The River Swift is a 14-mile (23 km) long tributary of the River Avon that rises in south Leicestershire, and flows through the town of Lutterworth before joining the Avon at its confluence at Rugby in Warwickshire in the English Midlands.[2]
The source of the river is a stream that rises at an altitude of around 142 metres (466 ft) near to Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome in Leicestershire, on the watershed division between the Avon and Soar catchments. The Swift passes the village of Walton and then Kimcote, where it meets a number of small streams that drain the headwaters of the catchment. The river continues in a south-westerly direction, passing to the north of Walcote then through the Misterton Marshes, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, before reaching the M1 motorway bridge and the town of Lutterworth.[3][4]
The river passes to the south of the town, where it is crossed by the Rugby road, near to the site of the ‘lost’ St Johns the Baptist hospital.[5] After passing beneath the Lutterworth bypass, the Swift continues south-west until it reaches the Bransford Bridge crossing under the A5. This road follows the course of Watling Street, the Roman road that linked London to Wroxeter.
Downstream of the bridge the river passes the site of the deserted medieval village of Cestersover, and then the modern village of Churchover. At this point a canal feeder takes water from the river to supply the nearby canal. After passing beneath the M6 motorway, the river then flows directly south through the Swift Valley Nature Reserve, passes Brownsover Hall and then through the Swift industrial park. It is crossed by the Oxford canal in an aqueduct, and then passes a retail park to join the River Avon, between Brownsover and Rugby.[3][6]
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