River Itchen, Warwickshire

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The River Itchen is a river which flows through east Warwickshire in England. It is a very small river, about 12 miles long, and its general course is from south to north.

The River Itchen rises in a broad valley to the northeast of a range of ironstone hills which border Warwickshire and Northamptonshire. The infant river is fed by several small brooks and skirts the village of Bishop's Itchington (to which it gives its name) before passing below the railway London to Birmingham mainline railway.

A mile-and-a-half north of Bishops Itchington, the River Itchen passes under Deppers Bridge which gives its name to the neighbouring hamlet. A mile further on it passes under the A425 main road west of the town of Southam. Immediately after the bridge, it flows through Stoneythorpe Park and passes the hamlet of Bascote. A mile north of Bascote, the Grand Union Canal crosses the Itchen valley on a half-mile long embankment and is carried over the river on an aqueduct.

The River Itchen reaches the large village of Long Itchington (again named from the river) and passes close to the church. West of the village, the river swings to the west briefly and its meandering course is bridged twice by the course of a disused railway line which ran between Weedon Bec and Leamington Spa (this section of the abandoned railway is now a footpath and cycleway).

The River Itchen turns north again and three miles further on it reaches Marton where it flows into the River Leam.

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Map sources for: Bishop's Itchington (SP 390 576), Long Itchington (SP 415 652) and Marton (SP 405 690).