River Severn

Image courtesy of Tess, wikimedia commons

The River Severn is the United Kingdom's longest river at two hundred and twenty miles long.The river begins it's life in two thousand foot high peat bogs situated in the Cambrian Mountains in the Welsh county of Ceredigion at a place called Plynlimon near Llanidloes, before flowing through the four counties of Powys, Shropshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire out to it's estuary on the Bristol Channel and then onto the Celtic Sea and finally into the Atlantic Ocean.

The river is world famous for it's tidal bore, known as the Severn Bore, which has the highest tidal range of all the U.K's eight tidal rivers and has the second highest tidal range of all the world's sixty high tidal rivers. The river's tidal surge can often reach heights of between forty and fifty feet with record waves of up to nine feet high. Because of this the river is a magnet for surfers, canoeists and surf boarders, all eager to ride the river's monster waves. The highest recorded River Severn wave was on the fifteenth of October 1966, at nine point two feet high and the River Severn's longest surfboard ride was five point seven miles.

The river has a water depth range of between six inches at it's source through to over fifty feet during one of it's tidal surges.The river's drainage basin on the Bristol Channel covers an area of three hundred and forty six square miles.

The River is known by two names, the Afon Hefren in Welsh and the River Severn in English, before these names become common place, the Romans had named the river Sabrina after a mythical, water nymph. No one really knows where either the Welsh or English name for the river comes from, one credible source has suggested that Hafren is a corruption of a word made from both the Welsh and Brythonic languages, which means border or boundary and that the English word Severn is an anglicised version of this Welsh / Brythonic word.

The river serves eight canals along it's route, including the Hereford and Gloucester Canal and Worcester and Birmingham Canal. The river has has twenty one tributaries, including the Rivers Leadon, Roden, Stour, Tern, Teme, Vyrnwy, Warwickshire Avon and Wye.

The river has over one hundred crossings, including fifty four road bridges, eleven railway bridges, twenty four footbridges, seven farm bridges, three tollways, two aqueducts and one rail tunnel.

The river passes through the four English cathedral cities of Bristol, Gloucester, Shrewsbury and Worcester, the towns of Bewdley, Bridgnorth, famous for it's furnicular railway and twelth century castle ruins, Sharpness, the site of the River Severn's only commercial port, Stourport and Tewkesbury, famous for it's eleventh century castle.

The river also passes the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, home of the world's first cast iron bridge and the River Severn's second oldest surviving bridge.

Other notable areas along the river's course are the three hundred and twenty five hectare Slimbridge Wetland Centre situated on the river's estuary on the Bristol Channel, the sixteen mile route of the Severn Valley Railway which runs between the picturesque Shropshire market town of Bridgenorth and the Worcestershire town of Kidderminster, the Bridgewater Bay National Nature Reserve and the two hundred and ten mile long River Severn Long Distance Walkway, which follows almost the entire course of the river.

The river borders the two countries of England and Wales and is the home to many important architectural structures along it's course which have become famous either due to the engineers who built them or for being English / Welsh architectural record breakers.

The most famous River Severn crossing is the Ironbridge at Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, home of the world's first ever cast iron bridge and an engineering feat which changed the world for ever.The bridge was constructed by ironmaster Abraham Darby III and opened as a toll bridge in 1781.

Another engineering feat of the River Severn is the river's only railway tunnel, built between 1873 and 1886 by engineer Thomas Walker that links the Welsh county of Monmouthshire with the English county of Gloucestershire.The tunnel is four point six miles long and from it's completion in 1886 until the opening of the Channel Tunnel in 2007, it was the United Kingdom's longest underwater tunnel.

The river's most impressive bridge is the Second Severn Crossing, a three point one nine mile long, cable stayed bridge completed in 1996 which carries the six lane M4 motorway across the river between Severn Beach in Gloucestershire and Sudbrook in Monmouthshire.

One other interesting feature of the river is the Hampton Loade Passenger Ferry, the most modern of which was built in 2004, which is the U.K's only reaction cable ferry.The ferry site at Hampton Loade has been in use for over four hundred years and is unique for using a reaction cable that is suspended above the ferry and which propells the ferry across the water by way of the river's current and is stabilised by way of a block and pulley line tethered to the ferry's body.This type of ferry is known to be the safest method of passenger crossing on fast running rivers such as the River Severn.

The river is also home to eight masonry bridges designed by eminent Victorian architect Thomas Penson, six bridges designed by engineer Thomas Telford and one railway bridge designed by Robert Stevenson. The river's oldest surviving bridge is a stone arch bridge situated in the Welsh village of Llandrino, which was completed in 1775.

The River Severn's estuary is located between Lavernock Point in South Wales and Sand Point in Somerset, England. The estuary at first measures around nine miles in width before narrowing to just two miles in width at it's narrowest point. It is this that leads to the river having the world's second highest tidal bore of around fifty feet in height.

The estuary, which has been designated as a Special Protection Area due to the hundreds of thousands of wading birds which over-winter on the site, is also shared by the country's River Avon, River Usk and River Wye.

For centuries the River Severn was a hive of industrial activity, at one point in it's history it had even been classified as Europe's busiest working river, but in recent years it has become a place of recreation, where it has become renowned for it's phenomenal bore, it's river boat trips, the beautiful Welsh and English towns and countryside that it passes through and for being a haven for bream, chub, eel, grayling, roach and salmon fishing.

SOME RIVER SEVERN WEBSITES

Severn Bore - www.severn-bore.co.uk

Boating - www.severn-boating.co.uk

Severn Estuary - www.wildlifetrusts.org

Ironbridge Gorge - www.visitironbridge.co.uk

Hampton Loade Ferry - hamptonloadeferry.webs.com

LIKE THIS? SHOW YOUR FRIENDS - Tweet