A RIVER WITH TWO NAMES?
Is it pronounced Stower (rhyming with myrrh) or Stour (rhyming with hour)? The first thing to grasp is that the name of the river can be pronounced two ways and much debate rages on this topic! If you have a strong Suffolk accent then you will insist on Stower but there is really no uniform pronunciation. There are many other River Stour’s in England with the origins of the name deriving from Saxon times and referring to a “strong or mighty river”.
During the reign of Queen Anne in 1705, an act of Parliament was passed making the River Stower (Stour) navigable from Sudbury, Suffolk to Manningtree, Essex. This was one of the country’s earliest statutory rights of navigation. Between 1705 and 1713, work was undertaken to enable passage for barges, boats, lighters and other vessels. A public right of navigation remains today and is administered by the Environment Agency. However, many of the locks have disappeared and through navigation from Brundon Mill, upstream of Sudbury in Suffolk, to the sea at Brantham in Essex (a distance of approximately 25 miles) is only achievable to lighter craft such as canoes and kayaks.
THE NAVIGATION
The River Stour Trust was set up on 12th September 1968 to protect and enhance the right of the public to navigate the River Stour. We seek to reinstate through navigation, improve river access points and campaign for a change to the byelaws in order to permit electric boats on the whole stretch of the River Stour. Find out more about navigating the River Stour – click here.
GAINSBOROUGH & CONSTABLE
The depictions of the Suffolk & Essex landscapes by the artists, Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788) and John Constable (1776-1837), are revered worldwide.
Thomas Gainsborough is widely considered to be one of the greatest artists of his era. He was born in Sudbury and spent much of his childhood sketching in its surrounding woods and fields.