The Beaulieu River ( /ˈbjuːli/), formerly known as the River Exe,[1] is a small river flowing south through the New Forest in the county of Hampshire in southern England. The river is some 12 miles (19 km) long, of which the last 4 miles (6.4 km) are tidal. Unusually, the entire river, including its bed, is owned by Lord Montagu of Beaulieu.
The Beaulieu River rises near Lyndhurst in the centre of the New Forest, and flows south-easterly across the forest heaths to the village of Beaulieu. At Beaulieu the river becomes tidal and once drove a tide mill in the village. Below Beaulieu the tidal river continues to flow through the forest, passing the village of Bucklers Hard and entering the sea through the Solent.
The tidal river below Beaulieu village is navigable to small craft. Bucklers Hard was once a significant shipbuilding centre, building many wooden sailing ships, both merchant and naval and including Nelson's Agamemnon.
Contents |
The name "Beaulieu" is French, meaning "beautiful place".
The earlier name, "Exe", is Brythonic, deriving from an original Ancient British word '*Iska', which is also at the root of other Exe and Esk river-names in England, and also the Usk in Wales (Wysg in Welsh). Its root meaning may be "fish" or "fish-place", as it seems to be cognate with the Latin "pisces" and Greek "ichthus", as well as English "fish".