The Beaulieu River ( ), formerly known as the River Exe, is a small river draining much of the central

New Forest The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, featu ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

, southern

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The river has many small upper branches and its farthest source is from its -long tidal estuary. Unusually, the river, including its bed, is owned by

Lord Montagu of Beaulieu Baron Montagu of Beaulieu (, Engl. pronunciation: "bewley", from French ''beau'', "beautiful" and ''lieu'', "place"), in the County of Hampshire, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1885 for the Conservative pol ...

Etymology

The current name, Beaulieu is French, meaning "beautiful place". The original name, Exe, is

Brythonic Brittonic or Brythonic may refer to: *Common Brittonic, or Brythonic, the Celtic language anciently spoken in Great Britain *Brittonic languages, a branch of the Celtic languages descended from Common Brittonic *Britons (Celtic people) The Br ...

, deriving from the Ancient British word *''Iska'' meaning "fishes" or "fish-place" and

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...

with the modern Welsh word ''Pysg'' (fishes).This derivation applies to many similarly named rivers throughout Britain including the

Axe An axe ( sometimes ax in American English; see spelling differences) is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood, to harvest timber, as a weapon, and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol. The axe has many for ...

Exe Exe or EXE may refer to: * .exe, a file extension * exe., abbreviation for executive Places * River Exe, in England * Exe Estuary, in England * Exe Island, in Exeter, England Transportation and vehicles * Exe (locomotive), a British locomotive ...

and

Usk Usk ( cy, Brynbuga) is a town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales, northeast of Newport. It is located on the River Usk, which is spanned by an arched stone bridge at the western entrance to the town. Usk Castle, above the town, overlooks th ...

, with the names evolving local distinctions over the centuries.

Course

The Beaulieu River rises near Lyndhurst in the centre of the New Forest, a zone where copses and scattered trees interrupt the relatively neutral sandy

heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...

soil, however with insufficient organic uneroded deposition over millennia to prevent an upper charismatic

dendritic drainage In geomorphology, drainage systems, also known as river systems, are the patterns formed by the streams, rivers, and lakes in a particular drainage basin. They are governed by the topography of land, whether a particular region is dominated by har ...

basin of many very small streams. This explains the multitude of tiny headwaters across the New Forest. Many coalesce into the flow southeast and then south across the forest heaths to the village of Beaulieu. There the river becomes

tidal Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * Tidal (servic ...

and once drove a

tide mill A tide mill is a water mill driven by tidal rise and fall. A dam with a sluice is created across a suitable tidal inlet, or a section of river estuary is made into a reservoir. As the tide comes in, it enters the mill pond through a one-way gate ...

in the village. The mill ceased operations in 1942. Below, the tidal river (estuary) continues to flow south-east through the Forest, passing the hamlet of

Bucklers Hard Buckler's Hard is a hamlet on the banks of the Beaulieu River in the English county of Hampshire. With its Georgian cottages running down to the river, Buckler's Hard is part of the Beaulieu Estate. The hamlet is some south of the village of ...

and entering the

Solent The Solent ( ) is a strait between the Isle of Wight and Great Britain. It is about long and varies in width between , although the Hurst Spit which projects into the Solent narrows the sea crossing between Hurst Castle and Colwell Bay to ...

at Needs Ore. For its final kilometre, it is separated from The Solent by a raised salt marsh known as Gull Island. Below Beaulieu village the river is navigable to small craft. Bucklers Hard was once a significant

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...

centre, building many wooden sailing ships, both merchant and naval, including Nelson's ''Agamemnon''. Since 2000 the navigable channel at the entrance to the river has been marked by a lighthouse known as the Millennium Lighthouse or the Beaulieu River Beacon.

Tributaries

The river has two main tributaries, the Beaulieu Abbey Stream to the left and the Hatchet Stream to the right. In addition there are a series of artificial lakes near the mouth of the river, known as the Black Lagoons.

Water quality

The Environment Agency measures the water quality of the river systems in England. Each is given an overall ecological status, which may be one of five levels: high, good, moderate, poor and bad. There are several components that are used to determine this, including biological status, which looks at the quantity and varieties of

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

angiosperm Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s and fish. Chemical status, which compares the concentrations of various chemicals against known safe concentrations, is rated good or fail. The water quality of the Beaulieu River was as follows in 2019:

Film appearances

The river was used as a backdrop for some scenes of the 1966 film '' A Man for All Seasons'' – the tree-lined waters were used to portray the 16th century

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

.Gene Brown (1984) ''The New York Times Encyclopedia of Film: 1964-1968'',

Gallery

Image:Fallen tree bridging beaulieu river.jpg, The infant river upstream from Dunces Arch Image:Beaulieu river under railway arch.jpg, The river passes beneath the railway, north of Fulliford Passage Image:Beaulieu river upstream of pottern ford.jpg, Bend in the river near Pottern Ford Image:Alder trees beaulieu river fawley ford.jpg, Alder trees in the river north of Fawley Ford Image:Beaulieu_river_mill_dam.jpg, The Mill Dam at Beaulieu Image:Beaulieu_river_tidal_limit.jpg, The upper tidal limit of the river Image:Beaulieu river moored boat.jpg, The river between Beaulieu and Bucklers Hard Image:Bucklers Hard (1).JPG, The river at Bucklers Hard Image:Yacht entering the beaulieu river.jpg, A yacht entering the river from the Solent Image:The Millennium Light, Lepe, Hampshire - geograph.org.uk - 16977.jpg, Millennium Lighthouse at the mouth of the river

References

External links

Geology of the Beaulieu River Estuary by Ian West and Yining Chen
{{authority control New Forest Beaulieu, River Alder carrs