View source for River Alre

{{Short description|River in Hampshire, England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox river
| name               = River Alre
| name_other         = River Arle
| name_etymology     = A ''back formation'' from [[Old Alresford|Alresford]]
| image              = File:Alre Valley - geograph.org.uk - 122129.jpg
| image_caption      = Alre Valley
| map                = {{Annotated image
| image = Map_of_Hampshire_Sheet_042,_Ordnance_Survey,_1866-1889.tiff
| image-width = 450 
| image-left = -30 
| image-top = -20
| width =  250
| height =  250
| float = right
| annotations = <!-- empty or not, this must be included -->
| caption = The river as shown on a 19th century OS map
}}
| pushpin_map        = Hampshire
| pushpin_map_size   = 250
| pushpin_map_caption= Confluence into the Itchen, in Hampshire
| subdivision_type1  = Country
| subdivision_name1  = [[England]]
| subdivision_type3  = County
| subdivision_name3  = [[Hampshire]]
| length             = {{convert|6.0|km|mi|abbr=on|sigfig=2}} 
| width_min          = 
| width_avg          = 
| width_max          = 
| depth_min          = 
| depth_avg          = 
| depth_max          = 
| discharge1_location= [[New Alresford]]
| discharge1_min     = 
| discharge1_avg     = 
| discharge1_max     = 
| source1            = 
| source1_location   = east end of [[Bishop's Sutton]], [[Hampshire]]
| source1_coordinates= {{coord|51|4|56|N|1|7|11|W|region:GB|display=inline}}
| source1_elevation  = {{convert|72|m|abbr=on}}
| mouth              = [[River Itchen, Hampshire|River Itchen]]
| mouth_location     = near [[New Alresford]], [[Hampshire]]
| mouth_coordinates  = {{coord|51|5|16|N|1|11|2.9|W|region:GB|display=inline,title}}
| mouth_elevation    = {{convert|51|m|abbr=on}}
| progression        = Alre, Itchen, Southampton Water arm of The Solent (English Channel)
| river_system       = Itchen basin
| basin_size         = {{cvt|56.31|km2|abbr=on}}
}}

The '''River Alre'''{{Pronunciation needed}} (also, occasionally, '''Arle'''<ref name=alresford>{{cite web |url = http://www.alresford.org/history.php |title = About Alresford |accessdate= 22 April 2013}}</ref>) is a tributary of the [[River Itchen, Hampshire|River Itchen]] in [[Hampshire]] in the south of England. It rises in [[Bishop's Sutton]] and flows west for {{convert|6|km|mi|abbr=on}} to meet the Itchen below [[New Alresford]].

The river is a classic English [[chalk stream]] with a shallow gravel bed and fast flowing waters, fed year-round by chalk springs. Through Bishop's Sutton it forms a good natural [[trout]] fishery and later supports a watercress harvest after which the [[Watercress Line]], a heritage steam railway, is named.<ref name=trout>{{cite web|url=http://www.wildtrout.org/sites/default/files/private/Alre2009.pdf|title=River Alre|publisher=The Wild Trout Trust|date=January 2009}}</ref>

==Name and Etymology==

The river's name is an example of a so-called ''[[back-formation]]'' whereby a given name is based on another place-name, typically via a [[Folk etymology|false or ungrounded theory]] or misunderstanding of the name's meaning.<ref>Coates, R. (1989) The Place-Names of Hampshire p. 21</ref><ref>Klingelhöfer, E. C (1992) Manor, vill, and hundred : the development of rural institutions in early medieval Hampshire. Ontario, p. 177</ref>  In this case the river was named by the local population after the fact that it ran through [[New Alresford]] assuming that the name Alresford meant ''the ford on the river Alre / Arle''.{{cn|date=July 2024}} In reality Alresford derives from the [[Old English]] ''alor'' ([[alder]] tree)<ref>{{cite web | url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/alor#Old_English | title=Alor | date=2 June 2024 }}</ref> and means Ford at the Alder Tree.<ref>Ekwall, E. (1938). The concise Oxford dictionary of English place-names. Oxford University Press. p. 7</ref><ref>Coates, R. (1989) The Place-Names of Hampshire p. 21</ref><ref>Mills, A.D. (1998). Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford University Press. p. 10</ref><ref>Watts, V. (2004) Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-names. Cambridge University Press. p. 10</ref> This theory is supported by the fact that the Alre river name is recorded relatively late- first appearing indirectly as ''Alsford ryver'' in 1540 and then as ''Arre'' and ''Arle'' in 1586.<ref>Ekwall, E. (1928) English River-Names. Oxford University Press, p. 9</ref>

Further evidence for the Alre's name being an invention due to its location near [[New Alresford]] is the fact that [[Old Alresford]] (the older of the two settlements and the ''original'' Alresford) does not sit on the Alre. Rather it is situated on the banks of an unnamed tributary stream of the Alre and not the larger river to its south. This clearly supports the fact that the name was invented later after New Alresford was founded after the 12th Century.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.alresford.org/history.php | title=About Alresford }}</ref> It can therefore not be the original name of the river after which the settlement was named.

The Alre's relatively late mention is explained via the fact that until the [[Late Middle Ages]] the River Alre was considered to be the headwater of the [[River Itchen, Hampshire|Itchen]].<ref name=alresford/> This can be seen in the several [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] charter boundaries which refer to the Alre as the Itchen.<ref>Grundy, G. B. (1921) The Saxon Land Charter of Hampshire with Notes on Place and Field Names. Archaeological Journal Volume 78: 69–78</ref> In fact the two rivers distinctions haven't always been clear with the Itchen itself at one point being referred to as the River Alre.<ref name=Knight>{{cite book|last=Knight|first=Charles|title=Geography: The English Cyclopaedia, Volume IV|year=1867|publisher=Bradbury, Evans|location=London|pages=631|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UAVCAAAAYAAJ&q=Alre}}</ref><ref name=Camden>{{cite book|last=Camden|first=William|title=Britannia|publisher=J. B.|year=1586|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_fHBbAAAAQAAJ|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_fHBbAAAAQAAJ/page/n238 181]|quote=William Camden alre.}}</ref> In a record from 1447 ''Denewater'' is mentioned as the name for the river which runs through Alresford.<ref>Klingelhöfer, E. C (1992) Manor, vill, and hundred : the development of rural institutions in early medieval Hampshire. Ontario, p. 177</ref> It has been suggested that this name was the pre-16th Century name for the Alre and is in reference to the source of the river in [[Ropley Dean]] a hamlet of [[Ropley]] East of Alresford.<ref>Klingelhöfer, E. C (1992) Manor, vill, and hundred : the development of rural institutions in early medieval Hampshire. Ontario, p. 177</ref> In fact the valley which Ropley Dean is situated within still occasionally bears a small stream.

Another theory, which claims far less evidence is that the river took its name from the same alder tree as Alresford as it was supposedly a prominent alder tree.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Dictionary of British Place Names|author=A. D. Mills|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref>

The alternative spelling of the river's name ''Arle'' is as old as its first mention and in reality there is no correct spelling as even into the 20th Century it was recorded both ways.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

==Course==

The river rises at a spring in the parish of [[Bishop's Sutton]], 800 metres east of the old core of the village. Flowing west, the lesser-populated north bank of the village has the first of its three little crossings, Water Lane, a [[Ford (crossing)|ford]].<ref name=os>Ordnance Survey of Great Britain</ref> Here the Alre runs between the parish church of St Nicholas and the site of the former bishop's palace, owned by the [[Bishop of Winchester]] for centuries, that gives the village its name.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/English%20sites/3963.html|title=Bishop's Sutton Bishop's Palace|publisher=Gatehouse Gazetteer}}</ref>

It runs through Western Court Farm, where it provides the waters for the farm's [[watercress]] beds, and soon after it runs under the railway bridge of the Mid Hants Railway, known as the [[Watercress Line]] as it used to transport watercress from [[New Alresford]] to [[Alton, Hampshire|Alton]] and London.

North east of Alresford, the river has been split with one channel running through the Old Alresford Pond, an artificial 12th-century stew pond that was dug to provide fish for the Bishop of Winchester. It may also have served as a balancing pond for a navigation channel dug to the south. It is now designated a [[Site of Special Scientific Interest]].<ref name=trout/>

The Alre runs just to the north of New Alresford, separating it from the smaller village of [[Old Alresford]] and forming the parish boundary between the two for much of its route. Here it runs under two water mills, Arle Mill and The Fulling Mill, as well as supporting additional watercress farms.<ref name=os/> Fulling is the process of removing oils from wool and the mill dates back to the 13th century. Derelict by the 19th century, it was saved from demolition in 1951 and is now a private residence.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://naturalhomes.org/timeline/fullingmill.htm|title=Fulling Mill}}</ref>

Its final section flows a couple of hundred metres south west through fields into the meandering course of the River Itchen.

==History==

[[Daniel Defoe]] mentions the river in his book ''[[A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain]]''.

:"From thence we ride to [[Titchfield|Tichfield]] as above, where we pass the River Alre, which rises in the same County at Alresford, or near it, which is not above Twenty-two Miles off; and yet it is a large River here, and makes a good Road below, call'd Tichfield-bay."<ref name=Defoe>{{cite book|last=Defoe|first=Daniel|title=A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain|year=1724–1727|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CUgVAAAAQAAJ&q=daniel+defoe+%22alre%22&pg=PA199}}</ref>

==Water quality==
The Environment Agency measure 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]]s, [[angiosperm]]s and fish. Chemical status, which compares the concentrations of various chemicals against known safe concentrations, is rated good or fail.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://environment.data.gov.uk/catchment-planning/help/glossary |website=Catchment Data Explorer |title=Glossary (see Biological quality element; Chemical status; and Ecological status) |publisher=Environment Agency |date=17 February 2016}}  [[File:UKOpenGovernmentLicence.svg|30px]] Text was copied from this source, which is available under an [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/  Open Government Licence v3.0]. © Crown copyright. </ref>

Water quality of the River Alre in 2019:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Section !! Ecological<br/>Status !! Chemical<br/>Status !! Overall<br/>Status !! Length !! Catchment !! Channel
|-
| {{waterqual_title |desc=Alre |asset= GB107042022610}} 
| {{waterqual_good}} 
| {{waterqual_fail}} 
| {{waterqual_mod}} 
| {{convert| 5.986 |km|mi|abbr=on}}
| {{convert| 56.31 |km2|sqmi|abbr=on}}
| 
|}

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Hydrology of Hampshire}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alre}}
[[Category:Rivers of Hampshire]]
[[Category:Itchen catchment|1Alre]]