The River and its Bridges

The South Winterbourne River 

More of a stream than a river ! It is actually classified as a "watercourse". It is a "winter born" stream that can disappear completely in some areas during the summer only to be born again in the winter. It rises from springs to the west of Winterbourne Abbas (the neighbouring village immediately to the west of the parish boundary). It then flows through man made channels eastward until it skirts around and becomes part of Steepleton Water or Pond. Locally known as the "ponds". There are further springs in this pond area that recharge the stream. The pond is probably largely man made as a storage pond for the water mill further to the east. See The Water Mill

From the pond area, it passes under a modern road bridge on the slip road from the A35 trunk road to the north. At this point, there is a further small old mill storage pond and the stream then sub divides into a higher level mill leat and the stream running adjacent to the road. 

The mill leat runs eastward but is blocked at the end of the modern houses on the north side of the road. The water falls down back into the roadside stream again. It is understood that this blocking up of the leat was a result of a dispute between landowners in the 1960's.  A little further east, there is another sub divide when there is a "cut" running slightly off to the north across the low lying meadow to rejoin the roadside stream on the west boundary of the Old Rectory. It is understood that this cut was made at the instigation of Mr Eddie Broom the late 1950's / early 1960's to combat flooding of the roadside stream. The area and nearby Martinstown specifically had suffered the heaviest recorded rainfall of 12.4" in a 24 Hour period on 18th July 1955. This national record has only just be beaten in 2014 by a area in Cumbria.

Since 2013, a local community flood group has co-ordinated annual stream clearing and this has proved successful in preventing flooding especially during very heavy rainfall experienced since 2013/2014. Years ago, a lengthsman undertook this task on a regular basis.

The remainder of the mill leat is now derelict, dry and in poor condition being overgrown and with its sluices greatly decayed. The old leat ran around the north boundary of the Old Rectory prior to entering the mill basin.  After the mill basin the water rejoined the roadside stream. Today, the basin is kept partially full of water by a small feeder pipe from the roadside stream. This area was formerly known as the "Creek" and had a small bridge and footpath (now all overgrown).

The stream flows out, under the main road bridge and broadens out to give a pleasant view through the grounds of Steepleton Manor. It then flows through an Environment Agency measuring station prior to flowing through former WW2 American amphibious vehicle testing pit (now silted up). 

It finally leaves the parish flowing through the broad valley to Rew Corner and neighbouring Martinstown. The old village area of Steepleton is approximately 92 metres above sea level and the river falls some 6 metres by the time that it enters Martinstown.

It is hard to think that this small river joins the Frome east of Dorchester and flows to Wareham and finally out to sea in Poole harbour.

Former WW2 American amphibious vehicle testing pit                     (photos RC)                The broad valley with Rew Corner & Martinstown beyond

Road Bridges : 

Besides numerous private small bridges giving drive and foot access to properties over the South Winterbourne, there are two main road bridges in the village. There is also one small footbridge opposite Steepleton Manor.

2)  The three arched stone road bridge at the east end of the village crosses the South Winterbourne river just in front of the church near Mill Lane. 

The “Creek” shown on an extract of Pouncys 1857 photographic plate (below) is a small area to the south of the water mill and a two arched footbridge (arrowed) carried a path onto Mill Lane. This whole area although still designated as a public footpath is completely overgrown although the two arched foot bridge can still just be seen on the south side of the mill pond. The barns in the foreground were demolished when the present Steepleton Manor House was built in 1870. The Old Rectory on the left of the extract had recently been completed in 1851.