River Sheppey

The River Sheppey at Croscombe

The River Sheppey is a little Somerset river, which is a tributary of the River Brue.

The Sheppey has its source in a group of springs west of the village of Doulting, near Shepton Mallet. From here It flows through the wetlands to the north of the Polden Hills and down to the Somerset Levels where it meets the River Brue.

Course

From Doulting the Sheppey flows south west to Charlton, where parts of its course have been culverted. The river has been diverted underground for much, though not all, of its passage through Shepton Mallet. It reappears at Darshill and then flows south west through Croscombe to Dinder where it flows through the grounds of Dinder House, which was built in 1801, and under a bridge which pre-dates the house.

From Dinder the Sheppey continues west past Dulcote, Woodford and Coxley. At Coxley it is joined by the Keward Brook which carries the water from the springs in Wells which fill the moat of the Bishop's Palace.

The Sheppey at Darshill

From Coxley the river flows north through Hay Moor and North Moor, west through Ash Moor, then sharply south through Frogmore and west through Godney.

At Lower Godney (where this is a public house named after the river) it is channelled through the James Wear River and the Decoy Rhine to Westhay Level where it joins Whites River and then the River Brue near Westhay.

History

It would appear that the Sheppey was only so-called in the late 19th century. Until then, if it had a name, it may have been the 'Doulting Water' or the 'River Brae'.

The Sheppey has been used in the past to power local industry, for example corn and textile mills in the Shepton Mallet area.

There may have been more than thirty mills powered by the river and its tributaries in the area of Shepton Mallet, Bowlish and Darshill, although fewer than this number of sites have been positively identified.