The River Thames and its Tributaries

Almost four decades have come and gone since archaeologist Raymond Selkirk put forward his innovative argument that the Romans in Britain (and elsewhere) made substantial use of rivers as part of their logistics when supplying front line legions. Scores of detectorists throughout northern England and southern Scotland helped Raymond with his research by detecting around potential riverside sites revealed by the aerial photographs he took when flying his light aircraft along the routes of the region’s rivers.

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Almost four decades have come and gone since archaeologist Raymond Selkirk put forward his innovative argument that the Romans in Britain (and elsewhere) made substantial use of rivers as part of their logistics when supplying front line legions. Scores of detectorists throughout northern England and southern Scotland helped Raymond with his research by detecting around potential riverside sites revealed by the aerial photographs he took when flying his light aircraft along the routes of the region’s rivers. Forty years on, and using Google Maps as a substitute for a de Havilland Chipmunk, I’ve looked at both banks of the Upper Thames and its major tributaries; in between times studying numbers of historical records covering  the economic histories of these rivers over more than a thousand years.

The accompanying photographs give glimpses of some of the riverscapes and landscapes from which I believe I’ve come up with enough potential sites, subject to search permissions, to keep you detecting after reading this and the next two issues.

Controversy has long reigned over the location of the source of the Thames; but I’m awarding the accolade to Seven Springs (Fig.1) near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, if only because it is the undisputed source of the river Churn should the Thames claim fail.