Bow Brook is a small river in the English county of Hampshire, which is a tributary of the River Loddon. Contributary streams rise near Ramsdell and Sherborne St John, and after flowing through rural countryside, it joins the Loddon near Sherfield on Loddon. Historically is has powered at least two watermills.
Bow Brook rises as a series of streams to the west of Pamber End. Sections are marked as drains, and so the channel may be engineered. One begins near West Heath, and passes under two roads to reach Clapperhill Copse. A second follows a similar course, but further to the south, passing under one road to join the first. They flow to the east, and along the northern edge of the site of Pamber Priory. A third stream begins at three ponds to the west of Ramsdell, and it joined by two more streams, before it passes beneath Brocas Bridge and another bridge to flow along the southern and eastern edges of the priory site.[1] The priory was founded during the reign of Henry I by Henry de Port, and was an alien priory, under the supervision of St Vigor Carasy, Normandy. Because it was under foreign control, it was suppressed in 1446, and responsibility for the site eventually passed to The Queen’s College, Oxford, to whom it still belongs. Parts of the priory church, dating from the 12th and 13th centuries, survive as the Priory Church of the Holy Trinity, Our Lady, and St John the Baptist. It is in the parish of Monk Sherborne, and is a grade I listed structure.[2] The adjacent farm house and barn are grade II listed structures.[3]
Another stream which rises in Monk Sherborne Wood flows northwards to join the main stream as it passes under the A340 Aldermaston Road. Beyond the bridge it passes through woodland, known as Pamderend Gully Copse and Pamderend Moor Gully Copse. A tributary which also rises in Monk Sherborne Wood joins from the south, and another which begins as a spring in Cranes Copse joins close to a ford where a track crosses the river. This was also the point at which a Roman road crossed the river. In Wiltshire’s Gully Copse, a stream which is known as Old Ponds joins from the north. This begins as two branches near Pamber Green, which join to flow eastwards under a bridge at Little Loddon, and Boar’s Bridge before turning to the south to join Bow Brook. This continues through woodland, and passes over a weir at Tumbling Bay, to reach Beaurepaire Mill.[1] The square mill building was built in the 1870s or 1880s for the Beaurepaire estate, but has now been converted into a house.[4] The rather larger mill house dates from the same time, although it was extended in the 20th century.[5] The river continues beneath a bridge dated 1831, which consists of five elliptical cast-iron girders supporting plates on which the roadway is constructed. The ballustrades are made of wrought iron, and the abutments are of brick and stone.[6]
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