Avon Water is a small river draining some of the southwest of the New Forest in Hampshire to The Solent. West of the upper part of its archetypally dendritic drainage basin, which has formed due to the forest's heath soil, is the due south, much larger River Avon, rising in Wiltshire.
Context It is the smallest of three rivers (properly so called) which drain all but the north, west and east edges of the New Forest.Terry R. Healy, Ying Wang, Judy-Ann Healy (editors), (2002), Muddy coasts of the world: processes, deposits, and function, page 413. Gulf Professional Publishing These flow south into the Solent: with the Lymington River then Beaulieu River, the furthest east.Colin Rodney Tubbs, (1968), The New Forest: an ecological history, pages 19–20. David & Charles It rises at many sources close to, south of, Burley, and, quite minutely ribbled in places, curves from south-east to south over its course of 9 miles (14.5 km).Samuel Lewis, (1855), The book of English rivers: an account of the rivers of England, page 31 It flows into the Solent at Keyhaven,William White, (1878), History, gazetteer and directory of the county of Hampshire, page 56 close to the shingle bank that leads to Hurst Castle.
The name thought to have been little-used or communicated outside of certain social circles;Old Hampshire Gazetteer - Sway yet it dates from at least the 1790s. It is labelled on Thomas Milne's map of Hampshire published by William Faden in 1791.Milne's Hampshire 1791, section 22, Old Hampshire Mapped, retrieved 15 October 2013 Cary's New Itinerary of 1810 also gives its name but confounds it with the stream ending at Keyhaven Harbour immediately to the west of the lower part (the Dane(s) stream draining Ashley, Hordle, and Milford).John Cary, (1810), Cary's New itinerary, R. 195 Lymington to Poole
Notably it drains the populous railway village of Sway.
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