Beaulieu River


The Beaulieu River, formerly known as the River Exe, is a small river flowing through the New Forest in the county of Hampshire in southern England. The river is some long, of which the last are tidal. Unusually, the entire river, including its bed, is owned by Lord Montagu of Beaulieu.

Etymology

The current name, Beaulieu is French, meaning "beautiful place". The original name, Exe, is Brythonic, deriving from the Ancient British word *Iska meaning "fishes" or "fish-place" and cognate with the modern Welsh word Pysg.This derivation applies to many similarly named rivers throughout Britain including the Axe, Exe and Usk, with the names evolving local distinctions over the centuries.

Course

The Beaulieu River rises near Lyndhurst in the centre of the New Forest, and flows east and then south across the forest heaths to the village of Beaulieu. There the river becomes tidal and once drove a tide mill in the village. Below Beaulieu the tidal river continues to flow south-east through the Forest, passing the hamlet of Bucklers Hard and entering the Solent at Needs Ore. For its final kilometre, it is separated from The Solent by a raised area of salt marsh known as Gull Island.
Below Beaulieu village the river is navigable to small craft. Bucklers Hard was once a significant shipbuilding centre, building many wooden sailing ships, both merchant and naval, including Nelson's Agamemnon. Since 2000 the navigable channel at the entrance to the river has been marked by a lighthouse known as the Millennium Lighthouse or the Beaulieu River Beacon.

Tributaries

The river has two main tributaries, the Beaulieu Abbey Stream to the left and the Hatchet Stream to the right. In addition there are a series of artificial lakes near the mouth of the river, known as the Black Lagoons.

Water quality

The water quality of the Beaulieu River was as follows in 2016:
SectionEcological
Status		Chemical
Status		Overall
Status		LengthCatchmentChannel
Heavily modified
Heavily modified
Heavily modified
Artificial

Film appearances

The river was used as a backdrop for some scenes of the 1966 film A Man for All Seasons - the tree-lined waters were used to portray the 16th century River Thames.

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