Severn
Severn is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.
- Feature Class
- River
- Coordinates
- 53.85°, -91.04°
About Severn
The River Severn ( ; Welsh: Afon Hafren, pronounced [ˈavɔn ˈhavrɛn]) is the longest river in Great Britain, with a length of 220 miles (354 km). It is also the river with the most voluminous flow of water by far in all of England and Wales, with an average flow rate of 107 m3/s (3,800 cu ft/s) at Apperley, Gloucestershire. It rises in the Cambrian Mountains in mid Wales, at an altitude of 610 m (2,000 ft), on the Plynlimon massif, which lies close to the Ceredigion/Powys border near Llanidloes. The river then flows through Shropshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. The county towns of Shrewsbury, Worcester and Gloucester lie on its course.
The Severn's major tributaries are the Vyrnwy, the Tern, the Teme, the Warwickshire Avon, and the Worcestershire Stour.
By convention, the River Severn is usually considered to end, and the Severn Estuary to begin, after the Prince of Wales Bridge, between Severn Beach in South Gloucestershire and Sudbrook, Monmouthshire. The total area of the estuary's drainage basin is 4,409 square miles (11,419 km2). That figure excludes the area of the River Wye and the Bristol Avon, both of which flow into the Severn Estuary.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: River Severn (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Severn in Depth
Geography and geology
The River Severn's current form is the result of a multi-million year history and complex underlying geology, shaped in part by glaciation during the last ice age in the Pleistocene epoch of the Quaternary period. Within Wales, the river runs through a landscape formed in Ordovician and Silurian rocks. As it enters the Shropshire Plain, these lower Palaeozoic rocks are replaced by Permian and Triassic age strata though largely unseen beneath a thick cover of Quaternary deposits. Certain stretches also run across Carboniferous strata as at Shrewsbury and for much of the distance between Ironbridge and Bewdley. Permo-Triassic bedrock then continues until the Severn moves intermittently onto the Jurassic outcrop from Tewkesbury southwards.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: River Severn (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Major River Dossiers
Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.
Connected Reaches
Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.
Water Bodies in the Catchment
Settlements Along the Reach
Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby
Surrounding Terrain
Severn: Quick Answers
- Where is Severn?
- Severn is located in Canada, at 53.8480° N, 91.0392° W.
- Are there dams on the Severn?
- No dam on the Severn is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.