The River Sid, situated in

East Devon East Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based in the town of Honiton, although Exmouth is the largest town. The district also contains the towns of Axminster, Budleigh Salterton, Cranbrook, Ottery St M ...

, is often claimed to be the shortest complete river in England. It flows for southwards from a source in Crowpits Covert ( OSGB36 Grid reference SY138963) at a height of 206 metres above sea level. Th
source
is at the head of a goyle or small ravine. The underlying

geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

is impermeable silty

mudstones Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from ''shale'' by its lack of fissility.Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology.'' New York, New York ...

and

sandstones Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains, cemented together by another mineral. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed o ...

of the

Triassic The Triassic ( ; sometimes symbolized 🝈) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.5 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.4 Mya. The Triassic is t ...

Keuper marl, overlain with permeable Greensand and clay-with-flints. The junction between the Greensand and Keuper Marl forms a spring line. The river flows through Sidbury and Sidford to

Sidmouth Sidmouth () is a town on the English Channel in Devon, South West England, southeast of Exeter. With a population of 13,258 in 2021, it is a tourist resort and a gateway to the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. A large part of the town has ...

and is fed by springs flowing from East Hill and water from the Roncombe Stream, the Snod Brook and the Woolbrook. In Sidmouth the river outflows at the Ham through a shingle bar.''Sidmouth, A History''. Sidmouth, Devon:Sidmouth Museum, 1987 The Sid Vale Association, the first Civic Society in Britain (founded in 1846), is based in the Sid Vale.

References

Sid Sidmouth {{England-river-stub