The River Rea is a small river that flows through south east
Shropshire
Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...
,
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
.
Course
It passes just to the east of the small
market town
A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...
of
Cleobury Mortimer
Cleobury Mortimer (, ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in south-east Shropshire, England, which had a population of 3,036 at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census. It was granted a market charter by King Henry ...
and just south of the
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...
of
Neen Savage, before entering the
Teme at
Newnham Bridge in
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...
. Its waters eventually reach the
Bristol Channel
The Bristol Channel (, literal translation: "Severn Sea") is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales (from Pembrokeshire to the Vale of Glamorgan) and South West England (from Devon to North Somerset). It extends ...
, via the
Severn
The River Severn (, ), at long, is the longest river in Great Britain. It is also the river with the most voluminous flow of water by far in all of England and Wales, with an average flow rate of at Apperley, Gloucestershire. It rises in t ...
. The upper stretch of the river is known as the Rea Brook (not to be confused with the
Rea Brook which flows from Marton Pool to the River Severn in
Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is sited on the River Severn, northwest of Wolverhampton, west of Telford, southeast of Wrexham and north of Hereford. At the 2021 United ...
). For a short stretch between Cleobury Mortimer and
Neen Sollars the river forms part of the Shropshire-Worcestershire border.
It is crossed (at ) by the
Elan aqueduct.
Etymology
The name of the river derives from a root found in many Indo-European languages and means "to run" or "to flow".
The historic or alternative name for the river is the River Neen and there are three settlements along its course which take its name:
Neen Sollars,
Neenton and
Neen Savage. This name appears to come from Brythonic ''*Nein-'', which could mean either washing or snowing.
[Ekwall, Eilert (1928) ''English River-Names'' p 300]
References
External links
*
Rivers of Shropshire
1Rea
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