River Avon, Warwickshire

The Avon in Stratford- upon- Avon

The Avon [ eɪvən ] is a 136 km long river in England that flows through the counties of Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire in the Midlands. The river is also known as the Warwickshire Avon or Shakespeare's Avon.

The Avon rises in northern Northamptonshire near the village of Naseby. In the first few kilometers it forms the border between Northamptonshire and Leicestershire; then he heads west, north of the Cotswolds over, by Rugby, Leamington Spa, Stratford -upon- Avon, Evesham and Pershore. In the Avon Tewkesbury combined with the Severn.

In Stratford- upon- Avon Stratford -upon- Avon Canal, a Narrowboat Canal meets, on the Avon. Among the tributaries of the Avon include among others the rivers Leam, Stour, Sowe, Dene, Arrow, Swift and Isonbourn. The river is interrupted by numerous dams and locks and more.

Avon is a word from the Welsh language and means river. Therefore, there is still more rivers, which bear the name Avon, see Avon. Among the Romans, the Avon was probably known by the name Avona.

From about three kilometers north of Stratford- upon- Avon located in Alveston weir up to its confluence with the Severn at Tewksbury Avon is navigable for vessels with a maximum length of 21 m and a width of 4.1 m, where north of Evesham the width is reduced to 3.8 m. The recreational waterway cabin cruisers and narrowboats dominates by far over rare commercial shipping. The Avon is part of the Avon ring, a popular boat among tourists round the course.

History

Already in 1635 King Charles I allowed the use of the Avon as a waterway. After the construction of weirs and sluices of Avon was navigable from 1641 of Tewksbury to about 6 km from Warwick and in 1664 reached Stratford- upon- Avon Barges with a payload of 30 tonnes. In 1771 the property rights were at the river in the southern Lower Avon ( Lower Avon ) and the northern Upper Avon ( Upper Avon ) divided. The boundary between the two was in Evesham.

George Parrot, who managed the Lower Avon, extended as a consequence the locks, so that as of 1768 also barges with a payload of up to 40 tons could get to Evesham. From 1830 to 1872, the Worcester and Birmingham Canal Company leased the Lower Avon, but when in 1864 the railway reached Evesham, freight rates fell so heavily on the Lower Avon, that the tenancy was not renewed. The Upper Avon suffered by the connection of Stratford- upon- Avon on the railways a similar fate. The maintenance of locks and dams was set at about 1870 and navigability was lost over the years. Only a cargo ship to Avon At the end of the Second World War, sailed regularly from Tewksbury to Pershore, north of Pershore was the Avon at that time was no longer navigable.

Restoration

After the Second World War, the phase of the restoration of the English inland waterways began. While the Narrowboat channels were nationalized and placed under and maintain public funds, remained the Avon privately owned. It formed in 1950 initially the nonprofit Lower Avon Navigation Trust ( LANT ) and fifteen years later, the equally -profit Upper Avon Navigation Trust ( UANT ) and reproduced with funds raised money and donations and voluntary work campaigns of enthusiasts first the seven locks of Tewksbury to Evesham repaired translated so that a restart of the shipping in this section in June 1962 was possible. The section from Evesham to Stratford- upon- Avon was not navigable at that time been in part for more than 100 years, so that the restoration effort was considerably larger. But in 1974 was under the patronage of the Queen Mother on June 1, 1974 and the Upper Avon Navigation Trust release its northern section of the river for shipping again.

Comments

• River in Europe
• River in England
• Severn River system
• Geography ( Northamptonshire )
• Geography ( Warwickshire )
• Geography ( Worcestershire )
• Geography ( Gloucestershire )
• Geography ( Leicestershire )