River Itchen

The River Itchen winds through east Warwickshire, a small river only about 29 kilometres long. It rises near Wormleighton and flows north through a broad valley beside ironstone hills. The Oxford Canal crosses the river early in its course. Several brooks feed the infant river as it passes Bishop’s Itchington, a village that gives the river its name. Further on, the Great Western Railway once ran above the river before it reaches Deppers Bridge and the A425 main road west of Southam. The river has shaped local history in more ways than one. In 2009 poisonous farm chemicals killed thousands of fish, but 3,500 roach, dace and chub were later released to restore stocks. A section of the river is protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Scientists study how changes in climate long ago made the river smaller than its valley suggests. The Environment Agency rates the river’s water quality each year by checking plants, fish and chemicals. Visitors follow the river’s gentle bends through quiet countryside. Stoneythorpe Park lies beside the water near Bascote, and the Grand Union Canal crosses the valley on a long embankment. At Long Itchington the river passes close to the village church. The old railway line from Leamington to Weedon now serves walkers and cyclists alongside the water. Three kilometres north of Long Itchington the river joins the River Leam at Marton.