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Tributaries of the Great Ouse Perhaps one of the least noticed of British rivers, as it meanders inconspicuously through the lowlands of Middle England, the Great Ouse is also one of the longest of England's rivers (250 kilometres (155 miles). The Ouse rises on the gently rolling clay lowlands of the English Midlands to the east of Banbury in Oxfordshire. From here it flows entirely over a wide clay vale in a gentle arc, first through Buckingham, past the New City of Milton Keynes (where it supplies water to the Grand Union Canal) then through Bedford and Huntingdon. East of this point the Ouse reaches the fenlands of East Anglia and naturally its course became less definite as it fed the many marshlands that lie in this great region close to sea level. Over the centuries great drainage works have been applied to this region and the fens have been largely drained. Among the many modifications that have occurred in this region have been changes to the course of the Ouse, so that its route is often quite artificial and now well defined. Just to the south of Ely the Ouse is joined by its major tributary, the River Cam before flowing in its embanked channel to Kings Lynn and the Wash. Places on the Great Ouse Cambridge Ely Kings Lynn |
