The River Chew is a small river in England that flows for some 17 miles (27 km) through the North Somerset countryside to form the Chew Valley before merging with the River Avon.[1]
The spring from which the Chew rises is just upstream from Chewton Mendip. The river flows northwest from Chewton Mendip through Litton, Chew Valley Lake, Chew Stoke, Chew Magna, and Stanton Drew. The river passes under the A37 at Pensford; flows through the villages of Publow, Woollard, Compton Dando, and Chewton Keynsham; and joins the River Avon at Keynsham.[citation needed] The Two Rivers Way runs alongside the Chew for much of its distance, forming part of the Monarch’s Way.[citation needed]
The name “Chew” has Celtic origins, cognate with the River Chwefru, cliwyf-ffrenwy, “the moving, gushing water”; ancient forms are Estoca (Chew Stoke), Chiu (Chew Magna), and Ciwetune (Chewton Mendip).[2] Its exact meaning admits of several possible explanations, including “winding water”,[3] the ew being a variant of the French eau, “water”. The word chewer is western dialect for “narrow passage” and chare is Old English for “turning.”
Another theory is that the name derives from the Welsh cyw, “the young of an animal, or chicken”, such that Afon Cyw would have meant “the river of the chickens”.[4]
Other possible explanations are it comes from the Old English word cēo (“fish gill”), used in the transferred sense of a ravine, in a similar way to Old Norse gil, or possibly a derogatory nickname from Middle English chowe, “chough”, Old English cēo, a bird closely related to the crow and the jackdaw, notorious for its chattering and thieving.[5] Still another suggestion is that the river is named after the Viking war god Tiw.[6]
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