page_title: River Great Ouse
section_title: Course
hierarchical_section_title: River Great Ouse / Course
caption_attribution_description: Confluence of the River Cam and the River Great Ouse, with the Fish and Duck Inn. Taken by self, March 19 2005.
context_page_description: The River Great Ouse is a river in the United Kingdom, the longest of several British rivers called "Ouse". From Syresham in central England, the Great Ouse flows into East Anglia before entering the Wash, a bay of the North Sea. With a course of 143 miles, mostly flowing north and east, it is the fourth longest river in the United Kingdom. The Great Ouse has been historically important for commercial navigation, and for draining the low-lying region through which it flows; its best-known tributary is the Cam, which runs through Cambridge. Its lower course passes through drained wetlands and fens and has been extensively modified, or channelised, to relieve flooding and provide a better route for barge traffic. Though the unmodified river probably changed course regularly after floods, it now enters the Wash after passing through the port of King's Lynn, south of its earliest-recorded route to the sea.
context_section_description: The river has several sources close to the village of Wappenham in Northamptonshire. It flows through Brackley, briefly through Oxfordshire and into Buckinghamshire, through Buckingham, Milton Keynes at Stony Stratford, Newport Pagnell, Olney and Kempston in Bedfordshire, which is the current head of navigation.
  Passing through Bedford, into Cambridgeshire through St Neots, Godmanchester, Huntingdon, Hemingford Grey and St Ives, it reaches Earith. Here, the river enters a short tidal section before branching in two. The artificial, very straight Old Bedford River and New Bedford River, which remain tidal, provide a direct link north-east towards the lower river at Denver in Norfolk.
  The old course of the river passes through Hermitage Lock into the Old West River. After joining the Cam near Little Thetford, north of Cambridge, the course passes the cathedral city of Ely and Littleport, to reach the Denver sluice. Below Denver the river is tidal and passes Downham Market to enter The Wash at King's Lynn.
  The river is navigable from the Wash to Kempston Mill, just beyond Bedford, a distance of 72 miles (116 km). This section includes 17 locks which are maintained by the Environment Agency, which is the navigation authority and who attempt to attract more boaters to the river. It has a catchment area of 3,240 square miles (8,380 km²) and a mean flow of 15.7 m³/s (550 cu ft/s) as measured at Denver Sluice.
  Its course has been modified several times, with the first recorded being in 1236, as a result of flooding. During the 1600s, the Old Bedford and New Bedford Rivers were built to provide a quicker route for the water to reach the sea. In the 20th century, construction of the Cut-Off Channel and the Great Ouse Relief Channel have further altered water flows in the region, and helped to reduce flooding.
  Improvements to assist navigation began in 1618, with the construction of sluices and locks. Bedford could be reached by river from 1689. A major feature was the sluice at Denver, which failed in 1713, but was rebuilt by 1750 after the problem of flooding returned. Kings Lynn, at the mouth of the river, developed as a port, with civil engineering input from many of the great engineers of the time. With the coming of the railways the state of the river declined so that it was unsuitable either for navigation or for drainage. The navigation was declared to be derelict in the 1870s.
  A repeated problem was the number of authorities responsible for different aspects of the river. The Drainage Board created in 1918 had no powers to address navigation issues, and there were six bodies responsible for the river below Denver in 1913. When the Great Ouse Catchment Board was created under the powers of the Land Drainage Act in 1930, effective action could at last be taken. There was significant sugar beet traffic on the river between 1925 and 1959, with the last known commercial traffic occurring in 1974. Leisure boating had been popular since 1904, and the post-war period saw the creation of the Great Ouse Restoration Society in 1951, who campaigned for complete renovation of the river. It was re-opened to Bedford in 1978, and is now managed by the Environment Agency.
  The Ouse Washes are an internationally important area for wildlife. Sandwiched between the Old Bedford and New Bedford rivers, they consist of washland which is used as pasture during the summer but which floods in the winter, and are the largest area of such land in the United Kingdom. They act as breeding grounds for lapwings, redshanks and snipe in spring, and are home to varieties of ducks and swans during the winter months.
caption: The confluence of the Great Ouse with the Cam, on the left
exif: {}