Severn

Severn (Lat. Sabrina), one of the most important and beautiful and, after the Thames, the largest of the rivers of England, rises, 1500 feet above sea-level, from a chalybeate spring on the eastern side of Plinlimmon, 12 miles west of Llanddloes, in Montgomeryshire, North Wales. Flowing eastward from its source to Llanddloes, to which town it retains its original British name of Hafren, it afterwards flows north-east past Newtown (465 feet) and Welshpool to the eastern boundary of Montgomeryshire, then east-south-east past Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth in Salop, and finally southward through Worcester and Gloucester, in which last it begins to form the estuary that merges in the Bristol Channel (q.v.). It is navigable for barges to Welshpool in Montgomeryshire, 180 miles from its mouth. Its entire length is 210 miles (though the distance from source to mouth as the crow flies is only 80), and it drains an area of more than 6000 sq. m. The chief affluents of the Severn are the Terne and the Upper and Lower Avon on the east, and the Teme and Wye on the west. A canal 18½ miles long, and navigable for vessels of 350 tons, extends from Gloucester to the upper portion of the estuary of the river, and thus materially shortens the navigation of its lower course; and in the summer of 1891 works were undertaken, to cost £30,000, for the improvement of the navigation to Worcester. The Montgomery Canal extends from Welshpool to Newtown, and other canals establish communication between the Severn and the Thames, Trent, Mersey, and the other important rivers of the middle districts of England. In some of the reaches below Gloucester, especially near Newnham, the tide, which flows with great velocity, produces from the peculiar configuration of the estuary a bore (locally termed hygre) or wave sometimes 5 or 6 feet high, which not infrequently overwhelms lighters navigating the river. The railway twice crosses the estuary—near Berkeley by a viaduct (1879), 1194 yards long, and near Chepstow by a tunnel (1873-85), 4½ miles long.