River Ems
The River Ems is a much-sluiced, six-mile river of the far west of Sussex which for its last mile and a half marks the border with Hampshire, its name being echoed in that of Emsworth on its western bank in the latter county, before the waters flow into the sea in Chichester Harbour.
Over the centuries various cartographers and chroniclers have suggested a variety of sources for the Ems.[1] According to research by David J. Rudkin the River Ems has its source about a mile and a half east of Stoughton.[1]
From source to the sea
Along the county-limits part, of its west bank, is the old town portion of Emsworth that contains mainly pre-1900-built buildings.
The Ems flows south west through Walderton as a broad-catchment winterbourne.[1] It runs past:
- The hamlet that includes well-preserved Lordington House
- The Racton Monument which has nearby in Racton hamlet the church for Lordington
- A copse, Ractonpark Dell
- Westbourne, a Sussex on the eastern bank, where the river begins to have Hampshire on its western bank. The Westbourne here receives a year-round brook from the north and that descends under the railway at Emsworth (in Hampshire), becomes tidal, drains Brook Meadow to Peter and Slipper Mill Ponds from where it discharges into the sea.
At lower tides the river helps forms at the head of Emsworth Channel in the harbour; its last few yards enable access to Emworth Marina, the other former tidal mill pond.[2]
Name
Though it is assumed that the town of Emsworth takes its name from that of the River Ems, it may be that the river instead takes its name from the town. Before the 16th Century it appear that the stream was called just 'the Bourne', or 'West Bourne', a generic description as a name.[3] The river was renamed by the 16th century chronicler Raphael Holinshed. Many of the towns and villages that the River Ems runs through or past still have 'Bourne' as a suffix.[4]
The Emille cometh first between Racton and Stansted, then down to Emilswort or Emmesworth, and so into the Ocean. Separating Sussex from Hampshire almost from the very head.
Location
- Location map: {{wmap|50.90363|-0.85227|
- Streetmap: SU808122
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References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Rudkin 1984, p. 7.
- ↑ Rudkin 1984, Ch.2-Ch.5.
- ↑ Lower 1864, pp. 263-264.
- ↑ Holinshed 1577, p. 21.
- Holinshed, Raphael (1577). The firste volume of the chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande etc. 1. London: Imprinted for Iohn Hunne. OCLC 10105970. https://archive.org/details/firstevolumeofch01wolf/page/n63/mode/2up.
- Lower, Mark Anthony (1864). Mark Antony Lower. ed. "The Ems". Sussex Archaeological Collections Relating to the History and Antiquities of the County. The Rivers of Sussex II (Lewes: SAC) XVI: 263–268. https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-285-1/dissemination/pdf/Vol_16_1864/SAC016_Lower.pdf.
- Reger, A J C (1967). A Short History of Emsworth and Warblington. Portsmouth: Pott and Horsey. p. 17.
- Rudkin, David J (1984). The River Ems and related Watercourses. Westbourne. OCLC 499701376.
