The River Onny is a river in

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

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 b ...

. It is a major tributary of the

River Teme The River Teme (pronounced ; cy, Afon Tefeidiad) rises in Mid Wales, south of Newtown, and flows southeast roughly forming the border between England and Wales for several miles through Knighton before entering England in the vicinity of B ...

Etymology

The river's name derives from Welsh and means the river on which ash trees (Welsh: ''onnau'') grew.

Course

The river has its sources in the

Shropshire Hills The Shropshire Hills are a dissected upland area and one of the natural regions of England. They lie wholly within the county of Shropshire and encompass several distinctive and well-known landmarks, such as the Long Mynd, Wenlock Edge, The W ...

at White Grit, located in Mid and South-west Shropshire. It has two branches, the East Onny and West Onny, which converge at Eaton, to the east of

Lydham Lydham is a small village and civil parish in Shropshire, England. Lydham is situated on the junction of the A488 and the A489 main roads, about 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Bishop's Castle. There is a market held on Fridays in the villag ...

. The River Onny then flows in a south-easterly direction, through

Craven Arms Craven Arms is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire, England, on the A49 road and the Welsh Marches railway line, which link it north and south to the larger towns of Shrewsbury and Ludlow respectively. The Heart of Wales railway l ...

and

Onibury Onibury is a village and civil parish on the River Onny in southern Shropshire, about northwest of the market town of Ludlow. The parish includes the hamlets of Walton and Wootton and was extended in 1967 to include parts from Clungunford and ...

(a village it gives its name to), before it finally has its confluence with the River Teme just upstream of

Ludlow Ludlow () is a market town in Shropshire, England. The town is significant in the history of the Welsh Marches and in relation to Wales. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road which bypasses the town. The ...

at Bromfield. From White Grit to Bromfield, the river flows over a distance of . The River Teme is itself a tributary of the

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

, confluencing just south of

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

city centre. The River Severn then flows south-west meeting the sea at Bristol Channel.

Geology

Geologically, the Onny has the type section just west of Craven Arms of the

Caradoc series In geology, Caradoc Series is the name introduced by Roderick Murchison in 1839 for the sandstone series of Caer Caradoc in Shropshire, England. It is the fifth of the six subdivisions (in ascending order) of the Ordovician System, comprising all t ...

of the

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start of the Silurian Period Mya. T ...

system and there is a

trilobite Trilobites (; meaning "three lobes") are extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the ...

genus Onnia which was first defined here.

References

Bibliography

* Rivers of Shropshire 1Onny {{England-river-stub