Anastomosing rivers constitute an important category of multi-channel rivers and are characterised by multiple, interconnected, coexisting channels flowing over alluvial plains. They are said to form due to channel avulsion, causing the formation of new channels on the floodplain, a process primarily driven by loss of channel capacity and flow breakout linked to local in-channel deposition. This style of channel is presently rare in the UK primarily due to inappropriate channel and floodplain engineering and management. This study examines the character of developing anastomosed channels seen on a number of active gravel-bed channels in the north of England using metre scale resolution aerial LIDAR data. The LIDAR data are used to create a detailed digital surface and terrain models (DSM & DTM) of the study reaches. The data accurately records vegetation character, sub-channel planform and morphology. Topographic metrics suggest a well-developed spatial vegetation structure linked strongly to the underlying morphological feature and a locally diverse terrain, dominated by an interlinked channel network split by variable length, generally low elevation interfluves. The gross morphology does not reflect the classic anastomosed features described above suggesting that different processes are operating to create these channel types. The anastomosing networks studied appear instead to have developed across systems that were initially active meandering and wandering in nature, evolving in line with floodplain vegetative succession to stabilise these planform types. These modes of formation suggest a different origin of these anastomosed sites than others previously reported in the literature.