The River Nene is a river in the east of England. It flows for 91 miles (147 km) through Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. The tidal river forms the border between Cambridgeshire and Norfolk for about six kilometres.
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The river's environment
The river rises at sources near Badby (the nearby village of Newnham appears to be named after it), Naseby and Yelvertoft, Northamptonshire, then it flows through arable land, before entering the modern industrial landscape of Northampton, Wellingborough and Irthlingborough to flow among its gravel pits. It flows past Nene Park, the home of Rushden and Diamonds. At grid reference TL116976, the Romans bridged the river with Ermine Street in the first century. Having passed among the gentle hills of Northamptonshire it enters the rural part of the City of Peterborough, passing the Nene Valley Railway and through the Nene Valley Country Park. Half a mile upstream of the city centre is Woodston Wharf - the site of the old sea lock - originally the extent of the tidal River Nene until the Dog in a Doublet lock at Whittlesey was opened in 1937. Continuing downstream will take you along the impressive 'Embankment' area and after the cathedral city itself, the landscape changes to the Nene Washes in The Fens and their vast, seemingly endless horizons. Beyond Flag Fen the river flows through Wisbech, then Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire, and finally enters the North Sea at The Wash between two towers known as "the lighthouses" The Nene links the Grand Union Canal to the River Great Ouse, via the Middle Level system. Much of its route has been upgraded to a wide canal with locks at regular intervals. Some sections where the "canal" runs adjacent to the "river" are known as the "Nene Navigation".
The name
Pronunciation of the river's name is a bone of contention in its locality, and changes as one moves downstream. Through Northamptonshire locals mostly refer to it as the [nɛn] (rhyming with "hen"), but around Peterborough it changes to [niːn] (rhyming with "mean"). The spelling was "Nenn" (as seen in Cole-Roper's 1810 engraving) or "Nyn" until the beginning of the 20th Century, and the point at which the pronunciation changes has been moving further inland for many years; the current edition of the Imray "Map Of The River Nene" suggests that the cut-off point is Thrapston.
Whatever the spelling and pronunciation, it is suggested that the name originates from the nine springs that once fed the head of the river, though how many people would be aware of this enough to reference this in the name? It is more likely that the name comes from Celtic word meaning 'bright one'. Many rivers' names retained their pre-Roman names, such as the Ouse and Avon. The river gave its name to the former Nene College of Higher Education in Northampton, now University of Northampton. The river also gave its name to the Rolls-Royce Nene turbojet engine, Rolls-Royce practice being to name their gas turbine designs after British rivers.
