River Perry

The river rises as a series of springs near Hengoed, to the west of Gobowen and to the north of Oswestry, close to the contour. It passes under the Shrewsbury to Ruabon railway line and the A5 road, to skirt around the northern edge of Gobowen. It is joined by several other streams, which also rise at springs to the west of Gobowen, some from as high as above sea level, and another which rises near New Marton, and flows south, passing under the Llangollen Canal. Passing under the A495 road to the north of Whittington, it enters the parkland of Halston Hall, supplying a large ornamental lake. The river briefly heads south to leave the park, and then turns to the east, where it is crossed by the Montgomery Canal. At this point it is below the contour. It was not reopened until 1987. Next it turns to the south, passing through Baggy Moor, where it is joined by a large number of drainage ditches. The railway line crosses it again, before it reaches Ruyton-XI-Towns, where there is a large loop around higher ground to the east. The river forms the border between civil parishes at this point, and so one half of the bridge is in Ruyton-XI-Towns, while the other is in Baschurch. The bridge has two arches, and is a grade II listed structure. A circular toll-house, built of red sandstone with a conical slate roof, was erected in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century close to the bridge, and is now used as a house. Continuing to the south-west of Baschurch, Milford Bridge is another two-arched structure, which carries the Baschurch to Little Ness road over the river. It was designed by Thomas Stanton in 1831, and was built by Nathaniel Edwards. Stanton was the civil engineer Thomas Telford's deputy at the time, when Telford was the County Surveyor of Bridges for Shropshire. The river passes along the south-western edge of Yeaton Peverey parkland, to reach Forton Heath, where there is a bridge with a single elliptical arch, built in the early nineteenth century, which carries the Mytton to Forton road. Below the bridge, the river joins the River Severn, close to the contour. The junction is not far from Shrewsbury, but the course of the Severn is much longer, as it flows around several large meanders to reach the town. ==Hydrology==

The river rises on the edge of the North Shropshire sandstone plain, but for most of its length, the underlying rock is Bunter Sandstone. A series of streams converge to the east of Gobowen, which have risen further to the west at heights of up to . Initially, the streams are stony-bottomed, but this is soon replaced by clays and alluvial silts. Near Rednal, the flow is augmented by the Tetchill Brook, which starts as an outflow from a large mere at Ellesmere. The outflow was a Victorian solution to control the levels of the mere. It is joined by Newnes Brook, which drains sandstone-based soils between Ellesmere and Gobowen. Below the junction the river crosses Baggy Moor, a large basin which was filled with peat, but which has been extensively drained to enable it to be used for agriculture. In addition, water quality is affected by effluent from factories processing dairy products. These and the sewage works outfalls are generally well-regulated, but there have been some serious pollution incidents as a result of poor agricultural practice. The worst was in September 1985, when of pig slurry was discharged into the river, resulting in the destruction of all of the fish populations down to the River Severn. A tank containing the slurry burst, and around 100,000 fish died as a result of the pollution. Flow on the river is measured at three gauging stations. The furthest upstream is at Perry Farm, which uses a flat V triangular profile weir. That at Ruyton Bridge is a velocity area gauging station, while the final one is at Yeaton, where there is a Crump Profile weir. The catchment area above the Yeaton station is , which receives a mean rainfall of . This results in a mean flow of 30.4 million gallons per day (138.2 Mld), although a peak flow of 336 million gallons per day (1528 Mld) was recorded in February 1990. ==Water Quality==

The Environment Agency measure water quality of the river systems in England. Each is given an overall ecological status, which may be one of five levels: high, good, moderate, poor and bad. There are several components that are used to determine this, including biological status, which looks at the quantity and varieties of invertebrates, angiosperms and fish. Chemical status, which compares the concentrations of various chemicals against known safe concentrations, is rated good or fail. The water quality of the Perry and its tributaries was as follows in 2019. Reasons for the ecological status being less than good include nutrients entering the river for agricultural land over most of the river system, with sewage discharge and physical modification of the channel affecting some parts. Like most rivers in the UK, the chemical status changed from good to fail in 2019, due to the presence of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) which had not previously been included in the assessment. ==Milling==

The river has been modified significantly to power water mills over the centuries. The furthest upstream was probably at Rednal Mill, which is thought to be the site of a water mill, but showed no signs of a water management system in 1875, although there appears to be a bypass channel to the north, and the administrative boundaries do not follow the main channel at this point. Between Ruyton and the River Severn, there were seven further corn mills, all of which are clearly marked on maps from 1880 to 1882. New Mills was just below Platt Bridge, while Milford Mill was just above Milford Bridge. Adcote Mill was by Adcote Farm, and most of the channels can still be seen. There were two mills at Yeaton, the Upper Mill and the Lower Mill, either side of Yeaton Bridge, and the final two were Fitz Mill and Mytton Mill. Mytton Mill was operational until 1966, when production ceased. The building was unused until 1971, when it became offices for a building contractor. A fire caused severe damage in 1982, but the building has since been restored, and now provides workshops for a number of small businesses, including the building contractor. ==Points of interest==