.

The upper river has not been classed as good quality because the dissolved oxygen content is poor, which may be due to faulty data.

Like many rivers in the UK, the chemical status changed from good to fail in 2019, due to the presence of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) and mercury compounds, neither of which had previously been included in the assessment.

The majority of the area is agricultural farmland with large rectangular fields bounded by hedgerows, mainly composed of hawthorn but also including blackthorn, dog rose, elder and hazel.

The area is now noted for its red list farmyard birds, species which are at risk on a global, European or British level.

[19] The river runs through an area where the underlying geology consists of Mercia Mudstone to the east and Sherwood Sandstone, dating from the Triassic period, to the west.

This was largely covered by glacial deposits during the Devensian period, when most of the landscape was submerged beneath the waters of Lake Humber.

[17] The upper reaches of the river are located just to the west of the Yorkshire Wolds, a large aquifer composed of chalk, from which springs emerge to supply much of the base flow of the waterway.

[20] The river has been variously known as the Foona,[22] the Fulnath when the Commission of Sewers reported in 1323,[23] the Foonah in a poem about the witches of Wallingfen,[24] the Foulney when a survey of the drainage of the area was conducted in 1664,[25] and the Foulness more recently.

It is the main source of natural drainage in the Vale of York, an area to the west of the Yorkshire Wolds,[22] the southern part of which was known as Houghdenshire when John Leland conducted his survey of England in the 16th century, and Howdenshire subsequently.

Evidence from Saxon times is scant, but the medieval period is represented by historic villages with associated field systems, and turbaries where peat was cut for fuel.

A prehistoric log boat was found at Hasholme in 1984, and after excavation and conservation, is on public display at the Hull and East Riding Museum.

[30] During the 1960s, localised flooding caused by heavy rain occurred in several places within the catchment of the river and canal, and the solution suggested was to turn both into highland carriers.

Species which can be caught in the lower river include bream, tench, roach, rudd and perch, with pike during the winter months.

The river is not ideal for fishing, due to its steep banks in many places, and weed growth can be a problem during the summer.