RIVER STOUR, KENT

The 'River Stour' () is a river in Kent, in the United Kingdom. It is Kent's second longest river (after the Medway) it is 21.5 miles long, running from Canterbury to the sea at Pegwell Bay, describing a huge southwards arc through east Kent.^[1]
One of its sources rises at Postling near Hythe and becomes the River East Stour. Another rises at Lenham near Maidstone and becomes the River Upper Great Stour. They join at Ashford to become the River Great Stour. Some parts of the river in Ashford flood (heavy rainfall) and have made walkways and roads unusable in the past.
The Great Stour flows through Canterbury and Plucks Gutter. The River Little Stour then joins the Great Stour to become the 'River Stour'. The River Wantsum joins here, too, and the Stour flows through Sandwich and into the English Channel at Ramsgate.
This River Stour is pronounced to rhyme with 'sour' (), whereas the one in East Anglia rhymes with 'poor' ().
Historically, the River Stour's mouth was at Stourmouth, near Preston, Kent where it emptied into the Wantsum Channel, dividing mainland Kent from the Isle of Thanet. The Channel has since silted up, becoming the River Wantsum to the north and the Stour from the Wantsum's confluence to the new mouth at Ebbsfleet.
The river is tidal for some 19 miles from Fordwich and navigable for about the same distance, albeit to sail further up river than Sandwich means coping with bridges and mean depths varying between about 2m down to 0.8m between Grove Ferry and Fordwich.^[2]
The route of the Stour Valley Walk follows the river.

Contents

Distances

See also

References

Distances

It is 19 miles from the fixed sluice at Fordwich to Pepperness where the river enters Pegwell Bay and thence the English Channel. Another 3 miles across the bay is the Port of Ramsgate.^[3]

'Place of Interest'	'Distance (miles from Fordwich)'	'Notes'
Fordwich Mill	0.0	Fixed Sluice
Stodmarsh	2.6
Grove Ferry	5.1	Rail Station
Sarre Channel	8.3	(Not navigable)
Little Stour	8.4	River Junction
Pluck's Gutter	8.5	Road Bridge
Red House Marsh	9.5	Picnic site
Railway Bridge	11.9
Richborough Castle	13.8	Roman Fort
Sandwich Bridge	15.3	Swing Bridge
Stonar Cut	18.4	(not navigable)
Pegwell Bay	19.3	Pepperness River mouth
Royal Harbour	22.1	Ramsgate

See also

★ Rivers of the United Kingdom

★ Rivers of Kent

References

1. Waterscape
2. Sail Kent
3. Grove Ferry boat Club