River Banwell

The River Banwell is a small river in Somerset, England.

It begins life as a series of springs near the Church of St Andrew in Banwell where they once filled a large pool below the church. It then flows north east of Weston-super-Mare and on to Woodspring Bay where it enters the Bristol Channel, at St Thomas's Head, which forms the eastern boundary of Sand Point and Middle Hope, a short distance from Woodspring Priory.

Through an Act of Parliament, and despite local protests, the Banwell springs were capped in 1915 and the pool slowly dried up. The water became part of the Weston Water Company's supply. Thereafter the old pool was filled in and became the village bowling green.

Flooding has occurred on Banwell Moor, despite previous canalisation, and feasibility studies have been carried out to see if this could be managed to reduce the risk of floods in the Weston-super-Mare area.

References

Banwell

Coordinates: 51°19′37″N 2°51′50″W / 51.327°N 2.864°W / 51.327; -2.864

Banwell is a village and civil parish on the River Banwell in the North Somerset district of Somerset, England. Its population was 2,919 according to the 2011 census.

History

Banwell Camp, east of the village, is a univallate hillfort which has yielded flint implements from the Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age. It was also occupied in the Iron Age. In the late 1950s it was excavated by J.W. Hunt of the Banwell Society of Archaeology. It is surrounded by a 4 metres (13 ft) high bank and ditch.

The remains of a Romano-British villa were discovered in 1968. It included a courtyard, wall and bath house close to the River Banwell. Artefacts from the site suggest it fell into disuse in the 4th century.Earthworks from farm buildings, 420 metres (1,380 ft) south of Gout House Farm, occupied from the 11th to 14th centuries where archaeological remains suggest the site was first occupied in the Romano-British period. The raised area which was occupied by the Bower House was surrounded by a water filled ditch, part of which has since been incorporated into a rhyne.