Mark Yeo | |
River | |
Country | England |
---|---|
State | Somerset |
District | North Somerset |
Source | |
- location | Mark, Sedgemoor, Somerset, England |
- coordinates | |
Mouth | River Axe |
- location | Loxton, North Somerset, Somerset, England |
- coordinates | |
The Mark Yeo is a short river in Somerset, England. It starts near Mark on the Somerset Levels and flows north for about 6 kilometres (4 mi) under the M5 motorway to join the River Axe near Loxton. It provided a link between the Axe and the River Brue,[1] and may have been canalised in the 13th and 14th centuries.[2]
The river flows under the A38 road at Rooks Bridge. In the 5th and 6th Centuries the Mark-Yeo acted as a route from the small port of Rackley on the river Axe across the marshes to Glastonbury. [3] Excavations just north of York Farm in a field called 'Scott's wharf' at Rooks Bridge uncovered 14th or 15th century pottery and worked stones, which represent the site of a wharf at a site where the Mark Yeo used to join the old river Axe before it was diverted.[4]
In 2008 an oil spill threatened some of the birds and other wildlife on the river.[5]