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The Somme river was known in ancient times asSamara. It presumably means 'the summery river', that is to say the 'quiet river', stemming from an adjective *sam-aro- ('summery') itself derived from theCeltic root *samo- ('summer').[4][5]
The city ofAmiens was also known asSamarobriva (Gaulish: 'bridge on the Samara'). It is attested by the early 1st century BC as the chief town of theAmbiani, an ancientGallic tribe of the region.[5] The modern department ofSomme was named after this river.
Most famously, theBattle of the Somme, duringWorld War I, lasted from July to November 1916 and resulted in more than a million casualties. Private A. S. Bullock in his wartime memoir recalled his first sight of it in early April 1918: "... we reached a small place calledHengest sur Somme. The train stopped and we descended. There in front of us was a muddy, sluggish and somewhat narrow stream, which has given its name to one of the most awful battles in history – the Somme."[7] The great battles that finally stopped the German advance in theSpring Offensive of 1918 were fought around the valley of the Somme in places likeVillers Bretonneux, which marked the beginning of the end of the war.
The river is characterized by a very gentle gradient and a steady flow. The valley is more or less steep-sided but its bottom is flat withfens and pools. These characteristics of steady flow and flooded valley bottom arise from the river's being fed by theground water in thechalk basin in which it lies. At earlier, colder times, from theGünz to theWürm (Beestonian or Nebraskan to Devensian or Wisconsinian) the river has cut down into theCretaceous geology to a level below the modernwater table. The valley bottom has now therefore, filled with water which, in turn, has filled withfen.This picture [nl], of the source of the Somme in 1986, shows it when the water table had fallen below the surface of the chalk in which theaquifer lies. Here, the flow of water had beensufficient to keep fen from forming.
One of the fens, theMarais de l'Île is a nature reserve in the town of St.Quentin. The traditional market gardens ofAmiens, theHortillonages are on this sort of land but drained. Once exploited forpeat cutting, the fen is now used for fishing and shooting
In 2001, the Somme valley was affected by particularly high floods, which were in large part due to a rise in thewater table of the surrounding land.
Daily flow rates compared with mean rates for the time of year at Hangest-sur-Somme (m3/s). Catchment area 4,835 km2 (1,867 sq mi).[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]
The construction of theCanal de la Somme began in 1770 and reached completion in 1843. It is 156 km (97 mi) long, beginning at St.Simon and opening into the Bay of the Somme. From St.Simon to Froissy (near Bray sur Somme, south of Albert), the canal is alongside the river. Thence to the sea, the river is partly river and partly navigation. FromAbbeville, it is diverted through thesilted, formerestuary, toSaint-Valery-sur-Somme, where the maritime canal, once called the canal du Duc d'Angoulême enters the English Channel.
An example of the lakes formed in the fen of the valley bottom. They attract wildfowlers and anglers.
^A satellite photograph of the area[8] shows the fenny valley crossing the chalk to the sea on the left. The sinuous length at the centre of the picture lies downstream fromPéronne.
^Hanotaux, Gabriel (1933–1947).Histoire du cardinal de Richelieu (in French). Vol. 5. Paris.319–21, 327.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Bullock, Arthur Stanley (2009).Gloucestershire Between the Wars: a memoir. Stroud: The History Press.ISBN9780752447933.
Delattre, Ch., Mériaux, E. and Waterlot, M.Guides Géologiques Régionaux: Région du Nord, Flandre Artois Boulonnais Picardie (1973)
Falileyev, Alexander (2010).Dictionary of Continental Celtic Place-names: A Celtic Companion to the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. CMCS.ISBN978-0955718236.
