Rivers of Sussex

Sussex has four historically important rivers that flow into the English Channel. They were all economically very important in the past, though that is no longer the case, due to environmental factors, such as the silting up which has occurred over the centuries. But they are still useful features, and like most rivers, are quite picturesque and lovely to behold.

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Chapters:

0:20 – Introduction
2:08 – River Rother
4:15 – River Ouse
7:18 – River Adur
9:32 – River Arun
12:32 – Chichester Harbour

[tobeytransport]

2:17 just a little correction... the River Rother starts in the District of Rother rather than the Borough of Hastings. As a Man of Kent I can also say the River Rother forms part of the border between your beautiful county and mine for a very short stretch... most of the border is however formed by a very small stream called the Kent Ditch.

[tonybaker]

And Avon means river in old English, so the Hampshire Avon is the Hampshire river.
The Arun has a run of Sea Trout, which is fairly rare in the UK.
Glad to know you live near me, as I live in Lancing. I have also walked the Chichester canal many times.

[RoryTrackrod]

Barcombe Mills! Everybody I've ever known has been there on the middle Ouse.
As a kid we use to take the train to BM station and walk the mile long farm track to the boat hire shed and paddle a canoe back to the weir. A great familly day out.
I'm glad to say it is still in operation, but moved a short distance North to the Anchor pub.

[grahvis]

There once was a canal connection between the River Arun and the River Wey creating a route from the South Coast to London. It was abandoned long ago, though some has been restored.

[winniewotsit]

Good stuff! - Looking forward to further videos.

[justracing]

Many thanks, another totally professional and informative video. Just rewatched the history of Sussex again, I was born here but it takes an intruder to teach me the history! Excellent and in depth research work, I can't begin to imagine the amount of investigative work involved.

[clarmarkable]

Love your videos on The Geographic History of Sussex and other important places!

[JohnJones-cpwh]

Chichester Canal was a portion of the Portsmouth to London canal.

[RoryTrackrod]

Geology.
Most ports around England have a sand and gravel berth. In Sussex this would be, Bedhanpton, Littlehampton, Shoreham, and Newhaven.
During the last Ice Age, around 12000 years ago, the English Channel was completely dry, except for the rivers, such as the Thames and Schelt flowing to the Atlantic.
This deposted millions of tons of gravel, throughout the Channel area.
Off Sussex, 2 large banks are exploited. Hastings Bank and Owers Bank, ( south of Littlehanpton).
This material is used for making concrete, building material etc.
Also sea defences, e.g Rottingdean to Saltdean beach came from the Owers Bank..

[boodashaka]

Hey great video! I was wondering why the Adur River splits in two but you've labelled it as the same river there. Not sure I know of a river myself that is called the same thing after branching off but that's pretty neat

[billyhills]

I'm not sure who's correct here, but I've always pronounced the first syllable in Bodiam as 'Bow-'

[VincentComet-le]

Thanks for this video.
Very interesting & very illuminating.
Look forward to a video on the Cuckmere which, being in a quite remote part of the county, had a very interesting smuggling background back in the 18th and 19th centuries.

[victoriarings]

Thank you for this informative and helpful video!

[Crusty_Camper]

I expect you know this, but the River Aran "stole" the head waters of the Adur. And St Leonard's Forest was the site of the last recorded sighting of a dragon - actually at Colgate.

[kathnunan]

just found your channel you should of included a 5th river in the post and is the River Cuckmere

[frankparsons]

The river Adur unfortunately was invention of (the Poet) Dryden who took the Roman name which then wasn't attributed to a particular place and he decided it marked the (Roman) port of Shoreham. And so the Shoreham River in all likelihood the old Saxon name Soar (to be also found in Kent), hence Soarham in older pronunciation, found itself with a new totally unrelated name. Adur became set in stone as 18th and19th century map makers found Drydens references showing "Adur" and never having been anywhere near New Shoreham, let alone Old Shoreham, in their lives, merely copied what they easily found in libraries. I was born in Shoreham and went to school in Shoreham, we always referred to the river as the Shoreham River as did the old boatbuilders south of the High Street, hardly anyone called it the Adur unless they were blow-ins. In modern maps, the Ordnance Survey have placed the floating Roman name at Portchester, showing it (with a question mark) as "PORTUS ARDAONI?" This Roman place name for a port does not have a proper home even in more enlightened times, just a calculated guess and maybe no better than Dryden's! Thank you that Yank in Sussex! Excellent videos and information. Signed, a historian and (very) old Sussexer. 😊

[peterbartram]

Why no mention of the West Sussex Rother.?

[mzaliwa]

If you are going to mention the Chichester Canal you might as well take it all the way back to Ford where it joined the Arun and connected via the Wey and Arun Navigation via the Wey to the Thames and eventually London. Incidentally we nEver say just "River Arun" it is always "the river Arun" or "the Arun". Finally no catalogue of Sussex rivers can be considered complete without the Arun's major tributary, the Western Rother.

[panel]

Don't forget the River Mole which rises in West Sussex but is mostly in Surrey. If you do make a video about or containing the Rother in West Sussex drop the "Western" bit of the name as locals only say "the Rother". Another fact, the Arun is the second fastest flowing river in England after the Severn.

[robinberryman]

Sorry to say but there is no evidence that the river arun has ever had its mouth anywhere but at Littlehampton, much research has been done on this subject but no evidence has been found. The old name for the River Arun is believed to be river Tarrant. People born in Arundel have the title mullet after the fish that swims in the river, I hold this title.