River Cherwell - Watershed and Upper Course

Watershed and Upper Course

The River Cherwell rises in the ironstone hills at Hellidon, two miles (3 km) west of Charwelton near Daventry. Helidon Hill immediately north of the source forms a watershed: on the south side, the Cherwell feeds the River Thames and thence the North Sea at the Thames Estuary; on the north side, the River Leam feeds the Warwickshire River Avon and the River Severn and thence the Bristol Channel. (A third river system on this watershed rises east of Charwelton and feeds tributary streams of the River Nene and thence the North Sea at The Wash.)

South of Charwelton, the River Cherwell passes between the villages of Hinton and Woodford Halse. Woodford Halse was much expanded by the building of the Great Central Railway in 1900.

Two miles further on, the River Cherwell swings westward for a few miles, passing below the village of Chipping Warden through Edgcote, site of a Romano-British villa. The river passes from Northamptonshire into Oxfordshire at Hay's Bridge on the A361 Daventry to Banbury road.

In total the river drains an area of 943 square kilometres (364 sq mi).