River Stour, Suffolk

The River Stour (/ˈstʊər/ STOOR or /ˈstaʊr/ STOWR) is a river in East Anglia, England. It is 47 miles (76 km) long and forms most of the county boundary between Suffolk to the north, and Essex to the south. It rises in eastern Cambridgeshire, passes to the east of Haverhill, through Cavendish, Bures, Sudbury, Nayland, Stratford St Mary, Dedham and flows through the Dedham Vale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It becomes tidal just before Manningtree in Essex and joins the North Sea at Harwich.

Etymology and usage

The name is of ambiguous and disputed origin.

On one theory, the name Stour derive sfrom the Celtic sturr meaning "strong". However, the river-name Stour, common in England, does not occur at all in Wales; Crawford noted two tributaries of the Po River near Turin, spelled Stura. In Germany the Stoer is a tributary of the River Elbe. According to Brewer's Britain and Ireland the Stour is pronounced differently in different cases: the Kentish and East Anglian Stours rhyme with tour; the Oxfordshire Stour is sometimes rhymes with mower, sometimes with hour, and the Worcestershire Stour always rhymes with hour. Locally, the River Stour dividing Essex from Suffolk does not have a uniform pronunciation, varying from stowr to stoor.

River Stour

River Stour may refer to:

See also

River Stour, Dorset

The River Stour is a 60.5 mile (97 km) long river which flows through Wiltshire and Dorset in southern England, and drains into the English Channel. It is sometimes called the Dorset Stour to distinguish it from rivers of the same name. The source of the river is at Stourhead, in Wiltshire, where it forms a series of artificial lakes which are part of the Stourhead estate owned by the National Trust. It flows south into Dorset through the Blackmore Vale and the towns of Gillingham and Sturminster Newton. At Marnhull the Stour is joined by the River Cale and then (two miles downstream) by the River Lydden. At Blandford Forum the river breaks through the chalk ridge of the Dorset Downs, and from there flows south east into the heathlands of south east Dorset. At Wimborne Minster it is joined by the River Allen, and at its estuary at Christchurch it is joined by the River Avon before it flows through the harbour into the English Channel. The Stour Valley Way is a designated long distance footpath that follows almost all of the course of the river.

River Stour, Kent

The River Stour /ˈstaʊər/ is the river in Kent, England that flows into the North Sea at Pegwell Bay. Above Plucks Gutter, where the Little Stour joins it, the river is normally known as the Great Stour. The upper section of the river, above its confluence with the East Stour at Ashford is sometimes known as the Upper Great Stour or West Stour. In the tidal lower reaches, the artificial Stonar Cut short cuts a large loop in the natural river.

The Stour has Kent's second largest catchment area (the River Medway having the largest). The lower part of the river is tidal; its original mouth was on the Wantsum Channel, an important sea route in medieval times. The river has three major tributaries, and many minor ones. For much of its length it flows in a generally south-west to north-east direction.

The historic city of Canterbury is situated on the river, as are the former Cinque Port of Sandwich and the railway town of Ashford. The route of the Stour Valley Walk follows the river.

Suffolk

Suffolk /ˈsʌfək/ is an East Anglian county of historic origin in England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowestoft, Bury St Edmunds, Newmarket and Felixstowe, one of the largest container ports in Europe.

The county is low-lying with very few hills, and is largely arable land with the wetlands of the Broads in the north. The Suffolk Coast and Heaths are an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

History

Administration

By the 5th century the Angles (after whom East Anglia and England are named) had established control of the region. The Angles later became the "north folk" and the "south folk", from which developed the names "Norfolk" and "Suffolk". Suffolk and several adjacent areas became the kingdom of East Anglia, which later merged with Mercia and then Wessex.

Suffolk was originally divided into four separate Quarter Sessions divisions. In 1860, the number of divisions was reduced to two. The eastern division was administered from Ipswich and the western from Bury St Edmunds. Under the Local Government Act 1888, the two divisions were made the separate administrative counties of East Suffolk and West Suffolk; Ipswich became a county borough. A few Essex parishes were also added to Suffolk: Ballingdon-with-Brundon and parts of Haverhill and Kedington.

Andersonstown

Andersonstown is a suburb of Belfast, Northern Ireland. The area was originally known as Whitesidetown after the family that owned the land but they were dispossessed for the support they gave to the Society of United Irishmen, resulting in a change of name. The district is sometimes colloquially referred to as "Andytown" or "A Town".

History

Andersonstown sits at the bottom of the Black Mountain and Divis Mountain and contains a mixture of public and private housing. It is largely populated by Irish nationalists/Irish Catholics. Andersonstown is an electoral ward of Belfast. The consensus view is that the area begins at the tip of the upper Falls Road, where it becomes the Andersonstown Road, close to the junction with the Glen Road. It is bounded at the western end by Shaw's Road, forming a large triangle.

The area rapidly expanded during the 1950s and 1960s as the local housing authority built hundreds of houses for people who were rehoused during the redevelopment of the lower Falls Road. Holy Child School and La Salle Secondary School were built, along with a library. As the population of the area increased Twinbrook and Poleglass housing estates were built further out of Belfast.

Suffolk (European Parliament constituency)

Suffolk was a constituency of the European Parliament located in the United Kingdom, electing one Member of the European Parliament by the first-past-the-post electoral system. Created in 1979 for the first elections to the European Parliament, it was abolished in 1994 and succeeded by the constituencies of Suffolk and South West Norfolk, Essex North and Suffolk South and Cambridgeshire.

Boundaries

On its creation in 1979, it consisted of the parliamentary constituencies of Bury St Edmunds, Eye, Harwich, Ipswich, Lowestoft and Sudbury and Woodbridge.

After the 1984 boundary changes based on the new UK parliamentary constituencies created in 1983, it consisted of the constituencies of Bury St. Edmunds, Central Suffolk, Ipswich, South East Cambridgeshire, South Suffolk, Suffolk Coastal and Waveney. South East Cambridgeshire had previously been part of Cambridge and Bedfordshire North, while Harwich was now part of Essex North East.

The constituency was abolished in 1994. Bury St Edmunds, Central Suffolk, Ipswich, Suffolk Coastal and Waveney became part of the new European constituency of Suffolk and South West Norfolk. South East Cambridgeshire was transferred to Cambridgeshire, and Suffolk South to Essex North and Suffolk South.