Wensum, River
The River Wensum begins life near the village of
South
Raynham where several streams converge. From here it
flows northwards through Raynham Park and on towards the
market town of Fakenham. After Fakenham it turns south
through Great Ryburgh and then through Bintree Mill -
where The Mill on the Floss was filmed. The river takes its name from
the Anglo-Saxon word for 'winding'.
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Bintree Mill
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Further downstream, the river enters Parson Woodforde
country and in his diary entry of May 16th 1781 he
records a fishing party which took place at Lenwade and Morton.
Parson Woodforde lived at nearby
Weston Longville.
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'Between 7 and 8 o'clock this morning went down to
the River a fishing with my Nets. Ben, Will, Jack, Harry
Dunnell and Willm Legate (Ben's Brother) were my
Fishermen. We begun at Lenewade Mill and fished down to
Morton. And we had the best day of Fishing we ever had.
We caught at one draught only ten Pails of Fish, Pike,
Trout and flat fish. The largest Fish we caught was a
Pike, which was a Yard long and weighed upwards of
thirteen pound after he was brought home.' |
Another fisherman who loves the Wensum is John Wilson
who has caught many specimen chub and barbel -
particularly around Costessey (pronounced 'Cossey'). He describes
the Wensum as: 'the loveliest of Norfolk's rivers'. |
In Lavengro George Borrow describes the more
mature River Wensum in Norwich:
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'At the foot of the heights flows a narrow and deep
river, with an antique bridge communicating with a long
and narrow suburb, flanked on either side by rich
meadows of the brightest green' |
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The Wensum at Riverside Road Norwich |
From September 2003 to June 2004 I kept a haiku diary
about the River Wensum in Norwich between Whitefriars Bridge and
Bishops Bridge. The sequence
began and ended with a poem about kingfishers:
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Electric - blue - shock
Flying at full pelt, parting
The ordinary.One foot above you,
The kingfisher's firework
Flashes and is gone.
Read complete sequence |
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At Trowse - just south-east of Norwich - the Wensum
merges with the smaller River Yare and loses its
identity.
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Links:
River Wensum Initiative
River Wensum at Ringland |
Supported
by Norfolk Tourism