The River Gowy is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, England, a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

of the

River Mersey The River Mersey () is in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it has formed part ...

. It rises in western Cheshire in the hills near

Peckforton Castle Peckforton Castle is a Victorian country house built in the style of a medieval castle. It stands in woodland at the north end of Peckforton Hills northwest of the village of Peckforton, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Herit ...

, very close to the source of the

River Weaver The River Weaver is a river, navigable in its lower reaches, running in a curving route anti-clockwise across west Cheshire, northern England. Improvements to the river to make it navigable were authorised in 1720 and the work, which included ...

. While the Weaver flows south initially, the Gowy flows north and for several miles provides the valley used by the

Shropshire Union Canal The Shropshire Union Canal, nicknamed the "Shroppie", is a navigable canal in England. The Llangollen and Montgomery canals are the modern names of branches of the Shropshire Union (SU) system and lie partially in Wales. The canal lies in ...

. It runs just to the east of

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

and passes through a syphon under the

Manchester Ship Canal The Manchester Ship Canal is a inland waterway in the North West of England linking Manchester to the Irish Sea. Starting at the Mersey Estuary at Eastham, near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, it generally follows the original routes of the river ...

to meet the Mersey near Stanlow. Its total length is around . Perennially popular with fishermen and home to several rare invertebrates, it has been polluted in its lower reaches in recent decades, due in part to the

oil refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, lique ...

at Stanlow and the arrival of the nearby M53 and M56 motorways, leading to schemes by environmental groups to clean up the area and to restock the fish population. The Gowy Meadows Nature Reserve, founded in 2002 and stretching from the A5117 to the M56, is an area of river valley peat covered with wet grassland or grazing meadows. This area of , owned by

Shell UK Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yor ...

, has been created as a nature reserve by

Cheshire Wildlife Trust The Cheshire Wildlife Trust (CWT) is a wildlife trust covering the county of Cheshire and parts of the counties of Greater Manchester and Merseyside, England. The trust's chairman is Bill Stothart. It manages 43 nature reserves totalling over 470 ...

. Surveys 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 ...

show that the Gowy's

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

population has held up well despite a Europe-wide massive decline in numbers. The reasons for this are unclear but local anglers suggest that eel in the river may not follow normal migration patterns because of the partially closed nature of the river flow caused by the system of syphoning under the ship canal. At one time the river provided power for up to 20

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production of ...

s. Today only a few remain: Bates Mill and Walk Mill (both in private ownership), Bunbury Mill (now owned by a Trust) and

Trafford Mill Trafford Mill is a water mill ¾ mile (1.2 km) to the north of the village of Mickle Trafford, Cheshire, England (). It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building. History The earli ...

. The latter is owned by

United Utilities United Utilities Group plc (UU), the United Kingdom's largest listed water company, was founded in 1995 as a result of the merger of North West Water and NORWEB. The group manages the regulated water and waste water network in North West Englan ...

plc. Bunbury Mill is open to the public at times. Trafford Mill is being developed as a museum and an educational and training resource concentrating on conservation-related activities. The river's length has been increased over the centuries as land has been reclaimed by draining the marshes. It was on the marshes at

Gibbet A gibbet is any instrument of public execution (including guillotine, decapitation, executioner's block, Impalement, impalement stake, gallows, hanging gallows, or related Scaffold (execution site), scaffold). Gibbeting is the use of a gallows- ...

’s Field near

Mickle Trafford Mickle Trafford is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Mickle Trafford and District, in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It includes the area known as Plemst ...

that James Brown and Thomas Price were hanged in January 1795 for the abduction and robbery of a mail boy.

Tributaries

Thornton Brook Thornton or ''variant'', may refer to: People * Thornton (surname), people with the surname ''Thornton'' * Justice Thornton (disambiguation), judges named "Thornton" *Thornton Wilder, American playwright Places Australia *Thornton, New South Wa ...

* Mill Brook * Back Brook * Barrow Brook * Milton Brook * Waterless Brook * Southley Brook * Crimes Brook

References

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