The Mark Yeo is a short river or

rhyne A rhyne (Somerset), rhine/rhyne (Gloucestershire), or reen (South Wales) (all pronounced "reen"; from Old English ''ryne'' or Welsh ''rhewyn'' or ''rhewin'' "ditch") is a drainage ditch, or canal, used to turn areas of wetland close to sea ...

in north

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, England. It starts near

Mark Mark may refer to: In the Bible * Mark the Evangelist (5–68), traditionally ascribed author of the Gospel of Mark * Gospel of Mark, one of the four canonical gospels and one of the three synoptic gospels Currencies * Mark (currency), a currenc ...

on the

Somerset Levels The Somerset Levels are a coastal plain and wetland area of Somerset, England, running south from the Mendips to the Blackdown Hills. The Somerset Levels have an area of about and are bisected by the Polden Hills; the areas to the south ...

and flows north for about under the

M5 motorway The M5 is a motorway in England linking the Midlands with the South West England, South West. It runs from junction 8 of the M6 motorway, M6 at West Bromwich near Birmingham to Exeter in Devon. Heading south-west, the M5 runs east of West Brom ...

to join the River Axe near Loxton. It provided a link between the Axe and the

River Brue The River Brue originates in the parish of Brewham in Somerset, England, and reaches the sea some west at Burnham-on-Sea. It originally took a different route from Glastonbury to the sea, but this was changed by Glastonbury Abbey in the twelfth ...

, as part of a waterway called the "Pilrow Cut" probably canalised in the early 13th century. It no longer connects to the Brue, but is used for drainage purposes, which is unlikely to have been the case in the Middle Ages. Within the village of Mark, it is crossed by an iron bridge erected in 1824, which claims to be the oldest of its kind in the county. The river flows under the

A38 road The A38, parts of which are known as Devon Expressway, Bristol Road and Gloucester Road, Bristol, Gloucester Road, is a major A-class trunk road in England. The road runs from Bodmin in Cornwall to Mansfield in Nottinghamshire. It is long, mak ...

at Rooks Bridge. In the 5th and 6th centuries the Mark Yeo acted as a route from the small port of Rackley on the river Axe across the marshes to Glastonbury. It is thought to have been used to transport goods and passengers to and from

Glastonbury Abbey Glastonbury Abbey was a monastery in Glastonbury, Somerset, England. Its ruins, a grade I listed building and scheduled ancient monument, are open as a visitor attraction. The abbey was founded in the 8th century and enlarged in the 10th. It wa ...

. Excavations just north of York Farm in a field called 'Scott's Wharf' at Rooks Bridge uncovered 14th or 15th century pottery and worked stones, which represent the site of a wharf at a site where the Mark Yeo used to join the old river Axe before it was diverted. In 2008 an oil spill threatened some of the birds and other wildlife on the river. A rescue operation was launched by local volunteers to save geese, swans and ducks who were affected. The river has substantially recovered and now has a population of fish and eels. In 2015 a man was killed as a result of an accident in which a car overturned and was submerged in the Mark Yeo. Local roads were closed while the car was retrieved from the water. The driver of the car was later charged with causing death by

driving without due care and attention Driving without due care and attention or careless driving is a legal term for a particular type of moving traffic violation related to aggressive driving in the United States, Canada (at least in Ontario), the United Kingdom, and Ireland. It is o ...

while over the alcohol limit.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Somerset Somerset Levels 1MarkYeo