Definitive sources of rivers, especially big ones like the Thames, are often a bit murky - Rivers have lots of tributaries and streams etc feeding in to them from all sorts of directions, so it can be difficult to pinpoint just one definitive source.
The Thames in particular has a few different “sources” battling for the official title.
The main contenders are, by my understanding, the “official” source at Thames Head near Kemble and the source of the Churn at Seven Springs a smidge south of Cheltenham. The former is traditionally recognised and is widely accepted as the source; a vocal minority (myself included) cite the latter as the true source for four main reasons:
- Seven Springs has over twice the elevation of Thames Head.
- Seven Springs is further from the mouth of the Thames than Thames Head (making the Thames the longest river in Britain, longer than the Severn, if measured from Seven Springs).
- The water volume contributed at the confluence is greater from the Churn than the traditional Thames.
- The big one: Seven Springs has water all year round. Thames Head does not*. When I walked the Thames Path, which starts at Thames Head, the “source” was bone dry, the first disconnected puddle was a mile downstream, and the first actual bit of river was another mile or so further away. The Churn starts at Seven Springs all year round.
* - Footnote: Admittedly, the lack of water at Thames Head is not caused by but is exacerbated by the former Thames and Severn Canal. It passes near by Thames Head and water was pumped from the springs at the source to feed the canal. The T&S Canal always had issues with the water supply on the top reaches, along with the rise of the railways helping contribute to the canal’s demise, closure, and abandonment. The attempts to fill the summit pound of the canal helped bleed Thames Head even drier, and even today Thames Head has a lower proportion of the year in water than it did 400 years ago.
I walked the Thames Path with my dad over the course of several years (2016-2021), it basically was on-and-off throughout my teenage years. I keep meaning to go back and have a stomp near Kemble/Cricklade/Lechlade, partially because they’ve added new paths that should make it less miserable than last time (along a busy road!) and partially because I’m a Churn-a-holic and I never did get round to doing the Churn walk. Hmm, people always say you’re meant to do *something* memorable the summer before you go to university, perhaps I’ll do the Thames again?
Why is identifying the one true source important? Seems like a daft thing to get into huff over, its an infinitely branching system, there will sources of the tributaries in the earth and bedrock too it gets subdivided and goes on forever.
Humans like to categorize and understand the world we live in. Is it important in the grand scheme of things to accurately identify the "true" source of one river? Of course not, but it does add to our understanding of the world. Of course, nature tends to laugh at our attempts to categorize and define.
My favourite part of the wiki page
Alternative names:
MI6 Building[1][2][3]
######Legoland[4]
Ceaușescu Towers[5]
Babylon-on-Thames[6]
######Vauxhall Trollop[7]
The Ziggurat[8]
It's like we already have a bunch of you here, I'm assuming cargo shorts and baseball caps are standard issue military uniform.
And standing around aimlessly blocking bottom of tube escalators, or walking as slowly as possible is part of some military formation, it's certainly phycological warfare.
I grew up in Oxford, and I'm pretty sure Isis is a name for the section of the river that starts in the Cotswold Hills and passes through the southern part of town.
Once it gets to Dorchester, it joins the Thame River, and becomes the Thames.
Old misunderstanding of Latin. The Latin name of the Thames is the "Tamesis". There's also a tributary into the Thames called the Thame which joins about Oxfordish.
Therefore people thought "Tamesis = Thame + Isis" retroactively and started calling the pre merged Thames the Isis.
It's still called that amongst Oxford students. The part where Torpids and VIIIs happens is typically called the "Isis stretch".
>It's still called that amongst Oxford students.
That phrasing makes it sound like Oxford students are confused and no one else calls it the Isis, but however confused the origin of the name may be, that stretch of the river *is* called Isis now. It's called that on maps, there are local businesses called Isis Whatever, etc.
Damn it, you longtribs tryin' to hog the glory while it's us bigvols who fill out the river. Without us you'd barely have a stream running through London. Bet you can't even squeeze a sideways salmon down your Thames source, can ya?
PS: how the fuck was 'longtribs' already a word in my autocorrect?
“Ooh it’s where most of the water comes from”. You simpleton pigvols don’t understand that it’s not the volume that matters, it’s the source that goes the distance.
It was probably a lot more than 3.5 billion litres to be honest - water companies don’t have to routinely report volumes discharged, just number and duration of spills. Thames Water has to report volumes for a few of their bigger sites but not their other ones.
Hiking to springs is always a cool experience and they do feel special. You can tell why they were made shrines by older humans and why a lot of churches and religious places are built on top of them.
Me too. I got a bit obsessed with the River Wharfe in Yorkshire and so walked the length of it (I actually wrote a book about it).
That one basically turns into a smaller and smaller stream until it just bubbles directly out of the wild moor side.
Basically I grew up alongside a river and have loads of other points of contact to it (my mum and dad grew up in different villages on the river, my first girlfriend was from another place on it, I did my RAF flying training at a base next to the river, my (future-at-the-time) wife lived in *another* village further up, and so on) so I decided to walk the whole length.
I was just about to emigrate from the UK and thought it would be a great way to see the beauty of Yorkshire for one last time. It was amazing to see how the character changed from flat farmland to wild dales.
Then, years later, I discovered a book by a Victorian author who had walked the same route, but 120 years ago. So I retraced his steps, exploring what had changed and what had stayed the same. For example - the RAF airfield I was based at was just all fields in his day; his book only came out just as the Wright Brothers made their first flight.
It's called [Walking the Wharfe](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Walking-Wharfe-Yorkshire-Travel-Literature/dp/1804691100) if you're interested. (It's out in about about seven weeks and I can't wait!)
When you see something called a natural spring this is what they mean. This is a very large one. This is where fresh drinkable water comes from. Without these, humankind wouldn't be around.
Mountain glacier and snowfall meltwater are also major sources of fresh water and rivers, and arguably much more important than springs for the survival of humanity and especially the development of civilization.
I read a great book about rivers - The Flow by Amy-Jane Beer - and she basically has this idea that rivers are basically giant, circular conveyor belts of water, and the bit on the land is just the most obvious section of it.
I don't understand how this works. Isn't that the river that flows through London? Doesn't seem like enough water for a river that big. Is it more of a delta than a river then?
A river is very much like a tree, with a big main trunk close to the delta (roots) and the further upstream you go there's more and more small branches. The "source" is often the furthest point away from the delta that can still be called a stream, or it is just where someone once thought the source was and it just kinda stuck.
If you search for "thames basin" you'll get maps showing the area where rainfall will eventually end up in the thames.
Weirs are fucking terrifying. For anyone who doesn't know, they're basically giant drowning traps. They push you underwater, then the flow of the water makes you circle back around and it pushes you under again. And again. And again.
Fuck a weir.
Maybe just a big stick, you can push off of banks. You can only push off the river bed if you're really stuck and you have to try going in an upstream direction first.
I once came across a hilariously drunk group of lads who'd made rafts in Oxford, strapped outboards on the back, got a couple of tarps to sleep under and were on their way to Swindon via the river and canal. Seemed like great fun. Not sure I'd have had quite as many beers as them though.
I thought the source of the river Thames was the toilets of everyone who live in Oxfordshire...
At least Thames Water certainly make it seem that way with the amount of untreated shit they keep releasing without permit.
Incredible isn’t it? That our water, OUR water, is allowed to be polluted one way or another because of profits.
It is an absolute disgrace. This is the sort of thing that should be sacrosanct and anyone tampering with it should face the gravest of penalties, no equivocation.
In these cases, the water companies have ignored the costs of upkeep (drainage, sewers) and investment decisions in order to maximise profits. Net result huge salaries and bonuses for executives and slurry in our water supply.
It is absolutely unforgivable.
It will happen when it affects the overall population in a more obvious way. Imagine fucking up the water system in ye olden villages, they'd have probably strung you up as an example because well.. we need it more than most other things
Record breaking profits at the cost of record breaking pollution, we will continue to taint the earth until it is too broken for our society to handle en masse.
Just my 2 cents
I spent a day clearing out the shit that is chucked into the river Wandle in Wandsworth, London.
We got a pizza delivery motorcycle, several rolled up carpets, shopping trolleys and so much more. It was incredibly depressing.
The Wandle used to be one of the most beautiful rivers in the country, as any chalk stream is.
Now it’s a steaming cesspit of crap, thanks to small minded idiots who should be put to sleep quite frankly.
If you look on Google maps you can see two sources (need to zoom in for it to show), this is the southern source in the wooded area. The northern source ~ a mile away in an open field is usually dry but only runs intermittently in heavy rains
>The northern source ~ a mile away in an open field is usually dry but only runs intermittently in heavy rains
That's the one I went to. You definitely chose the prettier.
The source is a seasonal spring, the exact location moves. The spring in the wood is still part of the same season spring area, so it's the same spring.
There's also another claimed source in a completely different location, namely Seven Springs in Gloucestershire. Although you'd be arguing with OS and the Environment Agency on that one.
I tried to search for this on Google maps but only the dry one comes up - any chance you could give more search terms / what3words / etc to help locate this?
[https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.6948212,-2.0290257,591m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en&entry=ttu](https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.6948212,-2.0290257,591m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en&entry=ttu)
That's the one at Kemble, it tends to move about a bit, depending on recent rainfall.
[https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.8487153,-2.051052,1178m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en&entry=ttu](https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.8487153,-2.051052,1178m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en&entry=ttu) this is seven springs, although not quite sure where the source is exactly, its somewhere in that pic.
All rivers have a large number of sources, like a tree with many branches. Any rain drop falling in that whole area will find its way into the Thames. Rivers have a drainage basin area, not a source. The number of sources will only depend on how detailed your map is, like trying to measure the length of a coastline.
Even more complicated, sometimes two rivers share the same source and the same basin. Sometimes one river jumps drainage basins and flows partially into another river. And that's even before going into underground flow of water.
UPDATE: I just walked there with my gopro and the source is not bubbling today, just a small puddle of water. I took this video last month and we haven't any rain since. There should be rain this week so I'll go back to film underwater, drink a sample and all the other suggestions people asked for next weekend
If the spring has stopped flowing it’s likely that it won’t start again until next winter. Groundwater levels will continue to drop throughout summer even if we get rain (unless we get a huge amount).
We are aware of a burst water main in your area. Our team are carrying out urgent repairs and will get your water supply back to normal as quickly as possible. -Thames Water
I used to visit such rivers man, that was a fun time and now I gotta start doing it again just like you, I gotta visit this one next week, hope that place has some good views too.
This sounds like the real peace that most of the people are missing in their live but still we want it, hope others will get that too and live the real moment of the nature.
Indeed, generally an aquifer that is fed water from a large area of rain seeping down from it, and at certain points with openings to the surface there is enough pressure on on the water from the above ground to force some water back up to the surface. Thus, a spring!
No worries! Of course hydrology can get complicated quick, or more accurately there’s tons of one-offs and outliers and combinations of factors. Sometimes springs are as simple as like, a big hill/mountain where the groundwater from rain higher up just kinda pops out. Sometimes they’re weird and hard to explain. Sometimes they’re from geo-thermal heat (hot springs). I think it’s interesting at least.
I live where there are a lot of springs, including on my property, 99% don't flow like this of course.
But it always amazes me that I'm almost at the top of a hill and I still have water coming up in my yard, and from deep enough that there will be spots sometimes that will melt snow in the winter.
Paul & Rebecca Whitewick on Youtube have done two great videos about the source(s) of the Thames: https://www.youtube.com/@pwhitewick/search?query=source%20thames
I was just about to comment about this, but thought I'd check the comments first to see if anyone else has mentioned it. But their videos are very interesting.
TBH I really wanna quit all the shits happening in my life and just want to be in such places to have a good peace in my mind, that's just what gonna change things.
You're right, I did like seeing it. Thanks!
Not sure what else to say but this. I've always been curious about river sources but never enough to look it up. I didn't imagine it to be like this.
Definitive sources of rivers, especially big ones like the Thames, are often a bit murky - Rivers have lots of tributaries and streams etc feeding in to them from all sorts of directions, so it can be difficult to pinpoint just one definitive source. The Thames in particular has a few different “sources” battling for the official title.
The main contenders are, by my understanding, the “official” source at Thames Head near Kemble and the source of the Churn at Seven Springs a smidge south of Cheltenham. The former is traditionally recognised and is widely accepted as the source; a vocal minority (myself included) cite the latter as the true source for four main reasons: - Seven Springs has over twice the elevation of Thames Head. - Seven Springs is further from the mouth of the Thames than Thames Head (making the Thames the longest river in Britain, longer than the Severn, if measured from Seven Springs). - The water volume contributed at the confluence is greater from the Churn than the traditional Thames. - The big one: Seven Springs has water all year round. Thames Head does not*. When I walked the Thames Path, which starts at Thames Head, the “source” was bone dry, the first disconnected puddle was a mile downstream, and the first actual bit of river was another mile or so further away. The Churn starts at Seven Springs all year round. * - Footnote: Admittedly, the lack of water at Thames Head is not caused by but is exacerbated by the former Thames and Severn Canal. It passes near by Thames Head and water was pumped from the springs at the source to feed the canal. The T&S Canal always had issues with the water supply on the top reaches, along with the rise of the railways helping contribute to the canal’s demise, closure, and abandonment. The attempts to fill the summit pound of the canal helped bleed Thames Head even drier, and even today Thames Head has a lower proportion of the year in water than it did 400 years ago.
I won't object if OP walks to Seven Springs and posts a video for me to see.
I walked the Thames Path with my dad over the course of several years (2016-2021), it basically was on-and-off throughout my teenage years. I keep meaning to go back and have a stomp near Kemble/Cricklade/Lechlade, partially because they’ve added new paths that should make it less miserable than last time (along a busy road!) and partially because I’m a Churn-a-holic and I never did get round to doing the Churn walk. Hmm, people always say you’re meant to do *something* memorable the summer before you go to university, perhaps I’ll do the Thames again?
Don't let your dreams stay memes my dude. Seize the carp.
Carpe that carp, nice
Why is identifying the one true source important? Seems like a daft thing to get into huff over, its an infinitely branching system, there will sources of the tributaries in the earth and bedrock too it gets subdivided and goes on forever.
... have you *seen* the things people like to argue about?
I think you're wrong. People don't argue.
Cream first, then jam.
Right. Like of all the ridiculous hills people choose to die on, this isn’t the stupidest.
Humans like to categorize and understand the world we live in. Is it important in the grand scheme of things to accurately identify the "true" source of one river? Of course not, but it does add to our understanding of the world. Of course, nature tends to laugh at our attempts to categorize and define.
None, from a practical POV. It's not really the best way to think of most rivers anyways, but it's fun to know/map/see.
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*laughs in Swiss*
So we can finally shut it down this siege of London can finish.
Especially once you add in the river Cher well and isis etc
Pardon me, but what does isis have to do with the Thames?
The river “isis” is another name for the river Thames.
And they just let it flow straight through London??
Some say thats why MI6 built a [megafortress](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIS_Building) to overlook it. SIS keeping an eye (I?) on ISIS.
My favourite part of the wiki page Alternative names: MI6 Building[1][2][3] ######Legoland[4] Ceaușescu Towers[5] Babylon-on-Thames[6] ######Vauxhall Trollop[7] The Ziggurat[8]
"What are you doing step SIS?"
Nobody tell the yanks!!
Too late already on my way to liberate London.
Wait, we'll only do it if London has oil.
It's like we already have a bunch of you here, I'm assuming cargo shorts and baseball caps are standard issue military uniform. And standing around aimlessly blocking bottom of tube escalators, or walking as slowly as possible is part of some military formation, it's certainly phycological warfare.
Too late, I've already pressed play on "Ride of the Valkyries" and put my attack helicopter into sport mode.
Woohoo! We're on our way to drop freedom all over London, USA-style!
Round two, Fight!
This time with more freedom!
I grew up in Oxford, and I'm pretty sure Isis is a name for the section of the river that starts in the Cotswold Hills and passes through the southern part of town. Once it gets to Dorchester, it joins the Thame River, and becomes the Thames.
TIL.
Tom, if you quit your fooling around you might learn more.
Old misunderstanding of Latin. The Latin name of the Thames is the "Tamesis". There's also a tributary into the Thames called the Thame which joins about Oxfordish. Therefore people thought "Tamesis = Thame + Isis" retroactively and started calling the pre merged Thames the Isis. It's still called that amongst Oxford students. The part where Torpids and VIIIs happens is typically called the "Isis stretch".
>It's still called that amongst Oxford students. That phrasing makes it sound like Oxford students are confused and no one else calls it the Isis, but however confused the origin of the name may be, that stretch of the river *is* called Isis now. It's called that on maps, there are local businesses called Isis Whatever, etc.
There's a lot of things in the general area named after the river Isis too
The group took Thames hostage between 2020 and 2022.
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Isis is a name for the Thames especially around Oxford.
There’s often a battle between the longest tributary and the one with the biggest volume.
I heard your mother was the judge of that one.
How dare you. My mother was a renowned expert on penis sizes, not tributaries.
Ooh that’s a good one. I am now forever on team “longest tributary”.
Damn it, you longtribs tryin' to hog the glory while it's us bigvols who fill out the river. Without us you'd barely have a stream running through London. Bet you can't even squeeze a sideways salmon down your Thames source, can ya? PS: how the fuck was 'longtribs' already a word in my autocorrect?
“Ooh it’s where most of the water comes from”. You simpleton pigvols don’t understand that it’s not the volume that matters, it’s the source that goes the distance.
Why don't you go piss a track from Oxfordshire to Dunnet Head and count that as the source, tribble dribbler
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It was probably a lot more than 3.5 billion litres to be honest - water companies don’t have to routinely report volumes discharged, just number and duration of spills. Thames Water has to report volumes for a few of their bigger sites but not their other ones.
Hiking to springs is always a cool experience and they do feel special. You can tell why they were made shrines by older humans and why a lot of churches and religious places are built on top of them.
They do have a certain vibe or feel to them, something ancient and peaceful.
Absolutely! And following the whole river is magical (if you have time!). You really get to see how the nature of it changes.
Me too. I got a bit obsessed with the River Wharfe in Yorkshire and so walked the length of it (I actually wrote a book about it). That one basically turns into a smaller and smaller stream until it just bubbles directly out of the wild moor side.
You wrote a book about a river? So fascinating. How did that come to be? Why?
Basically I grew up alongside a river and have loads of other points of contact to it (my mum and dad grew up in different villages on the river, my first girlfriend was from another place on it, I did my RAF flying training at a base next to the river, my (future-at-the-time) wife lived in *another* village further up, and so on) so I decided to walk the whole length. I was just about to emigrate from the UK and thought it would be a great way to see the beauty of Yorkshire for one last time. It was amazing to see how the character changed from flat farmland to wild dales. Then, years later, I discovered a book by a Victorian author who had walked the same route, but 120 years ago. So I retraced his steps, exploring what had changed and what had stayed the same. For example - the RAF airfield I was based at was just all fields in his day; his book only came out just as the Wright Brothers made their first flight. It's called [Walking the Wharfe](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Walking-Wharfe-Yorkshire-Travel-Literature/dp/1804691100) if you're interested. (It's out in about about seven weeks and I can't wait!)
When you see something called a natural spring this is what they mean. This is a very large one. This is where fresh drinkable water comes from. Without these, humankind wouldn't be around.
Mountain glacier and snowfall meltwater are also major sources of fresh water and rivers, and arguably much more important than springs for the survival of humanity and especially the development of civilization.
A lot of rivers don't have a spring, they start in mountains instead.
You do know it also falls from the sky, right? Some of that even makes rivers.
I read a great book about rivers - The Flow by Amy-Jane Beer - and she basically has this idea that rivers are basically giant, circular conveyor belts of water, and the bit on the land is just the most obvious section of it.
r/HydroHomies Mecca
I only found this out recently when someone posted that video of a new spring forming, really cool
Oui je T'hames.
Get a boat, jump in and see how long it takes to get to the open sea, without paddling.
You’d struggle getting out of the locks in teddington without paddling.
Just ask someone to give you a push.
Duh.
You'd get grounded at South Cerney, it's only a couple of inches deep in places.
Finally! Something wet I can satisfy
Pretty sure it'll dry up as soon as you're spotted in the area.
That’s cold 🥶
I don't understand how this works. Isn't that the river that flows through London? Doesn't seem like enough water for a river that big. Is it more of a delta than a river then?
A river is very much like a tree, with a big main trunk close to the delta (roots) and the further upstream you go there's more and more small branches. The "source" is often the furthest point away from the delta that can still be called a stream, or it is just where someone once thought the source was and it just kinda stuck. If you search for "thames basin" you'll get maps showing the area where rainfall will eventually end up in the thames.
You can always go down the weir. You'll have got used to them by the time you get to Teddington.
Weirs are fucking terrifying. For anyone who doesn't know, they're basically giant drowning traps. They push you underwater, then the flow of the water makes you circle back around and it pushes you under again. And again. And again. Fuck a weir.
Not with a Hovervan
Get stuck in the locks? That's a paddling.
I would donate to a gofundme of this- make it happen!
I'll do thoughts and prayers!
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don't think a punctured canoe will do this
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The physics site was right
Can't believe I see such an obscure reference on reddit just a couple hours after watching the episode. :D
Got to listen to Uncle Ed!
I was thinking exactly this! Sounds just as viral as the straight line challenge, perfectly ridiculous yet super interesting concept!
I'd love to see GeoWizard on YouTube do this. Seems like something he'd do
You’re going to get stuck in the bank before long. Paddling should be allowed for manoeuvres, just not downstream travel.
Maybe just a big stick, you can push off of banks. You can only push off the river bed if you're really stuck and you have to try going in an upstream direction first. I once came across a hilariously drunk group of lads who'd made rafts in Oxford, strapped outboards on the back, got a couple of tarps to sleep under and were on their way to Swindon via the river and canal. Seemed like great fun. Not sure I'd have had quite as many beers as them though.
Probably quite a few if they were going to Swindon out of choice.
Winnie the Pooh already did it. http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/riverthames/kids/source.html
Nah mate, stop fooling everyone, that’s just a burst water main
We all know it comes from a sewage pipe
Moist probably true
#MOIST
Thames water enters the chat…… handing out bonuses to senior management like confetti.
I thought the source of the river Thames was the toilets of everyone who live in Oxfordshire... At least Thames Water certainly make it seem that way with the amount of untreated shit they keep releasing without permit.
Incredible isn’t it? That our water, OUR water, is allowed to be polluted one way or another because of profits. It is an absolute disgrace. This is the sort of thing that should be sacrosanct and anyone tampering with it should face the gravest of penalties, no equivocation. In these cases, the water companies have ignored the costs of upkeep (drainage, sewers) and investment decisions in order to maximise profits. Net result huge salaries and bonuses for executives and slurry in our water supply. It is absolutely unforgivable.
It will happen when it affects the overall population in a more obvious way. Imagine fucking up the water system in ye olden villages, they'd have probably strung you up as an example because well.. we need it more than most other things Record breaking profits at the cost of record breaking pollution, we will continue to taint the earth until it is too broken for our society to handle en masse. Just my 2 cents
I spent a day clearing out the shit that is chucked into the river Wandle in Wandsworth, London. We got a pizza delivery motorcycle, several rolled up carpets, shopping trolleys and so much more. It was incredibly depressing. The Wandle used to be one of the most beautiful rivers in the country, as any chalk stream is. Now it’s a steaming cesspit of crap, thanks to small minded idiots who should be put to sleep quite frankly.
Rumour has it their board meetings are hosted by Oprah.
Pretty sure that’s where Excalibur was found. It was just plugging the leak.
Thames water say they're getting to it.
Unexpectedly beautiful. Bubble bubble. Bubble bubble.
Toil and trouble
Absolutely stunning view what a wonderful shot you've taken.
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Aren't there claimed to be several sources of the Thames?
If you look on Google maps you can see two sources (need to zoom in for it to show), this is the southern source in the wooded area. The northern source ~ a mile away in an open field is usually dry but only runs intermittently in heavy rains
>The northern source ~ a mile away in an open field is usually dry but only runs intermittently in heavy rains That's the one I went to. You definitely chose the prettier.
The source that runs continuously must have the stronger claim right?
The source is a seasonal spring, the exact location moves. The spring in the wood is still part of the same season spring area, so it's the same spring. There's also another claimed source in a completely different location, namely Seven Springs in Gloucestershire. Although you'd be arguing with OS and the Environment Agency on that one.
The source is strong.
The source is strong in this one
Precisely. Hence the old saying: "By the forces of the sources go the claims to the Thames."
I tried to search for this on Google maps but only the dry one comes up - any chance you could give more search terms / what3words / etc to help locate this?
[https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.6948212,-2.0290257,591m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en&entry=ttu](https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.6948212,-2.0290257,591m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en&entry=ttu) That's the one at Kemble, it tends to move about a bit, depending on recent rainfall. [https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.8487153,-2.051052,1178m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en&entry=ttu](https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.8487153,-2.051052,1178m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en&entry=ttu) this is seven springs, although not quite sure where the source is exactly, its somewhere in that pic.
All rivers have a large number of sources, like a tree with many branches. Any rain drop falling in that whole area will find its way into the Thames. Rivers have a drainage basin area, not a source. The number of sources will only depend on how detailed your map is, like trying to measure the length of a coastline.
Even more complicated, sometimes two rivers share the same source and the same basin. Sometimes one river jumps drainage basins and flows partially into another river. And that's even before going into underground flow of water.
No, it's just HP. ... Oh, hang on, I think that's _sauce_ of the Thames...
Oh my goodness that's terrible.. I'll allow it 😄👍
I suppose you can claim anything really
Looks like you just did
I'm the source of the Thames, and so is my wife
Not as impressive as Peckham springs source
Ye can't park there Dave!
Lmfao. That's the first thing I thought off haha. Ya gotta love only fools and horses haha. Brilliant
Enchanting! If a strange lady appears and hands you a sword, that does *not necessarily* form a good system of government!
I thought we were an autonomous collective.
Given how well democracy has worked recently, I think it's worth a go.
Ok but can we put a camera down that hole
If people are interested, I'll walk back and put a go pro underwater and document it
I speak for all of us. We’re interested.
Thanks, I'll make a post tomorrow
Also, try the water this time!
Congratulations! You've unlocked Typhoid! Level up!
Ooh that would be amazing!
!remind me 1 day
UPDATE: I just walked there with my gopro and the source is not bubbling today, just a small puddle of water. I took this video last month and we haven't any rain since. There should be rain this week so I'll go back to film underwater, drink a sample and all the other suggestions people asked for next weekend
If the spring has stopped flowing it’s likely that it won’t start again until next winter. Groundwater levels will continue to drop throughout summer even if we get rain (unless we get a huge amount).
You can have my words on it too, we are freaking interested.
I am really interested and I want you do that thing right now.
Yes please!
Old Father Thames low key chill today.
No fairground in sight
We are aware of a burst water main in your area. Our team are carrying out urgent repairs and will get your water supply back to normal as quickly as possible. -Thames Water
"In the meantime, prices must rise for the supply of water. We're sorry to do this, but we're all in this together."
Did you drink any? Looks delicious
I didn't but you can't get fresher
you could put your head at the bottom
Oe we could just jump in it and have a good bath after all.
Don't do it for too long though. Trust me, I know
Outside water rule 1: there's always a dead sheep in it.
It can’t be the Thames. There isn’t a super yacht parked in it
You mean a Lime bike.
Block it, then you'll cause the next Great Stink.
*Nestle has entered the chat*
I used to visit such rivers man, that was a fun time and now I gotta start doing it again just like you, I gotta visit this one next week, hope that place has some good views too.
This sounds like the real peace that most of the people are missing in their live but still we want it, hope others will get that too and live the real moment of the nature.
Cheers mate, sons crying
Del Boy forgot to turn off the Peckham spring water
I hope he will forget that near my area too, want this near me lol.
That’s the coolest thing I’ve seen today. Thank you
The most peaceful too, the real peace that we can get
What am I looking at? Is it some sort of source coming up from the ground?
Generally known as a spring.
So there is some massive underground flow of water finding its way up to the surface
Indeed, generally an aquifer that is fed water from a large area of rain seeping down from it, and at certain points with openings to the surface there is enough pressure on on the water from the above ground to force some water back up to the surface. Thus, a spring!
Thanks mate!
No worries! Of course hydrology can get complicated quick, or more accurately there’s tons of one-offs and outliers and combinations of factors. Sometimes springs are as simple as like, a big hill/mountain where the groundwater from rain higher up just kinda pops out. Sometimes they’re weird and hard to explain. Sometimes they’re from geo-thermal heat (hot springs). I think it’s interesting at least.
I live where there are a lot of springs, including on my property, 99% don't flow like this of course. But it always amazes me that I'm almost at the top of a hill and I still have water coming up in my yard, and from deep enough that there will be spots sometimes that will melt snow in the winter.
And in French, the word for spring is source.
Can't believe how far I had to scroll for someone asking -- and another someone answering -- this question
Reddit is full of people making jokes and puns
Genuinely, that's cool as fuck - thanks
You’re basically Clarkson, Hammond and May now.
Paul & Rebecca Whitewick on Youtube have done two great videos about the source(s) of the Thames: https://www.youtube.com/@pwhitewick/search?query=source%20thames
People should look at this video, it's just a good explore of river.
I was just about to comment about this, but thought I'd check the comments first to see if anyone else has mentioned it. But their videos are very interesting.
Beautiful 💜 Edit: Thank you for sharing this!
Beauty that no one can create but only mother nature.
So this is where the cockneys spawn!
Kept waiting for some watery tart to rise up out of it…
TBH I really wanna quit all the shits happening in my life and just want to be in such places to have a good peace in my mind, that's just what gonna change things.
So peaceful
Really man, what else a normal human being wants now?
Wow, that’s so cool!
Well it's even right technically, the water was cool af lol.
Amazing! How beautiful!
Can't be correct. That water is transparent
That's just the purity of the water that we all should appreciate.
That is very cool. Thank you for sharing it.
That's just absolutely gorgeous, thanks for sharing!
The beauty of the nature that we love to see all the time.
Dude, there are probably so many mystical swords in there.