The Jed Water is a river and a

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

of the

River Teviot The River Teviot (; ), or Teviot Water, is a river of the Scottish Borders area of Scotland, and is the largest tributary of the River Tweed by catchment area. The Teviot is an important river for wildlife, especially the Atlantic salmon, but ...

in the Borders region of

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. In total the Jed Water is over long and it falls . It flows into the Teviot near Jedfoot Bridge () two miles north of

Jedburgh Jedburgh ( ; ; or ) is a town and former royal burgh in the Scottish Borders and the traditional county town of the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Roxburghshire. History Jedburgh began as ''Jedworð'', the "worth" or enclosed settlem ...

. Jed Water rises from a source on Carlin Tooth in the Cheviot Hills where it is first known as Raven Burn.

Description

The river in past times was the main source of water for the monks living in Jedburgh Abbey. It also powered a watermill in the town of

although this no longer exists. It gives its name to Jedburgh and Jedforest. In the 1800s it had trout in the river. The Ordnance gazetteer said Jed Water "in the parts immediately above the town of Jedburgh ... more of the elements of fine landscape than during a whole day's ride in the most favourite Scottish haunts of tourists."Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.
/ref> The guide drew attention to the pure waters, the brisk currents, the steep landscapes and the contrasts which it thought picturesque. The name Jed is of obscure origin. James has suggested that it may derive from

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...

''*wei(h₁)- d-'' "a bend, something curved or twisted". He also notes that Scots ''Gedde-'' in Jedburgh may have been adopted from Cumbric '' gwï:δ'' "a wood", and that the river name may be a

back-formation Back-formation is the process or result of creating a neologism, new word via Morphology (linguistics), morphology, typically by removing or substituting actual or supposed affixes from a lexical item, in a way that expands the number of lexemes ...

. In 1787 James Hutton created modern geology when he discovered Hutton's Unconformity at Inchbonny,

, in layers of

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock formed by the cementation (geology), cementation of sediments—i.e. particles made of minerals (geological detritus) or organic matter (biological detritus)—that have been accumulated or de ...

on the banks of the Jed Water. He later wrote of how he "rejoiced at my good fortune in stumbling upon an object so interesting in the natural history of the earth, and which I had been long looking for in vain".

Flooding

Jed Water is liable to flood, so the river levels are monitored near the old Canongate Bridge. The depth is usually between and metres deep but it has been as deep as which it reached in January 2016. In 2020 there was a problem when the flood defences in Jedburgh were breached by debris in one storm just before another storm hit. Luckily repairs were made and serious flooding was avoided.

References

External links

RCAHMS record of the Jed WaterSCRAN image: The Jed Water, winter 1961/2GEOGRAPH: Mossburn Ford, Jed Water
{{authority control Rivers of the Scottish Borders 2Jed Jedburgh

Description

Flooding

See also

References

External links