Talk:River Nene

Untitled

"Nene" is also a Hawaiian goose, the state bird, in fact. Can we remove the redirect and do a disambiguation page? -- Zoe

I had already made reference to the ne-ne on the page WWT Arundel, but had not got around to editing the page. I have now done so, so there's no need for a disamb. I have it on very good authority from the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust that the pronunciation and spelling is ne-ne. Renata 23:45 Nov 22, 2002 (UTC)

Thanks, Regina. I wasn't aware of the hyphen in the middle. THough a few google searches don't show the hyphen:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/02/0206_020206_canadiangeese.html
http://www.50states.com/bird/nene.htm
http://www.thewildones.org/Animals/nene.html
http://www.natzoo.si.edu/Animals/nene.htm

-- Zoe

Thanks for calling me Regina - I'm actually called Renata ;-)). If you feel happier doing it without the hyphen, or disamb as Nene, please go ahead. The pronunciation is very different, though - "neen" for the river and "nay-nay" for the bird. Have a good weekend. Renata 13:41 Nov 23, 2002 (UTC)

Whoops, sorry, Renata. Renata, Renata, Renata. Maybe I'll remember that now. Sigh. -- Zoe

Yes, put the pronunciation on the page, please. 4.154.253.232 (talk) 23:21, 26 December 2010 (UTC)

Origin of "Nene"

Could the name "Nene" be a Celtic word, related to the modern Welsh "nant" (stream)? ML 24.11.06.

Interesting speculation but nant originally meant valley, and the Nene does not obviously have a valley, flowing as it does through a flat landscape. Also you wouldn't expect a final t to be lost. Compare the river Nent in Cumbria, which definitely does come from nant.

I've revised the etymology of the name anyway as there was some dodgy speculation that needed looking at. There was no ref for the 'bright one' etymology, and it's not found in Ekwall or Mills who are the experts in the field, so have removed. Also have removed 'nine springs' etymology as it's from a source not written by a toponymist, and doubtful anyway as even the earliest, pre-conquest forms of the name call it Nyn, Nen etc, and the same name appears in the river Neen in Shropshire, so the 'springs' bit is out of the question really. Asnac (talk) 10:50, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

Flood Defences

• The BBC source [1] link no longer works so I can't find out the answer, but has some of this defence now been completed? Just west of Dodford Mill (West of Weedon) work seems to have just been finished which appears like a reservoir bank/dam, with the river guided underneath, wetlands around it and a weir before it. I presumed this is an example of the new defences, and (if so) can the statement be updated to indicate that there 'are' new defences now in place/being put in place, and/or should it be elaborated on where these defences are if people know? Although I may not be understanding this correctly; is the work mentioned in 2007 specific to the area around 'Upton Mill', or just the river as a whole further up from 'Upton Mill'? 82.152.211.45 (talk) 22:11, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

• Updated link 82.152.211.45 (talk) 22:27, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

UKW rating

I have rated this as C for Wikiproject UK Waterways. Items for attention are

• 1. Lead too short for size of article
• 2. Lead contains information not in the body of the article  Done
• 3. Course section is largely unreferenced

Bob1960evens (talk) 18:01, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Norfolk?

As somebody who has lived by the Nene at Sutton Bridge I can tell you that the River DOES NOT pass through the county of Norfolk.

It is Lincolshire where the River ends up and meets the sea. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.22.215.246 (talk) 09:21, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Length

A figure is given in the infobox for the length of the Nene being 100 miles / 160km, the figure being qualified by 'about' in the lede. If you will forgive the pun it is not immediately clear where that figure is sourced though it is perhaps Owens. Many of the lengths offered up in that reference are dubious and so I have, as with some other watercourses where questionable lengths have been asserted, painstakingly measured its length on online 1:25,000 scale OS mapping using a digital tool and determined it at 111.9 miles / 180.0km - I'd be confident of the accuracy of the figure to within 1%.

Now the figure comes with a few caveats! The Nene is one of the most anabranched (channels splitting off and rejoining) of major British rivers and there remains some subjectivity as to which of the multiple channels ought to be measured wherever this situation arises. There is also the case of which of the several potential sources is taken as the start of the measured length (which I continued to the county limit in the Wash). The figure I give is from the start described as 'near Arbury Hill, though the Fawley Park headwater stream is 3km longer (so would produce an overall length of 183km). An alternative source is Nenmoor Spring to the north, the stream from which, at the point it joins the 'Daventry Nene', has flowed 5.5km longer than the Arbury Hill one (or 2.9km longer than the Fawley headwater) suggesting a feasible overall length of 185.9km. There is an even longer headwater starting near Arnills Gate Farm southeast of Barby joining the Nenmoor source near Surney Farm, which adds yet another 1.3km (thus 187.2km total) - this one is not mentioned in the existing text of the article. There is no one definitive length for this river, just as is the case for any river of reasonable length and complexity, but there are figures which are more accurate than those currently offered up. All of this is of course original research on my part so cannot be included in the article but it does at least give an idea of what a true figure should look like if and when an editor finds a suitable reference out there! cheers Geopersona (talk) 10:57, 30 January 2022 (UTC)