By Martin Brisland.
Main image of recent River Rights mini pilgrimage with the goddess of the River Itchen, Ancasta, by Johnny Templeton.
Did you know that the Itchen was connected to the production of banknotes? And played a role in securing victory in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 during the Napoleonic Wars? And plays a vital role in making sure water comes out of your tap? And Watercress is grown in its upper parts?
People have been concerned with the control and usage of rivers for a long time. The Magna Carta of 1215 has a number of clauses about river rights. It removed all fish weirs or fish traps in rivers.
The 26-mile-long River Itchen is set to have rights embodied in a Charter in 2027.
So, what is the origin of its name?
There is no clear answer. Maybe linked to the Iceni tribe whose Queen was Boudicca?
An old name for the New Forest was Ytene.
The Itchen, along with the Test, is one of the world’s premier chalk streams. The chalk acts as a sponge and the water entering the river now may have fallen as rain up to 50 years ago. American presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter and George Bush Snr have all fly fished for wild trout and salmon on the Test but to my knowledge none have fished on the Itchen.
The Itchen is home to a species of Atlantic Salmon who are born in the river, travel to the coast of Greenland, before returning to spawn in the Itchen. Southampton’s water once came from bore holes on the Common but since 1939 drinking water for a quarter of a million homes is from the Otterbourne Pumping Station which extracts and treats river water.
The Roman trading post of Clausentum was where Bitterne Manor is today. There was a bridge from Clausentum to St. Denys and remains can be seen at very low tide. Ancaster Road in Bevois Town area is presumably named after the Ancasta river deity.
When Winchester was the capital of England, the Normans heavily relied on the Itchen. They floated massive blocks of Caen stone up the river from France to construct Winchester Cathedral.
As Winchester’s cloth trade declined, the city pushed for an enhanced transport link to Southampton. Parliament passed an act in 1665 to build the formal 10.4-mile Itchen Navigation canal system. Completed in 1710, the canal had 17 locks with a combined rise of 32 metres or 105 feet. The opening of the London and South Western Railway from 1840 soon made canal transport obsolete. Commercial barge operations permanently ceased around 1869.
The Itchen was also used to deliberately flood the Winchester water meadows. This winter irrigation deposited nutrient-rich silt, allowing farmers to yield multiple hay crops per year. In the 1970s the route of M3 motorway altered to cut through the chalk by Winchester rather than go through water meadows.
In 1700 there were 10 paper mills in the area, nine making brown paper and one on the Itchen at South Stoneham manufacturing white paper. This mill is known today as Gater’s Mill.
One young French Huguenot who worked at South Stoneham was Henri de Portal who, legend has it, escaped to Southampton hidden inside a wine barrel. Henri arrived in Southampton in around 1705 when he was about 15 years old. Henri’s particular expertise was the production of paper with superb watermarks essential for security with paper money. In 1724, Henri was awarded the contract to produce paper for Bank of England banknotes. Today the business he founded makes paper for the currencies of over 150 countries at its mill at Overton. Its old mill is now the Bombay Sapphire Gin Distillery.
Today the Itchen has five Bridges and one railway bridge. If you start at Mansbridge and walk south you come to Woodmill. The Itchen is tidal up to this point which enabled Walter Taylor to use water power to build accurate rigging blocks for the Royal Navy from 1781. This gave their ships an advantage for quick sail manoeuvrability and helped Nelson win the Battle of Trafalgar.
Next is Cobden Bridge, built as a free bridge connecting Bitterne Park and St. Denys.
From 1799 there has been a Northam Bridge, originally a toll bridge. The present one is from 1954 and is the first one made of pre-stressed concrete.
The Itchen Bridge replaced the Floating Bridge in 1977. Anyone remember this clanking old chain ferry?
Finally, the Itchen was mentioned by the world’s media when Samba the Capybara escaped a few months ago from Marwell Zoo. Bite marks on riverside vegetation were reported in early May.
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