River Stour, eastern England

The earliest known settlement on the river in Suffolk was at Great Bradley, where human occupation has been recorded for over 5,000 years. During the Anglo-Saxon era, the river became the boundary between the Kingdom of the East Saxons and the Kingdom of East Anglia. The Life of King Alfred records a naval battle taking place at the mouth of the river in 884, where Alfred the Great defeated a force of 13 Viking ships.

was painted in 1802.]] The river rises in Wratting Common, Cambridgeshire, to the south of Weston Colville, and passes near Great Bradley where it is joined by Kirtling Brook. It continues through Little Thurlow, Great Thurlow, Great Wratting, and Kedington before passing to the east of Haverhill, where the county boundary between Suffolk and Essex starts to follow its course. The villages of Wixoe, Stoke-by-Clare, Clare and Cavendish are all on the left bank of the river. The River Glem joins it on the left bank, before it passes to the west of Long Melford and then skirts the western and southern edges of Sudbury. It is crossed by the A131 road at Ballingdon Bridge, to the south-west of…