The River Morda is a minor river in

Wrexham County Borough Wrexham County Borough () is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough, with city status in the United Kingdom, city status, in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It borders the English ceremonial counties of Cheshire and Shropshire to ...

and

Powys Powys ( , ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It borders Gwynedd, Denbighshire, and Wrexham County Borough, Wrexham to the north; the English Ceremonial counties of England, ceremo ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

and

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, lying mainly to the south-west of the town of

Oswestry Oswestry ( ; ) is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the England–Wales border, Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5 road (Great Britain), A5, A483 road, A483 and A495 road, A495 ro ...

. The river flows in a generally eastward direction from its source near Llechrydau, Wrexham, across the

England–Wales border The England–Wales border, sometimes referred to as the Wales–England border or the Anglo-Welsh border, runs for from the Dee estuary, in the north, to the Severn estuary in the south, separating England and Wales. It has followed broadly ...

to its convergence with the

River Vyrnwy The River Vyrnwy (, ) flows through northern Powys, Wales, and Shropshire, England. The name derives from Severn, the river of which it is a tributary. Course The river used to be sourced from the many rivers and streams running off the mount ...

near Domgay. The river's

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

covers an area of approximately 30 km², which includes one relatively large tributary to the east amongst several smaller streams that flow into the main channel. The predominant land use along the course of the river is agriculture, with large expanses of open pasture. Beyond Llawnt, the river flows through wooded terrain for about a kilometre before reaching Morda where the river encounters the first urbanised area along its route. The

main stem In hydrology, a main stem or mainstem (also known as a trunk) is "the primary downstream segment of a river, as contrasted to its tributaries". The mainstem extends all the way from one specific headwater to the outlet of the river, although t ...

of the river has been divided into two sections for classification purposes with a total length of .

2017 pollution incident

On 19 January 2017, a report of acid pollution in the River Morda was made to the

Environment Agency The Environment Agency (EA) is a non-departmental public body, established in 1996 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with responsibilities relating to the protection and enha ...

. The pollution incident resulted in significant fish mortality. An investigation into the cause and impact of the incident was subsequently launched by the Environment Agency and

United Utilities United Utilities Group plc (UU) is the United Kingdom's largest listed water company. It was founded in 1995 as a result of the merger of North West Water and NORWEB. The group manages the regulated water and waste water network in North West En ...

References

External links

Map
of the River Morda {{authority control Morda Morda Morda