Avon

Length:  120 km / 75 miles
Catchment:  2,308 km² / 891 miles² 

The beautiful Avon river is at its widest and most magnificent between Bath and Bristol.  Although prone to dramatic floodings in the winter, it is never really out of control.  Plenty of escapeway.  Especially in Bristol where the "cut" diverts the river around the back of the "Floating Harbour" (see www.bristolfloatingharbour.com).  

Wikipedia says .......

The River Avon is a river in the south west of England. Because of a number of other River Avons in England, this river is often also known as the Lower Avon or Bristol Avon.

The Avon rises near Chipping Sodbury in Gloucestershire, between the villages of Old Sodbury and Acton Turville, dividing into two before merging again and flowing through Wiltshire.  Running a somewhat circular path, the river drains east and then south.  In its lower reaches from Bath to the River Severn at Avonmouth near Bristol the river is navigable and known as the Avon Navigation.

Its first main settlement is the village of Luckington, two miles inside the Wiltshire border, and then on to Sherston. At Malmesbury it joins up with its first major tributary, the Tetbury Avon, which rises just north of Tetbury in Gloucestershire. This tributary is known locally as the Ingleburn, which in Saxon means 'English river'.

Here, the two rivers almost meet but their path is blocked by a rocky outcrop of the Cotswolds, almost creating an island for the ancient hilltop town of Malmesbury to sit on.

After the two rivers merge, the Avon then turns south east away from the Cotswolds and then quickly south into the clay Dauntsey Vale until it reaches the biggest town so far, Chippenham. The wide vale is now known as the Avon Vale, and the river flows on to Melksham then turns north-west through Bradford on Avon, Bath, Keynsham and Bristol and joins the Severn estuary at Avonmouth near Bristol. For much of its course after leaving Wiltshire, it marks the traditional boundary between Somerset and Gloucestershire.

In central Bristol, where the river is tidal, it is diverted from its original course onto the "New Cut", a channel dug between 1804 and 1809 at a cost of UK£600,000. The original course is held at a constant level by lock gates (designed by Brunel) and is known as the Floating Harbour. This gave the port an advantage by enabling shipping to stay afloat rather than grounding when the tide went down. Downstream of central Bristol the river passes through the deep Avon Gorge, spanned by Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge.

• River Avon, Devon, Bigbury on Sea near Salcombe
• River Avon, Warwickshire through Stratford-upon-Avon
• River Avon, Hampshire through Salisbury and Christchurch