“A very singular event has lately taken place at Gainsborough, in Lincolnshire:- At Bole Ferry the Trent has formed itself a new channel, through which on Thursday se’nnight, two vessels passed abreast.

Eighty or ninety acres of fine pasture land, the property of Sir E. Anderson, and Miss Hickman, are cut quite away from the Lincolnshire side of the river, and a complete island is formed between the late and present channel.”[5] At Burton Round the Trent here took a circular sweep that a boatman might have thrown his hat on shore and after sailing two miles taken it up again.

The disused church of St Helen, founded in medieval times and previously served by a perpetual curate, was finally demolished around 1886,[8] although annual harvest thanksgiving services were later revived upon its site in the 20th century, and these continued for many years.

[10] The quiet and largely agricultural character of the area underwent a total transformation in the years following February 1961, when the Central Electricity Generating Board received consent for the building of the first West Burton Power Station, at that time intended for completion in 1967.

A topographical survey of the deserted village of West Burton was carried out by a team from Nottinghamshire County Council's community archaeology service in 2008–09.