The River Eye is a short river in the

Cotswold District Cotswold is a local government district in Gloucestershire, England. It is named after the wider Cotswolds region and range of hills. The council is based in the district's largest town of Cirencester. The district also includes the towns of ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

which flows for through the villages of

Upper Slaughter Upper Slaughter is a village in the Cotswold (district), Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England, south west of Stow-on-the-Wold. The village lies off the A429, which is known as the Fosse Way, and is located one mile away from its twin v ...

and

Lower Slaughter Lower Slaughter is a village in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England, south west of Stow-on-the-Wold. The village is built on both banks of the River Eye, a slow-moving stream crossed by two footbridges, which also flows throug ...

. The river is home to

brown trout The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a species of salmonid ray-finned fish and the most widely distributed species of the genus ''Salmo'', endemic to most of Europe, West Asia and parts of North Africa, and has been widely introduced globally ...

Course

The Eye rises in a spring in the

Cotswold Hills The Cotswolds ( ) is a region of central South West England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper River Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and the Vale of Evesham. The area is defined by the be ...

at a height of around 160m in the northern end of the parish of

. It flows south in its own steep-sided valley through the grounds of Eyford Park, a house built in the early 20th century, with noted formal gardens. Here the river has been dammed at two points to form lakes for the house, known as "Upper Lake" and "The Lake".Ordnance Survey of Great Britain Lower_Slaughter_Cotswolds

Crossing the B4068, the river joins the footpath known as "Warden's Way", that runs from

Bourton-on-the-Water Bourton-on-the-Water is a village and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, that lies on a wide flat vale within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The village had a population of 3,296 at the 2011 census. Much of the village ...

Winchcombe Winchcombe () is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Tewkesbury in the county of Gloucestershire, England, situated northeast of Cheltenham. The population was recorded as 4,538 in the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census and ...

and after a kilometre passes St Peter's, parish church of the small village of Upper Slaughter, as it encircles the village to the north and east. Turning south east, it descends into

after another kilometre passing first under a former

water mill 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 ...

. There was a mill listed on the site in the

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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

, and it continued to produce flour for the village until the death of the owner in 1958. It is now a shop and museum, housing the machinery of the former mill. The river runs through the heart of the popular tourist village of Lower Slaughter, where it is commonly known as Slaughter Brook, forming a picturesque backdrop to the much-admired cottages of Cotswold stone. After leaving Lower Slaughter it flows under the Roman

Fosse Way The Fosse Way was a Roman road built in Britain during the first and second centuries AD that linked Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter) in the southwest and Lindum Colonia ( Lincoln) to the northeast, via Lindinis ( Ilchester), Aquae Sulis ( Bat ...

at Slaughter Bridge, and forms the boundary between the parishes of Lower Slaughter and Bourton-on-the-Water as it winds between fields used for sheep farming. After running parallel to the River Dikler for a kilometre, it finally empties into the Dikler a kilometre to the east of Bourton-on-the-Water, only two kilometres before the Dikler flows into the

River Windrush The River Windrush is a tributary of the River Thames in central England. It rises near Snowshill in Gloucestershire and flows south east for via Burford and Witney to meet the Thames at Newbridge, River Thames, Newbridge in Oxfordshire. The ri ...

History

The river gives its name to Eyford Park, indicating the presence of a former ford across the river.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eye, River (Gloucestershire) Rivers of Gloucestershire 2Eye

Course

History

See also

References

External links