River
River Nene
146 km from source to mouth · United Kingdom.
United KingdomFlows into North Sea
In numbers
Length
146km
Average flow
20m³/s
Basin
1,634km²
Drop
84m
from 72 m to -12 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
146 km of river and 36 stops on the way: 28 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 72 m
- 0 kmWeedon Bec2,706 people
- 2 kmFlore1,194 people
- 4 kmNether Heyford1,637 people
- 4 kmBugbrooke2,692 people
- 5 kmBugbrooke Meadows
- 8 kmKislingbury1,237 people
- 8 kmHarpole1,344 people
- 15 kmNorthampton245,899 people
- 16 kmHardingstone7,897 people
- 23 kmCogenhoe1,436 people
- 27 kmEarls Barton5,387 people
- 31 kmWollaston3,491 people
- 34 kmWellingborough56,564 people
- 35 kmIrchester4,419 people
- 39 kmRushden37,584 people
- 40 kmHigham Ferrers6,222 people
- 41 kmIrthlingborough7,502 people
- 44 kmStanwick1,942 people
- 48 kmRingstead1,461 people
- 49 kmWoodford1,461 people
- 52 kmThrapston Bridge And Attached Causeway (That Part In Islip Civil Parish) Thrapston Bridge And Attached Causeway (That Part In Thrapston Civil Parish)
- 52 kmThrapston7,068 people
- 62 kmSouth Bridge
- 65 kmOundle5,735 people
- 66 kmNorth Bridge
- 78 kmWansford Old Bridge
- 79 kmWansford Bridge
- 84 kmCastor1,393 people
- 88 kmFerry Bridge
- 93 kmNene Viaduct
- 93 kmPeterborough194,000 people
- 101 kmWhittlesey12,745 people
- 103 kmPrimrose Place17,161 people
- 127 kmWisbech32,489 people
- 130 kmWest Walton1,731 people
- 139 kmSutton Bridge3,882 people
- 146 kmNorth Seaat -12 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in the east of England
At the mouth it carries 20 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 125 seconds. It drops from 72 m to -12 m, 0.6 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 1,634 km², about the size of GP. 822,000 people live in it. Highest water: from November to January. Its dams hold back little of its water (2.8% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- NorthamptonLargest city on its banks · 245,899 people
- London Luton Airport (LTN)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 55 km from the cityCar hire at LTN airport (Luton, Luton)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water33 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to SeptemberThe best months to visit
River Nene, month by month
Highest water: from November to January
Best months to visit: from June to September.
From about 8.0 m³/s in the lowest month to 34 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
River Nene: the basin in numbers
2,265 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 822,000people live in the basin
- 364/km²people per km²
- 67maverage altitude of the basin
- 598mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 9.6°Caverage air temperature
- 2%protected areas
- 0.5%covered by lakes
- 0.0km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 64% Cropland
- 14% Pasture
- 16% Towns and cities
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
River Nene: what you find on the way
- 115WeirsWhiston Sluice, Stanwick Staunch Sluice, Wansford Weir and 112 more
- 136LocksGrand Union Canal Northampton Arm, Grand Union Northampton Arm, River Nene Navigation and 133 more
- 11Boat ramps
- 1Ferry piersPoshboatz Boat Trips
- 19MarinasGrand Union Canal, Stowe Hill Marine, Willows Marina and 16 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.4 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
River Nene in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
1beach at the mouth or on the banksCoastya
4mountains at the sourcePeakyas
1island off the mouthIslandyas
Beaches (1)
At the mouth (25 km) and on the banks, by Coastya
- Snettisham Beach16 km away18.0°C
Mountains at the source (4)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Arbury Hill0.8 km away225m
- Borough Hill5.4 km away199m
- Newnham Hill3.8 km away201m
- Hensborough Hill12 km away · prominence 32 m113m
Islands off the mouth (1)
Within 30 km of the mouth, by Islandyas
- Outer Trial Bank2.3 km away
Islandyas is coming soonOpen Islandyas ↗
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit


Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
River Nene in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (1)
Also: River Ise
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q19722) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Coastya, Peakyas, Islandyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.



