The River Wantsum today. In Roman and medieval times this was a channel a mile and a half wide, linking Reculver and Richborough, capable of taking seagoing boats.
The River Wantsum is a tributary of the River Stour, in Kent, England. Formerly, the River Wantsum and the River Stour together formed the Wantsum Channel, which separated the Isle of Thanet from the mainland of Kent. Now the River Wantsum is little more than a drainage ditch starting at Reculver, and ending where it joins the Stour.
Bede, in the 8th century, said that the Wantsum – meaning Wantsum Channel – was "about three furlongs broad [660 yards (600 m)], and is fordable only in two places, for both ends run into the sea".[1] In 1414 there was still a ferry crossing the Wantsum at Sarre, but by 1550 Thanet was no longer an island. At Reculver, the Romans built a fort that was about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the sea, whereas Leland, in the early 16th century, described Reculver as being 1⁄4 mile (400 m) from the sea, and the great storm of 1809 carried away half of the fort. It is postulated that the eroded material was carried along the shore and blocked the northern mouth of the Wantsum.[2]
The River Wantsum now joins the Great Stour from the north as a small tributary, just before the Little Stour enters it from the south to form what is thereafter known simply as the River Stour.
^
Bede. "XXV". Ecclesiastical History. Vol. 1. in Dorothy Whitelock, ed. (1979). English Historical Documents. Vol. I. Eyre Methuen. p. 650.
^Jessup, Frank (1966). Kent History Illustrated. Maidstone, Kent: Kent Education Committee. p. 72.
The RiverWantsum is a tributary of the River Stour, in Kent, England. Formerly, the RiverWantsum and the River Stour together formed the Wantsum Channel...
The Wantsum Channel was a strait separating the Isle of Thanet from the north-eastern extremity of the English county of Kent and connecting the English...
past it was separated from the mainland by the 600-metre-wide (2,000 ft) Wantsum Channel, it is no longer an island. Archaeological remains testify to its...
Great Stour (Ls) River Wantsum (L) East Stour (R) This section includes all of the rivers along England's east coast. All rivers discharging into the Thames...
Great Stour at Plucks Gutter, north west of Canterbury. RiverWantsum - part of the old Wantsum Channel separating the Isle of Thanet from Kent. Whitewater...
now drained, and Thanet now only separated from the mainland by the RiverWantsum, a minor drainage channel Wetar Strait – between Timor and the Indonesian...
Island Isle of Thanet, formerly separated by the Wantsum Channel The Isle, within tight loop of the River Severn, Shropshire The Island Thorney Island, Cambridgeshire...
peninsulas. Land reclamation during the Middle Ages, which closed the RiverWantsum and connected the Isle of Thanet to mainland Kent, resulted in less...
3381; 1.2306 Sarre Penn is a tributary of the River Stour in Kent, England, joining with the RiverWantsum near Sarre, where it is known locally as the...
Reculver once occupied a strategic location at the north-western end of the Wantsum Channel, a sea lane that separated the Isle of Thanet and the Kent mainland...
Thames Estuary marshes in Kent and Essex Marshes along the RiverWantsum in Kent—formerly the Wantsum Channel separating the Isle of Thanet from the mainland...
During the Middle Ages, the two rivers met the Wantsum Channel at Stourmouth, but the combined rivers now (called the River Stour downstream from Plucks...
beside the river. It is a good starting point for sections of the long-distance walks; Stour Valley Walk, the Saxon Shore Way or the Wantsum Walks (beside...
Thanet Coastal Path; Marshside where it meets the Wantsum Walk; Upstreet; Plucks Gutter meeting the River Stour and joins the Stour Valley Walk to the Roman...
erosion. Until about 960, the Isle of Thanet was an island, separated by the Wantsum channel, formed around a deposit of chalk; over time, the channels silted...
'Stourmouth' name derives from a village that was at the mouth of the River Stour before the Wantsum Channel was cut off from the sea.[citation needed] East Stourmouth...
where it entered the Wantsum Channel. This explains the fisheries and salt pans mentioned in the Domesday Book, and the river was at that time easily...
separated from the mainland by a channel called the Swale. In concert with the Wantsum Channel that once separated the Isle of Thanet from mainland Britain to...
of which it was a part and the size of the guns that were tested there. Wantsum Channel England, Historic. "The London Stone, Yantlet Creek, Isle of Grain...
Medway estuary, around the leeward side of the Isle of Sheppey into the Wantsum Channel, navigating past the Isle of Thanet to Sandwich and only then into...
head to Canterbury. At Reculver, the trail links to Wantsum Walk to Upstreet (following an old river route) and Oyster Bay Trail (leading to Whitstable...
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