The Wensum is the principal river on which the city ofNorwich was founded.[7] The river passesCarrow Road, the home ofNorwich City F.C.; one end of the ground was originally namedThe River End in its honour, a name that still persists among fans.[8]
Modern Ordnance Survey Maps list the source of the Wensum as lying between the villages ofColkirk andWhissonsett in northwest Norfolk.[10] The reasoning behind this claim is unknown given that other tributaries are further from the mouth; pre-modern maps and other written sources refer to the source to be inWest Rudham[11][12] from springs arising on the aptly named Wensum Farm. From the source the river flows close to the villages ofSouth Raynham,West Raynham andEast Raynham, passingRaynham Hall, home of theMarquis Townshend. The Wensum then turns and flows north through a number of small villages until it reachesSculthorpe, where it turns east through the market town ofFakenham.[10] The river then flows in a southeasterly direction through thePensthorpe Nature Reserve and the village ofGreat Ryburgh.
The Wensum continues through or close to the villages ofGuist,North Elmham,Worthing,Swanton Morley,Lyng,Lenwade andTaverham before entering the City ofNorwich from the north-west viaDrayton,Costessey andHellesdon. At New Mills Yard, a former waterworks, the river becomes tidal and navigable by boat. Flowing through the city, the river forms a broad arc which would have influenced the site of the settlement for defensive reasons;[citation needed] remnants of boom towers can be seen near Wensum Park and Carrow Hill which formed part of the city wall and a large defensive tower can be seen on the bank near Barrack Street, calledCow Tower. This dates to the 12th century and was also used for collecting tolls.[13] Evidence of the river's historical use as a means of transport for goods and trade from the continent is still visible: mills, quays and industrial remnants can be found near the station and along King Street, and a slipway atPulls Ferry marks the start of a canal originally used to transportstone from Caen in Normandy, in the 13th Century, to buildNorwich Cathedral. This site was also a public house and used as a River Ferry until the 1950s.
The Wensum flows pastCarrow Road football ground and then out of the city viaTrowse toWhitlingham and its confluence with the River Yare. The Wensum is navigable from New Mills Yard in the centre of Norwich.
River Ainse. Merges with the River Wensum at Lenwade.
Norwich cockeys. A group of subterraneous streams flowing into the Wensum at Norwich, including the Muspole, Dalymond, Great Cockey, Dallingfleet, and Fresflete.[14]
North Elmham Mill, known locally as Grint Mill, had two breastshot waterwheels until the early twentieth century when they were replaced by two turbines. By the 1970s the milling machinery was driven by mains electricity while the turbines were used to drive a sack hoist and two mixing machines. The mill continued to produce animal feed into the late twentieth century.[21]
Taverham Mill. In the 19th century Taverham was a major producer of paper. Some of the paper which was produced at Taverham Mill was used in producingThe Times and theOxford English Dictionary. It also served the University Press at Cambridge. The paper mill closed in 1899.[26]
Hellesdon Mill was demolished for building materials in 1920.[28]
Norwich New Mills. A corn mill was built in 1430 by public subscription. In 1710, it was rebuilt to grind corn and supply water to the city. In 1897, it became an air compressor station, with three electric and two water powered compressors. The compressed air was used to pump sewage out of the city. Operation ceased in 1972, when the only otherShone Ejector pumps in the country were those under theHouses of Parliament. Plans for it to become a working museum failed, but all the machinery is still intact. The sluice is now computer operated to control water levels.[29]
Bishops Bridge is positioned on the site of aRoman ford. Built in 1345, it is one of fivemedieval bridges which span the River Wensum, and was designed to form part of the defensive structure ofNorwich. The bridge'sgatehouse was demolished in 1791.
Jarrold Bridge is a footbridge linking the St James Place business park to Bishopgate.
Fye Bridge is arguably the oldest river crossing in Norwich and is the gate to the North of the City known as "Norwich Over the Water" this bridge was also the site of acucking stool for ducking lawbreakers and undesirables.
Whitefriars Bridge Named after a formerCarmelite (White Friars) monastery. The remains of which can still be seen in a small section of medieval wall and archway.
Foundry Bridge Near the railway station and the Yacht station on Riverside named after a foundry nearby, purported to have been built to take a railway line.
Lady Julian Bridge is a footbridge named afterJulian of Norwich that links Riverside to King Street.
Carrow Bridge nearCarrow Road football ground is a more recent cantileveredswing bridge, which can still be opened to allow large or high vessels through. It is positioned in close proximity to the Boom towers which originally had a chain suspended between them and would have been used as part of the city's defences and as a method of collecting tolls on goods travelling up river from Great Yarmouth.
Novi Sad Friendship Bridge is a cable stayed swingfootbridge which spans the River Wensum inNorwich. The structure is named in recognition of thetwinning ties between Norwich andNovi Sad in Serbia. The bridge was designed byBuro Happold and commissioned byNorfolk County Council.[34]
After many years of decline a survey was commissioned byNatural England in 2002. It showed that the ecological condition of the river had declined. The principal reasons for this werewater quality andsiltation. Water quality has been addressed and was improving, but the physical character of the river needs to be restored. In 2008, a partnership known as theRiver Wensum Restoration Strategy (RWRS) was formed between;Environment Agency; Water Management Alliance and Natural England[35] to restore the physical functioning of the Wensum. The 2002 report found that fourteen redundantwater mills along the Wensum as having the most significant factor affectingmorphology of the river channel, with 67% of the river backed up behind these structures. As a priority, the strategy recommended the lowering, removal or bypassing of these structures to allow more of the river to function naturally.[1] Since 2008, the (RWRS) has made several improvements to the river. Theholisticwhole river approach with co-operation from land owners, fisheries managers and other organisations has seen ongoing projects ranging from restoring gravel glides to removing silt.[35]
The Norfolk Anglers Conservation Association (NACA) carried out a successful river habitat restoration at their Sayers Meadow fishery atLyng in the early 1980s.[36] After dredging and a majorabstraction pipeline had a detrimental effect on theCostessey Pointfishery, the association has taken action to restore this well known water. The ongoing work will be used as a blueprint for future river conservation projects.[37]
The Demonstration Test Catchment (DTC) project is a joint initiative between the Environment Agency,(Defra), and theWelsh Assembly Government working in three UKcatchments;Hampshire Avon;River Eden, Cumbria; Wensum, Norfolk to evaluate the extent to which on-farm mitigation measures can cost-effectively reduce the impacts of diffuse water pollution on river ecology while still maintaining food production capacity (Wensum Alliance, 2014).[38]
Between 1940 and the 1970s the river had a national reputation as aroach fishery with specimens exceeding 3 pounds (1.4 kg) being reported.[39] As the river declined through the effects ofabstraction,dredging and modern farming methods these fish largely died out.[1] After an earlier introduction of a small amount ofbarbel – a fish not thought to be indigenous to the Wensum – the local river authority stocked the Wensum with over 150 fish in 1971 below Costessey Mill.[39] and subsequently stocked more fish at suitable sections of the Upper Wensum.[36]
^Ayers, Brian (2014). "Norwich before Norwich: an exploration of the pre-urban landscape of the medieval city". In Marsden, Adrian; Ashley, Steven (eds.).Landscapes and Artefacts: Studies in East Anglian Archaeology Presented to Andrew Rogerson. Archaeopress archaeology. Oxford:Archaeopress. pp. 129–137.ISBN978-1-905739-75-2.
