Seven Springs is a hamlet in the heavily wooded parish of Coberley in the Cotswold District of

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 ...

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 ...

, south of

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

. Including the intersection of the

A435 List of A roads in Great Britain, A roads in List of A roads zones in Great Britain, zone 4 in Great Britain starting north of the A4 road (Great Britain), A4 and south/west of the A5 road (Great Britain), A5 (roads beginning with 4). __TOC__ ...

and A436 roads, it has the sources of the River Churn, which flows south across almost a full cross-section of the Cotswolds, through Cirencester, and joins the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

near Cricklade.

Source of the Thames

Seven Springs features in the long-running argument over the true source of the

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 ...

Two plaques at the site read "Hic tuus o Tamesine Pater septemgeminus fons" (Latin for "Here, O Father Thames, is your sevenfold spring"). Seven Springs is further from the mouth of the Thames than the medieval preferred source at Thames Head near Kemble. In 2012 Coberley Parish Council posted a notice, on site, that "Seven Springs is certainly one of the sources of the River Thames and is held by many to be the ultimate source." The notice adds that the site is the source of the River Churn, which flows into the Thames at Cricklade, and as its location is furthest from the mouth of the Thames, it adds some to the length of the river flow. Furthermore, the springs at the site flow throughout the year, whereas those at the official source of Thames Head are only seasonal. The Churn/Thames may therefore be regarded as the longest natural river flow in the United Kingdom, beating its nearest rival, the

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

by , if stretches with a high degree of saltwater are taken as part of the river. If this is seen as correct, the Thames may be longer than the

River Shannon The River Shannon ( ga, Abhainn na Sionainne, ', '), at in length, is the longest river in the British Isles. It drains the Shannon River Basin, which has an area of , – approximately one fifth of the area of the island of Ireland. The Shan ...

(), making it the longest river in the British Isles. The stream from Seven Springs is joined within Coberley by a still longer, less reliable tributary, which amounts to the longest headwater of the Thames river system. Its source is in the grounds of the National Star College in the parish of

Ullenwood Ullenwood is a village in the Coberley civil parish, near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire. It is the site of a formerly secret civil defence bunker intended as a Regional Seat of Government in the event of nuclear war. It is the site of the form ...

References

External links

Location map
(Ordnance Survey)
GENUKI: Coberley, Gloucestershire
- UK genealogy page
Google Earth link of Seven Springs and around
{{authority control Villages in Gloucestershire Cotswold District River Thames