The River Adur, West Sussex
Introduction
 |
The River Adur reaches the sea at Shoreham-by-Sea where the mouth has been deflected two miles to the east by the longshore drift. Going upstream with the incoming tide through the centre of New Shoreham, the flood tide will flow under seven bridges before it reaches the village of Bramber after 6.4 km (4 miles). The river then passes about one mile east of the town of Steyning. The estuary is tidal for 17.9 km (11.1 miles) from the mouth to Bines Bridge on the B.2135. The widest part of the estuary (excluding inlets) measured in a direct north-south line from the Bridge Hotel slipway (Norfolk Bridge) to Riverbank, Shoreham beach is approx 350 metres wide on a flood spring tide of 6 metres and above. |
Maps
Ordnance Survey Landranger 198 (1:50,000) Brighton and the Downs
Google map of the route
Access Points
B2135 near Ashurst to Shoreham. Hop over the fence, put in by road just before road bridge...and go with the flow.
If you are starting at Shoreham, another good access point is the harbour on Shoreham Beach, between the Harbour Club and Sussex Sailing Club at the Eastern end of Harbour Way. Lots of free parking and you can launch on the small sandy beach behind the Harbour Club.
Journey
Start at Shoreham about 1 hour before high water, either from the public slipway in Shoreham or from Old Shoreham Bridgeon the east side of the A283. If you are lucky and catch a spring tide and you can then paddle to north of Henfield. And if you do time it right you can stop for lunch and paddle back on the same tide. The tidal flow is strong, 3-5 knots. Round Trip of about 22 miles so you should take about 5 hours on this public tidal water. Spring tides advised to get to the upper reaches. It's all placid water with nice scenery through the South Downs, rather boring thereafter.
Tides
See the admiralty charts at easytide
EasyTide
Other
Origin of the name Adur
The name "Adur" arose from a mistake in interpretation of 5th century Roman documents for Portus Adurni, which was originally claimed to be in what is now the Adur estuary, but now thought to be at Portchester*. The name appeared in Michael Drayton's 'Polyolbion' in the 17th century (1612). (*other claims, but almost certainly not Shoreham or any other places on the current Adur.)
The river has also been known as the Sore (Holinshed's Chronicle 1577). This is likely to be because of back-formation. Back-formation is the reverse of affixation, being the analogical creation of a new word from an existing word falsely assumed to be its derivative. (i.e. Sore arose after the name Shoreham and not the other way round).
In late Saxon times the river was known as be eastern bremre, ofer bremre 956 (Bramber).
Toponymy: Shoreham-by-Sea and Adur
