Sowe in spate


I cross over this river every morning on my way to work. The level goes up quickly when it rains, possibly because it is an urban river and so much around is impermeable concrete and tarmac. But the highest yet was last week.


This is the same part of the river at more normal levels, in October. The shopping trolley is still there, but it is accumulating quantities of debris. It probably makes quite a nice sheltered habitat for little river-dwellers.

I cycle over the River Avon too, which seems to respond less quickly but still occasionally looks as if it could make me very late for work. It does apparently sometimes flood the road. Incidentally the Avon used to flow into the Sowe rather than the other way round. In the '60s river works swapped them so the Sowe flows into the Avon. Or so says my local paper. Stratford is Stratford-on-Avon not Stratford-on-Sowe, which does seem to imply that the general opinion has been Sowe > Avon for some not-inconsiderable time...