The River Till rises near
Tilshead
Tilshead () is a village and civil parish in the county of Wiltshire in Southern England, about northwest of the town of Amesbury. It is close to the geographical centre of Salisbury Plain, on the A360 road approximately midway between the vil ...
on
Salisbury Plain
Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in the south western part of central southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies wi ...
in the English county of Wiltshire. It flows for about south and south-east, through
Orcheston
Orcheston ) is a civil parish and village in Wiltshire, England, lying on Salisbury Plain less than a mile north-west of neighbouring Shrewton. The present-day parish combines the two former parishes of Orcheston St Mary and Orcheston St George ...
,
Maddington,
Shrewton
Shrewton is a village and civil parish on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, around west of Amesbury and north of Salisbury. It lies on the A360 road between Stonehenge and Tilshead. It is close to the source of the River Till, which flows ...
,
Winterbourne Stoke
Winterbourne Stoke is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about west of Amesbury and west of the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge.
The village is on the River Till at the southern edge of Salisbury Plain, on both sides of a s ...
,
Berwick St James
Berwick St James is a village and civil parish on the River Till in Wiltshire, England, about northwest of Salisbury, on the southern edge of Salisbury Plain. The parish includes the hamlet of Asserton. At the 2001 census the parish had a popu ...
and
Stapleford, to join the
River Wylye
The River Wylye ( ) is a chalk stream in the south of England, with clear water flowing over gravel. It is popular with anglers for fly fishing. A half-mile stretch of the river and three lakes in Warminster are a local nature reserve.
Cour ...
.
The upper part of the river is a
winterbourne, flowing only in winter and early spring. The whole length of the Till has been designated as a
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 ...
, as its vegetation includes
water crowfoot which provides habitat for fish and snails.
Although Tilshead village appears to be named from the river, the opposite applies. The village name was first used in the 16th century, and comes from older names based on "Theodwulf's hide" (recorded in
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
as ''Tidolthide''). The river was called the Winterbourne until around the start of the 20th century, when the name River Till began to be used on
Ordnance Survey
, nativename_a =
, nativename_r =
, logo = Ordnance Survey 2015 Logo.svg
, logo_width = 240px
, logo_caption =
, seal =
, seal_width =
, seal_caption =
, picture =
, picture_width =
, picture_caption =
, formed =
, preceding1 =
, di ...
maps.
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 ...
s,
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.
[ Text was copied from this source, which is available under a]
Open Government Licence v3.0
© Crown copyright.
Water quality of the River Till in 2019:
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Till
Rivers of Wiltshire