River Teign

"Teign" redirects here. Not to be confused withTeigne.

River Teign
The Teign estuary at sunset
Map showing the course and catchment of the Teign.
Location within Devon
Location
Country	England
County	Devon
Towns	Teignmouth;Newton Abbot;Kingsteignton
Physical characteristics
Source
• coordinates	50°38′19″N003°57′31″W
• elevation	528 m (1,732 ft)
Mouth	Lyme Bay
• location	English Channel
• coordinates	50°32′23″N3°30′2″W
• elevation	0 m (0 ft)
Length	31 mi (50 km)
Basin features
Tributaries
• left	Blackaton Brook, Fingle Brook, Reedy Brook, Sowton Brook, Bramble Brook, Kate Brook,Well Head Brook
• right	Beadon Brook,River Bovey,River Lemon,Aller Brook

TheRiver Teign/ˈtiːn/is a river in thecountyofDevon,England. It is 31 mi (50 km) long and rises onDartmoor,becomes an estuary just belowNewton Abbotand reaches theEnglish ChannelatTeignmouth.

Toponymy

The river-name 'Teign' is first attested in an Anglo-Saxon charter of 739, where it appears asTeng.The name is pre-Roman, related to theWelshtaenmeaning 'sprinkling', and means simply 'stream'.

The river lends its name to several places, including Teigncombe,Drewsteignton,Canonteign,Teigngrace,Kingsteignton(at one time, one of England's largest villages),Bishopsteignton,Teignharvey,and the second largest settlement along its course,Teignmouth.However, the villages ofCombeinteignheadandStokeinteignhead,on the other side of the estuary from Bishopsteignton, are not named after the river.

Course

The River Teign rises onDartmoor,as do many other major Devonian rivers. It has two separate sources: one rises at Teign Head, forming theNorth Teignwhich flows northeast where it is crossed by aclapper bridgenear Teigncombe. On its bank near the confluence with the Walla Brook is theTolmen Stonethat is perforated by a large circular hole.The second source rises nearGrey Wethersand forms the shorterSouth Teignwhich flows through the Fernworthy Forest and a reservoir of the same name. The two rivers combine at Leigh Bridge nearChagfordto form the Teign, which leaves the moor on its eastern side, flowing beneathCastle Drogoin a steep-sided valley. NearDunsfordthere is a nature reserve on the east bank.

It then flows southwards at the east edge of the moor through a steep-sided valley along which ran theTeign Valley Lineproviding rail service to the villages in the vicinity until its closure in 1967. NearTrushamthe Beadon Brook joins, bringing overspill from theTottiford, Kennick, and Trenchford Reservoirs.

PassingChudleighandChudleigh Knighton,the river flows through theBovey Basinwhereball clayis extracted, then between Kingsteignton andNewton Abbot,where, during its operation from 1898 to 1974, theNewton Abbot power stationdrew its cooling water from the river, discharging it back into theRiver Lemon,which joins the Teign downstream.

Below Newton Abbot the river turns abruptly to the east and becomes tidal, widening to form the Teign Estuary, a largeriathat reaches theEnglish Channelat Teignmouth.

Crossings

Fingle Bridgeis a Grade II*listed structurethat crosses the river near Drewsteignton on Dartmoor.

Until 1827 the most downstream bridge wasTeign Bridgeat Teigngrace. When it was being rebuilt in 1815 it became apparent that at least four successive bridges had been erected at various times with or over the remains of the previous constructions. Mr. P. T. Taylor, who investigated the matter at the time, gave as his opinion that:

the last or upper work was done in the sixteenth century, and that the red bridge had been built on the salt marsh in the thirteenth century; since which time there has been an accumulation of soil to the depth of ten feet. He supposes the wooden bridge to be old as the Conquest, and the white stone bridge to have been Roman work.

In 1976 a viaduct was built across the top of the estuary just below Newton Abbot to carry the newly divertedA380 road.The viaduct is about 550 m (0.34 mi) long and has eleven spans.

Since 1827 the lowest road crossing has beenShaldon Bridgethat now carries theA379near the mouth of the estuary. A passenger ferry between Teignmouth andShaldonoperates a little lower down.

Navigability

The Teign nearFingle BridgeandCastle Drogo,with a kayaker in the background

Ships and barges

Theport of Teignmouth,just inside the mouth of the estuary, is visited by ships mostly handling clay, timber and grain.

The lower reaches of the river are navigable up toNewton Abbot,although now only to shallow draft boats and those less than 2.9 metres high due to the Shaldon Bridge.

The tidal Whitelake Channel of the river connects it to two disused short canals that were both built to serve theball claytrade in the area. TheStover Canalheads to Teigngrace (with the River Teign also supplying the header pond); it was built to serveball clayoperations, but later it was the terminus of theHaytor Granite Tramway,carrying granite. The second connection was to theHackney Canal,only 0.6 miles long, that connected the river to a ball clay quarry at Hackney Clay Cellars inKingsteignton(now the site of a retail park), through what is nowNewton Abbot Racecourse.

Personal watercraft

The river has been kayaked at least from Leigh Bridge (the confluence of the North and South Teign) atSX68358765to Steps Bridge atSX80438835,rated as grade 2 to 3. There is also a single high-grade, very technical drop.

Fishing

The Teign estuary is known forflounderfishing; a British record specimen was caught here in 1994.Other species includegrey mulletin the estuary,brown troutfurther up the river and some salmon andsea troutthroughout. Some coarse fish are caught in the lower reaches of Teign, although it is not officially a coarse fish river. This includescarpas far as the tidal marshes under the A380 at Newton Abbot.

See also

• Rivers of the United Kingdom
• Haytor Granite Tramway– The Teign and its commercial past.
• Teign Valley Railway

Further reading

• Hemery, Eric (1983).High Dartmoor.London: Robert Hale. pp. 746–821.ISBN0-7091-8859-5.

External links

• [1]Video footage of the Teignmouth - Shaldon Ferry during the Shaldon Regatta