River Dever


The River Dever is a river in the English county of Hampshire. It is a major left bank tributary of the Test.
It springs alongside the former main road north from Winchester of Roman origin and flows west through the villages of Micheldever, Weston Colley, Stoke Charity, Wonston, Sutton Scotney, Bullington, Barton Stacey, and Bransbury, meeting the Test on Bransbury Common, facing Wherwell on its west bank.

Etymology

In Old English times, known as Myceldefer, probably from OE micel meaning "great" and a British root meaning "water, river" as in Andover and Candover. Alternatively the Old Welsh root micn for "bog" is suggested by the earliest form, form 862, Mycendefr.

Attributes

It is mainly fed by chalk aquifers, likewise to its continuation the Test argued to be the best watercourse in Europe for trout fishing and includes a trout farm at the otherwise almost wholly green locality of Bransbury.