The River Gowan is a short river in Cumbria, running easterly through the village of Ings before joining the River Kent at Staveley.

Etymology

It is difficult to determine where the river got its name. In Scottish English, ''gowan'' the name for the common daisy or occasionally the buttercup. It is derived from the original form ''gollan'' which is the marsh marigold, the name was made famous by Robert Burns in a poem originally entitled ''"The Gowan"'' which is now known as ''" To a Mountain Daisy"''. The Lakeland poet William Wordsworth also uses the word gowan to refer to a common wayside flower indicating that the name was used in the area and therefore it is possible that the river got its name from the fact that it flows through many flower meadows on the valley floor. In Scottish Gaelic ''Gowen/Gowan'' can also mean "''blacksmith''". The name may therefore otherwise have come from the

Scots Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...

or from Irish missionaries who are known to have travelled in Cumbria during the

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

period and have given many words to the local dialect.

Ecology

In 2013 work was completed on a river improvement project to restore meanders between Ings and Staveley involving the removal of 71 metres of man-made flood embankment. This was part of project funded by the

Environment Agency The Environment Agency (EA) is a non-departmental public body, established in 1996 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with responsibilities relating to the protection and enha ...

and Natural England which aims to bring river units of the River Kent & Tributaries

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

/ Special Area of Conservation into "improving" condition. The Kent is designated a Special Area of Conservation, primarily as an important habitat for the endangered White-clawed Crayfish ('' Austropotamobius pallipes'').River Kent: site details
Joint Nature Conservation Committee It is anticipated that apart from ecological benefits, the reconnection of the river with its

flood plain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

will help alleviate flooding downstream.

References

Gowan (Cumbria), River 1Gowan {{England-river-stub