The River Isbourne is 14 mile (22 km) long tributary of the
River Avon which flows through
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
and
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...
in the
Midlands of England.
Course
The source of the river is a series of
springs that occur on the northern flank of
Cleeve Hill, on the edge of the
Cotswold Hills. These springs occur where the permeable Jurassic limestone, meets the impermeable Upper Lias mudstone and clays that underlie most of the Isbourne catchment.
The river flows from
Cleeve Hill in a steep valley in a northerly direction through the hamlet of Postlip, before reaching the town of
Winchcombe
Winchcombe () is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Tewkesbury in the county of Gloucestershire, England, it is 6 miles north-east of Cheltenham. The population was recorded as 4,538 in the 2011 census and estimated at 5,347 in ...
which it passes along its eastern side. Beyond the town, it continues northwards to
Toddington, through the grounds of
Toddington Manor, and then past the village of
Wormington
Wormington is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Dumbleton, in the Tewkesbury district, in Gloucestershire, England. It lies on the River Isbourne, north of Winchcombe and south of Evesham. In 1931 the parish had a popula ...
. The river then crosses into Worcestershire and is joined by the Laverton brook, before it reaches the village of
Sedgeberrow. Flowing directly north the Isbourne passes through the village of Hinton on the Green, it then continues through an area of market gardens on the outskirts of Evesham, and passes under the Pershore road, before joining the River Avon near
Hampton
Hampton may refer to:
Places Australia
*Hampton bioregion, an IBRA biogeographic region in Western Australia
*Hampton, New South Wales
*Hampton, Queensland, a town in the Toowoomba Region
* Hampton, Victoria
Canada
* Hampton, New Brunswick
*Ha ...
.
Catchment
The Isbourne catchment covers an area of and lies between the
Badsey Brook to the east, the Merry Brook and Carrant Brook to the west with the Cotswolds to the south. It has an average annual rainfall of , which is somewhat drier than the average for England at .
Land use in the catchment is predominantly rural, with 80 percent made up from a mixture of arable, horticulture and pasture; the remainder being woodland, with a minor fraction of urbanised area of less than 2 percent.
In terms of geology, apart from the headwaters which are underlain by the Cotswold limestone, the majority of catchment is Lias clay. This impermeable clay means that Isbourne can become responsive in terms of runoff to heavy rainfall events.
Flooding
The Isbourne has a history of flooding along its course, especially in Sedgeberrow, the most recent occasion being in
summer 2007.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Isbourne
Rivers of Gloucestershire
Rivers of Worcestershire
1Isbourne