The River Orwell flows through the county of Suffolk in England. Its source river, above the tidal limit, is known as the River Gipping. It broadens into an estuary at Ipswich and flows into the North Sea at Felixstowe after joining with the River Stour at Shotley. The large Orwell Bridge carries the A14 trunk road over the estuary just east of Ipswich.
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Name
In the name Orwell, Or- comes from an ancient river-name — probably pre-Celtic; but -well probably indicates an Anglo-Saxon naming.[1] In A tour through England and Wales written in 1722, Daniel Defoe calls the river "Orwel" (though does this inconsistently). [2] He also mentions that "a traveller will hardly understand me, especially a seaman, when I speak of the River Stour and the River Orwell at Harwich, for they know them by no other names than those of Maningtre-Water, and Ipswich-Water".
George Orwell
The writer Eric Blair chose the pen name under which he would later become famous, "George Orwell", because of his love for the river.[3]
Sailing
The Orwell provides a popular venue for sailing. Interest originally centred on the hamlet of Pin Mill (featured in two children's novels by Arthur Ransome: We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea and Secret Water) and its "hard", and is home to the Pin Mill Sailing Club. A charming film, "Ha'penny Breeze," was made in Pin Mill, featuring a yacht that was based in the area. For many years Pin Mill was a centre for the repair of Thames sailing barges. During World War II, Pin Mill was home to Royal Navy MLs (Motor Launches) and to a degaussing vessel created from a herring drifter, and prior to the Normandy invasion in 1944 was also home port, with Woolverstone, to many LCTs (Landing Craft, Tanks) used in the invasion.
Since the 1970s marinas have opened at Levington (Suffolk Yacht Harbour, pictured), Woolverstone, Fox's (just outside Ipswich), and two marinas in the old Ipswich Wet Dock. Woolverstone is home to the Royal Harwich Yacht Club that was for many years host to the Swordfish 15-foot racing dinghy built by Fairey Marine, in addition to its 12-foot Firefly, a derivative of the National 12-foot dinghy, both designed by the great sailor Uffa Fox.
References
- ^ A D Mills: A dictionary of British place-names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-19-852758-6
- ^ Daniel Defoe, A tour through England and Wales, J.M. Dent and Sons Ltd, London (1959) Available online here
- ^ "George Orwell Biography". http://www.george-orwell.org/l_biography.html. Retrieved on 2006-07-09.
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