The River Hamble is located in south

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. It rises near Bishop's Waltham and flows for through Botley, Bursledon, and

Lower Swanwick Lower Swanwick is a village on the River Hamble in Hampshire, England. It is located within the borough of Fareham at the eastern end of Bursledon Bridge, which carries the A27 across the River. Location Lower Swanwick is close to the city of So ...

before entering Southampton Water between Hamble Common and Warsash. The Hamble is tidal for about half its length and is navigable below Botley. From the medieval period to the present it has been a major ship and boat-building area. Leisure craft are still built by the Hamble today. One of the main builders was '' Luke & Co'', later ''Luke Bros'', a well-reputed yard from around 1890 to its closure in 1945. The lower reaches are a major yachting area with easy access to the sheltered waters of Southampton Water and The Solent.

Course

From source to mouth the river makes a repeated curve heading south-southwest. It gains tributary streams before reaching Botley, the site of an ancient watermill. Below Botley, the river becomes tidal and navigable. It gains strength from adjoining streams, draining surrounding

Hedge End Hedge End is a town and civil parish in Hampshire, England. Situated to the east of the City of Southampton, it adjoins the districts of West End and Botley. Hedge End lies within the Borough of Eastleigh and is part of the Southampton Urba ...

Curdridge Curdridge is a village and civil parish within the City of Winchester district of Hampshire, England. The parish also contains the similarly-named village of Curbridge. The village has a small school. The parish is located eight miles to the ...

Shedfield Shedfield is a village and civil parish in the City of Winchester district of Hampshire, England. In the 2001 UK Census, Shedfield had a population of 3,914, falling to 3,842 at the 2011 Census. Shedfield parish includes the neighbouring villa ...

, and

Burridge Burridge is a small village in the Borough of Fareham, south of Hampshire, England. It lies approximately 14 miles south of Winchester on the A3051 between Botley and Park Gate. It is also to the north of Sarisbury and to the west of White ...

.Ordnance Survey This section was extensively used for medieval shipbuilding, using timber grown locally in the neighbouring woods. Nearby Kings Copse, a cut-back form of Kings Forest, speaks of this key use of the land. The river's west bank can be accessed from Manor Farm Country Park, where it is possible to walk through Dock Copse and Fosters Copse. At extreme low tide, it is just possible to see the remains of the wreck of Henry V's 15th century warship ''Grace Dieu''. This section of the river was also home to HMS ''Cricket'', the Royal Marine landing craft crew training base, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. At south of Botley, the river passes between the villages of Bursledon and

and is crossed by the

M27 motorway The M27 is a motorway in Hampshire, England. It is long and runs between Cadnam and Portsmouth. It was opened in stages between 1975 and 1983, providing the largest two urban areas in Hampshire ( Southampton and Portsmouth) with a direct m ...

, the

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most d ...

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

railway line, and the

A27 road The A27 is a major road in England. It runs from its junction with the A36 at Whiteparish (near Salisbury) in the county of Wiltshire, follows the south coast of Hampshire and West Sussex, and terminates at Pevensey (near Eastbourne and Bex ...

via large bridges. A further south of Bursledon, the river flows between the villages of Hamble-le-Rice and Warsash before entering Southampton Water.Ordnance Survey (2005). ''OS Explorer Map 119 - Meon Valley, Portsmouth, Gosport & Fareham''. . A passenger

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water ta ...

crosses the river between Hamble-le-Rice and Warsash, forming a link for the

Solent Way The Solent Way is a long-distance footpath in Hampshire, southern England. With the exception of a few inland diversions, the path follows the coast of the Solent, the sea strait that separates the mainland from the Isle of Wight. The Solen ...

and

E9 European Coastal Path The E9 European long distance path, E9 path or European Coastal Path (French: ''Sentier Européen du Littoral'') is one of the European long-distance paths, running for from Tarifa, Spain to Narva-Jõesuu in Estonia. In 2019, the southern termin ...

. This section of the river is dominated by a number of

marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or ...

s, the largest being the Port Hamble Marina, and

boat yard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance ...

s on both banks as far upstream as Bursledon. On the east bank, south of Warsash, is the Warsash Maritime School, part of

Solent University Solent University (formerly Southampton Solent University) is a public university based in Southampton, United Kingdom. It has approximately 10,500 students (2019/20). Its main campus is located on East Park Terrace near the city centre and th ...

, which provides training for merchant navy crew.

Lifeboat

The Hamble and nearby Solent are patrolled by Hamble Lifeboat, an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

voluntary rescue service.

Water quality

The Environment Agency measure water quality of the river systems in England. Each is given an overall ecological status, which may be one of five levels: high, good, moderate, poor and bad. There are several components that are used to determine this, including biological status, which looks at the quantity and varieties of

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chorda ...

angiosperm Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants ...

s and fish. Chemical status, which compares the concentrations of various chemicals against known safe concentrations, is rated good or fail. Text was copied from this source, which is available under a
Open Government Licence v3.0
© Crown copyright. Water quality of the River Hamble in 2019: In the 1970s and 80s the many yachts using the river polluted the water by leaching

tributyltin Tributyltin (TBT) is an umbrella term for a class of organotin compounds which contain the (C4H9)3 Sn group, with a prominent example being tributyltin oxide. For 40 years TBT was used as a biocide in anti-fouling paint, commonly known as bott ...

from their anti-fouling paints. By 1988 it had the highest known level in the UK. With its banning for use by vessels under long, the general concentration in the tidal waters declined to a level that is considered harmless.

Gallery

File:RiverHambleUpstream.jpg, The River Hamble looking upstream towards Botley from Fosters Copse. Dock Copse can be seen on the left bank. Bloomfield Copse is on the right bank File:RiverHambleCreek1.jpg, Medieval shipbuilding site on the River Hamble File:GraceDieuWreckSite.jpg, The Yellow X marks the site of the wreck of HMS ''Grace Dieu'' File:River-hamble-mouth-20040903-002.jpg, River Hamble Estuary

References

External links