Yachts on the River Frome Wareham

by Gordon James

Title

Yachts on the River Frome Wareham

Artist

Gordon James

Medium

Photograph - Photography Digital

Description

The River Frome is a river in Dorset in the south of England. At 30 miles (48 km) long it is the major chalkstream in southwest England. It is navigable upstream from Poole Harbour as far as the town of Wareham.

The river rises in the Dorset Downs at Evershot, passes through Maiden Newton, Dorchester, West Stafford and Woodsford. At Wareham it and the parallel River Piddle flow into Poole Harbour via the Wareham Channel. The catchment area is 181 sq mi (470 km2), approximately one sixth of the county.

East of Dorchester the river runs over sands, clays and gravels which overlie the chalk; as the valley gradient is gentle the Frome has deposited much sediment here and thus created a broad floodplain. Historically this contained marshes and gave the name to the Durotriges, water dwellers, the BrittonicCeltic tribe who inhabited Dorset. The river forms a wide, shallow ria at its estuary, Poole Harbour.

Prior to the end of the last ice age, the Purbeck Hills were continuous with the Isle of Wight, and the Frome would have continued eastwards through what is now Poole Harbour and Poole Bay along the Solent, collecting the Stour–Avon, Beaulieu, and Test–Itchen–Hamble catchments, before emptying into the Channel between Bembridge and Selsey Bill.

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December 17th, 2020

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