page_title: Seven Springs, Gloucestershire
section_title: Source of the Thames
hierarchical_section_title: Seven Springs, Gloucestershire / Source of the Thames
caption_attribution_description: English: Plaque with Latin inscription at Seven Sources
context_page_description: Seven Springs is a hamlet in the heavily-wooded parish of Coberley in the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire in England, 4 miles south of Cheltenham. Including the intersection of the A435 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 near Cricklade.
context_section_description: Seven Springs features in the long-running argument over the true source of the River Thames.
  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 the same way as the Churn headwater of the Thames can be counted as its greatest length, the same analysis is often applied to the Sava's Sava Dolinka, giving the watercourse's greater length, in Slovenia.
  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 14 miles 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 by 9 miles – if much saltwater which well may be more of the sea than river, as place names like Southend-on-Sea, attest is taken as being river. If this is deemed to be correct, it would also be longer than the River Shannon (224 miles/360.5 km), making it the longest river in the British Isles.
  The stream from Seven Springs is joined within Coberley by a still longer, slightly less reliable tributary, which gives the longest headwater of the Thames river system. Its source in the grounds of the National Star College in the parish of Ullenwood.
caption: Latin inscription over exit point
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