River Onny

52.571°N 3.039°W / 52.571; -3.039

The River Onny, seen downstream from Horderley Bridge

The River Onny is a river in Shropshire, England. It is a major tributary of the River Teme.

Etymology

The river's name derives from Welsh and means the river on which ash trees (Welsh: onnau) grew.[1]

Course

The river has its sources in the Shropshire Hills at White Grit,[2] located in Mid and South-west Shropshire. It has two branches, the East Onny and West Onny, which converge at Eaton, to the east of Lydham. The River Onny then flows in a south-easterly direction, through Craven Arms and Onibury (a village it gives its name to),[1] before it finally has its confluence with the River Teme just upstream of Ludlow at Bromfield.[3] From White Grit to Bromfield, the river flows over a distance of 25 miles (40 km).[4][5]

The River Teme is itself a tributary of the River Severn, converging just south of Worcester city centre. The River Severn then flows south-west meeting the sea at Bristol Channel.[6]

Geology

Geologically, the Onny has the type section just west of Craven Arms of the Caradoc series of the Ordovician system and there is a trilobite genus Onnia which was first defined here.[7]

References

1. Ekwall 1974, p. 350.
2. "Shropshire Watercourses". www.shropshirehistory.com. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
3. 52.388°N 2.764°W / 52.388; -2.764
4. "Onny - conf R E Onny to conf R Teme". environment.data.gov.uk. Environment Agency. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
5. "Onny - source to conf R E Onny". environment.data.gov.uk. Environment Agency. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
6. Collins Britain Big Road Atlas 2009 (Map). 1:200,000. Collins Bartholomew. 2008. pp. 78–79. ISBN 978-0-00-727240-2.
7. "Onny River Section" (PDF). esdm.co.uk. Retrieved 4 March 2017.

Bibliography

• Ekwall, Eilert (1974). The concise Oxford dictionary of English place-names (4 ed.). Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-869103-3.