31-878: The River Wantsum is a tributary of the River Stour , in Kent , England. Formerly, the River Wantsum and the River Stour together formed the Wantsum Channel , which separated the Isle of Thanet from the mainland of Kent. Now the River Wantsum is little more than a drainage ditch starting at Reculver, and ending where it joins the Stour. Bede , in the 8th century, said that the Wantsum – meaning Wantsum Channel –
62-490: A Kentish army - to rebel against King Offa of Mercia. In that year there was a great battle between Mercians and Kentish men at Otford as, apparently, a red cross appeared in the sky. For nine years after this battle Egbert held Kent, but ultimately Offa took control and retrieved Great Chart and its lands from Canterbury dividing them up among his followers. After Offa died in 796 his successor Coenwulf of Mercia decided to reinstate properties, including Great Chart, back to
93-486: A planning application submitted for conversion into a three bedroom dwelling. Pilgrims Football Club with age groups from U7s to seniors is resident at the playing field. A cricket club with competing elevens (XIs), including colts sides have a ground and pavilion in the village. The medieval parish church is of an ecclesiastical parish on the same boundaries and is dedicated to St Mary; its community in Singleton
124-496: A £4.2 million environmental improvement project at its Lenham treatment works to ensure wastewater is treated to higher standards. New reed beds, containing more than 7,500 reeds, will help clean up to 4.3 million litres of wastewater from more than 3,600 people each day. In 2017 The Marine Group based in Cardiff begun work with their water injection dredger on the river through Sandwich and Richborough to tackle some of
155-590: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to a river in England is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . River Stour, Kent The River Stour ( / ˈ s t aʊər / , rhymes with "hour" ) is a river in Kent , England that flows into the North Sea at Pegwell Bay . Above Plucks Gutter , where the Little Stour joins it, the river is normally known as
186-549: Is fringed with marshes . Most of them are located on what was the floor of the Wantsum Channel, whilst those to the south lie behind the sand dunes of the Sandwich Flats. These marshes are criss-crossed with drainage ditches. The principal marshes are those of Chislet , within the ancient estuary of the river; Wade, west of Birchington ; and Ash Level. In the mid-18th century, it became necessary to alleviate
217-422: Is split between the ancient village of Great Chart and the modern Singleton neighbourhood on the western outskirts of Ashford . The village centre of Great Chart is 2 miles (3.2 km) from the town centre. In 1961 the parish had a population of 969. Great Chart is first mentioned in 762 as Seleberhtes Cert, a Jutish name. It is also known that at this year, the village was operating a mechanical water mill ,
248-668: The Great Stour . The upper section of the river, above its confluence with the East Stour at Ashford is sometimes known as the Upper Great Stour or West Stour . In the tidal lower reaches, the artificial Stonar Cut short cuts a large loop in the natural river. The Stour has Kent's second largest catchment area (the River Medway having the largest). The lower part of the river is tidal; its original mouth
279-588: The reed beds of the Stodmarsh National Nature Reserve . Beyond the nature reserve lies the open farmland on the reclaimed marshes surrounding the river crossing at Grove Ferry Picnic Area , near the hamlet of Upstreet . At the hamlet of Plucks Gutter , the second of the large tributaries enters the main river: the 18.9 miles (30.4 km) long Little Stour , which begins life as a spring stream in Bekesbourne . From here on,
310-455: The "Fishbourne Stream") enters with the Wantsum Channel. Here the river turns southwards to the once-thriving port of Sandwich , after which it loops back on itself to the north before entering the Strait of Dover at Pegwell Bay . The Stonar Cut obviates the need for seagoing craft to take the longer route around the loop at Sandwich. From the tidal limit at Fordwich to the sea, the river
341-632: The Continent and, in the utmost secrecy, a new port was built at Richborough. Landing facilities along the Cut were built, and the East Kent Light Railway was extended to service the port. Nothing now remains of much of those works, and the Cut has been allowed to return to its natural state. In Roman and medieval times, the river was an important highway, connecting Canterbury with the Continent. Fordwich became important to shipping after
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#1732772050026372-496: The Kent coast – Lympne , Dover , Richborough and Reculver . Within the city, the river flows in two channels, one through the centre of the city, and the other to the north of the city walls. The two channels rejoin to the east of Canterbury, before the river reaches Fordwich , a former outport of Canterbury and the current tidal limit of the river. Beyond Fordwich, the river passes between several former gravel pits and through
403-520: The North Downs gap. The rail links from Canterbury to the Isle of Thanet and also to Ashford , and the main A28 road follow identical routes. The 51.5-mile (82.4 km) Stour Valley Walk follows the river for much of its length. The Great Stour estuary at Plucks Gutter and Grove Ferry is renowned for its coarse fishing, particularly bream stocks. The lower-lying parts of Canterbury have in
434-550: The North Downs; for most of this distance there are no tributaries. After the Brook stream enters from the right, there are now 15 miles (24 km) to Canterbury. In this stretch the river flows through the villages of Wye , Chilham and Chartham , with Wye being a fordable crossing. The historic city of Canterbury lies at the junction of four branches of the Roman road Watling Street which connected Canterbury with ports around
465-457: The River Stour and its tributaries for centuries as a source of power. Many different processes were performed by the use of water power:- Corn milling, fulling, paper making and electricity generation. Many of the mills survive today as house conversions, with two of them still working commercially. Both roads and railways make use of the river. The Watling Street link to Richborough ("Rutupiae") and their link from Canterbury southwards made use of
496-529: The first water mill to be recorded in Britain. A charter first mentions Seleberhtes Cert when recording that King Ethelberht II (of Kent) exchanged half the use of the successfully operating mill for some pasture in the Weald . In 776 Great Chart's manor, the village, its lands and much of its produce were sold by King Egbert (Ethelberht's successor) to Archbishop Jænberht of Canterbury to raise finances for
527-683: The housing in alike construction 20th and 21st century neighbourhoods. A cluster of listed buildings is in the old centre of Great Chart, along the main road in the village (the Street). The area drains via many streams and underwater drainage to the West Stour along the northern boundary before its merger into the Great Stour in Ashford. Great Chart has one pub The Swan and Dog . The Little Black Dog, formerly The Hoodener's Horse , has had
558-656: The ownership of Canterbury. This ownership continued for hundreds of years through the Norman Conquest - the Domesday Book entry for Certh (Great Chart) makes clear that it was still in the possession of the Archbishop of Canterbury and had two mills, a salt-pit, feeding ground for a hundred hogs, and a population of fifty-two - up to the advent of Henry VIII when between 1536 and 1539 he dissolved all monasteries. He confiscated Great Chart and its lands from
589-474: The past been particularly prone to flooding . The River Stour (Kent) Internal Drainage Board has the responsibility of reducing that risk in the river catchment area In 2006, male fish were found with signs of "feminisation" after having been exposed to treated sewage effluent in the river near Ashford. It was found that oestrogen enters the river when the nearby Bybrook sewage works discharges its end product. In 2009, Southern Water started work on
620-529: The priory but soon reinstated them to his new Protestant Dean and Chapter in whose administration they remained until Victorian times (though in a map of the area from 1621 the lands are still attributed to 'Christ Churche', referring to Christ Church in Canterbury). On a map made of the Chart and Longbridge Hundred in 1559, the village was named Charte Magna. On 1 April 1987 the civil parish of "Great Chard"
651-571: The problem of flooding along the lower course of the Stour. The action of tidal drift of shingle along the coast had resulted in the huge loop at the estuary end of the river, and on 29 November 1774 an Act of Parliament was enacted to bypass the loop at the narrowest end, at Stonar . The works, to become known as the Stonar Cut , made use of an existing sluice to cut across the neck of the loop, and were completed in 1776. During World War I , huge volumes of both troops and supplies were needed on
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#1732772050026682-482: The ridge near Hothfield into a broad valley. Three small streams enter from the north, having their headwaters on the close to Downs escarpment. Flood defences can turn this valley into a large lake and an embankment has had to be built to prevent overflow into the Medway catchment barely 100 metres (330 ft) away to the south. The river turns north east by the village of Great Chart in the direction of its outlet to
713-419: The river is normally known as the River Stour. The twin villages in the parish of Stourmouth (West and East) mark the original point where the Stour entered the erstwhile Wantsum Channel , a strait used for hundreds of years until silting and land reclamation turned the sea channel into a large drainage ditch. At this point the third large tributary, the 8.4-mile (13.4 km) Sarre Penn (named locally as
744-626: The river. The source, of what is known at that point as the Great Stour, is near the village of Lenham , within a short distance of the River Len , a tributary of the Medway . The source is at a high elevation close to the North Downs escarpment. At first, the river flows south east in a narrow valley parallel to the escarpment and the Greensand ridge to the south, before breaking through
775-521: The sea, and the great storm of 1809 carried away half of the fort. It is postulated that the eroded material was carried along the shore and blocked the northern mouth of the Wantsum. The River Wantsum now joins the Great Stour from the north as a small tributary, just before the Little Stour enters it from the south to form what is thereafter known simply as the River Stour . 51°23′N 1°14′E / 51.383°N 1.233°E / 51.383; 1.233 This Kent location article
806-480: The sea. The confluence with the East Stour , flowing from its source near Hythe , is to be found at Pledge's Mill at the bottom of East Hill in Ashford. The town of Ashford marks the start of the middle section of the river, sited at a crossing point of the river and on ancient track ways. In Ashford, the river helps form part of the Ashford Green Corridor . After Ashford, the Stour breaches
837-492: The sediment build up. Author Russell Hoban repurposes the River Stour where it flows through Canterbury as the "Rivver Sour" in his 1980, post apocalyptic novel Riddley Walker . The River Stour features in the 1944 film A Canterbury Tale . Great Chart Great Chart is a village and former civil parish , now in the parish of Great Chart with Singleton , in the Ashford borough of Kent , England. The parish
868-542: The silting up of the southern entrance to the English Channel . In 1831 Joseph Priestley wrote his Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals and Railways . In it he described in one section the "Canterbury Navigation, or River Stour". He includes an account of its course and the improvements being carried out at that time to assist navigation, and details of new port facilities. Man has used
899-491: Was "about three furlongs broad [660 yards (600 m)], and is fordable only in two places, for both ends run into the sea". In 1414 there was still a ferry crossing the Wantsum at Sarre , but by 1550 Thanet was no longer an island. At Reculver , the Romans built a fort that was about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the sea, whereas Leland , in the early 16th century, described Reculver as being 1 ⁄ 4 mile (400 m) from
930-443: Was abolished to form "Great Chart with Singleton", part went to Hothfield and Kingsnorth and the unparished area of Ashford. On 10 March 2021 police found human remains in a wood near the village. On 12 March 2021 they were confirmed to be those of Sarah Everard . Great Chart is a largely agricultural village with the farms in the area producing cereals and grass for cattle and sheep. The north-east quarter contains most of
961-472: Was on the Wantsum Channel , an important sea route in medieval times. The river has three major tributaries , and many minor ones. For much of its length, it flows in a generally south-west to north-east direction. The historic city of Canterbury is situated on the river, as are the former Cinque Port of Sandwich and the railway town of Ashford. The route of the Stour Valley Walk follows