Pilhill Brook is a tributary of the

River Anton The River Anton is a chalk stream in Hampshire in south east England. It rises in Andover and flows southwards for approximately to meet the River Test near Chilbolton. The principal tributary of the Anton, the Pillhill Brook, joins the rive ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, England. It is a

chalk stream Chalk streams are rivers that rise from springs in landscapes with chalk bedrock. Since chalk is permeable, water easily percolates through the ground to the water table and chalk streams therefore receive little surface runoff. As a result, th ...

, known for its trout fishing.

Toponymy

The brook is believed to have been called the Ann, or Anna. The name ' is found in the

Close Rolls The Close Rolls () are an administrative record created in medieval England, Wales, Ireland and the Channel Islands by the royal chancery, in order to preserve a central record of all letters close issued by the chancery in the name of the Crown ...

in 1228.

Course

The brook rises near Fyfield and passes Thruxton before flowing through

Anna Valley Anna Valley is part of the village and parish of Upper Clatford, Hampshire, United Kingdom. The settlement is located approximately south-west of the market town of Andover, Hampshire, Andover. The name 'Anna' derives from the Celtic river 'A ...

past the villages of Abbotts Ann, Little Ann and

Amport Amport is a village and civil parish in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England, a few miles west of Andover. It incorporates the small hamlet of East Cholderton and has a population of about 1,200. There is a village green is surrou ...

, joining the

near

Upper Clatford Upper Clatford is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England. The village is in the valley of the River Anton, upstream from the point where it joins the River Test at the south. Clatford is to the south from Andover, Hampshire, Andover ...

, which flows in turn into the

River Test The River Test is a chalk stream in Hampshire in the south of England. It rises at Ashe near Basingstoke and flows southwards for to Southampton Water. Settlements on the Test include the towns of Stockbridge and Romsey. The river's vall ...

Industry

in 1813, the brothers Robert and William Tasker set up the

Waterloo Ironworks Taskers of Andover were an Andover, Hampshire based metal works and engineering company, which became better known in the latter half of the 20th century for their lorry Semi-trailer, trailers. After 170 years in operation, the company became fi ...

in the Anna Valley at Upper Clatford, using a waterwheel driven by the brook to power the forge. They specialised in making agricultural equipment, progressing to the manufacture of steam traction engines from 1865. There were four conventional watermills on the brook: Upper Mill at Monxton, Upper Mill at Abbotts Ann, Abbotts Ann Mill and Sarsons Mill at Amport.

Water quality

The Environment Agency measures 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 animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordata, chordate s ...

angiosperm Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed within a fruit ...

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 Pillhill Brook in 2019: In 2021 there was concern about water quality after incidents of sewage discharge by

Southern Water Southern Water is the private utility company responsible for the public wastewater collection and treatment in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, West Sussex, East Sussex and Kent, and for the public water supply and distribution in approximately ...

References

External links