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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Severn
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The longest river in Great Britain if calculated at about 354km/220m (estimates as low as 290km/180m end the Severn at a different point in its long estuary and allow the *Thames to take the crown). It rises in Wales, in Powys, and flows northeast to Shrewsbury before entering a narrow gorge at Ironbridge. It continues south to Worcester and to Gloucester, where it becomes tidal. The estuary, narrowing from the great expanse of the *Bristol Channel, causes the phenomenon of the Severn Bore – a wave rushing upstream on a spring tide which can be more than 2.5m/8ft high and has been known to travel at 20kph/13mph.
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The railway was brought under the Severn to join England and Wales in 1873–86; at 7km/4.35m this Victorian tunnel is still the longest in Britain (the engineer was John Hawkshaw, 1811–91). A suspension toll bridge a few miles north of Bristol (by Gilbert *Roberts) was opened in 1966 to carry the M4 motorway over the river. It was joined by another, 5km/3m downstream, in 1996.
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