River Isle

---

title: "River Isle" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["rivers-of-somerset", "parrett-catchment"] description: "Tributary of the River Parrett in Somerset, England" topic_path: "general/rivers-of-somerset" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Isle" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Tributary of the River Parrett in Somerset, England ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox river"]

Field	Value
name	River Isle
image	River Isle.jpg
image_caption	River Isle at Isle Brewers
subdivision_type1	Country
subdivision_name1	England
subdivision_type2	County
subdivision_name2	Somerset
subdivision_type3	Region
subdivision_name3	Somerset Levels
subdivision_type5	Cities
subdivision_name5	Isle Brewers, Ilminster, Knowle St Giles, Chard, Somerset
length_mi	14
source1_location	Combe St Nicholas, Somerset, England
source1_coordinates
mouth	River Parrett
mouth_location	Somerset, England
mouth_coordinates
::

| name = River Isle | name_native = | name_native_lang = | name_other = | name_etymology = | image = River Isle.jpg | image_size = | image_caption = River Isle at Isle Brewers | map = | map_size = | map_caption = | pushpin_map = | pushpin_map_size = | pushpin_map_caption= | subdivision_type1 = Country | subdivision_name1 = England | subdivision_type2 = County | subdivision_name2 = Somerset | subdivision_type3 = Region | subdivision_name3 = Somerset Levels | subdivision_type4 = | subdivision_name4 = | subdivision_type5 = Cities | subdivision_name5 = Isle Brewers, Ilminster, Knowle St Giles, Chard, Somerset | length_mi = 14 | width_min = | width_avg = | width_max = | depth_min = | depth_avg = | depth_max = | discharge1_location= | discharge1_min = | discharge1_avg = | discharge1_max = | source1 = | source1_location = Combe St Nicholas, Somerset, England | source1_coordinates= | source1_elevation = | mouth = River Parrett | mouth_location = Somerset, England | mouth_coordinates = | mouth_elevation = | progression = | river_system = | basin_size = | tributaries_left = | tributaries_right = | custom_label = | custom_data = | extra =

The River Isle (also known as the River Ile) flows from its source near Combe St Nicholas, through Somerset, England and discharges into the River Parrett south of Langport near Midelney.

Several small springs merge into the river near Wadeford it then flows north past Donyatt, Ilminster, Puckington, and Isle Abbotts, before joining the Parrett. The first section of the river falls 250 ft in 6 mi and then falls less steeply falling 80 ft during the subsequent 8 mi. As a result, several mills were built on the upper reaches of the river. At least one mill was in existence at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086. These mills were an important part of the local economy connecting with the wool trade.

The road bridge over the river at Knowle St Giles is a Grade II listed building.

A lock was built at the junction with the River Parrett, to maintain water levels, when the Westport Canal was built in the 1830s. The canal joins the river approximately 1 mi before the confluence with the Parrett.

Chard Reservoir was built by damming the river in the 1840s to provide water for the Chard Canal.

Tributaries

Near Ilton and Puckington, the Isle is joined by Cad Brook. The name of this stream is first attested in a thirteenth-century copy of a perhaps tenth-century forgery of a charter purporting to date from 725, as Caducburne. The name is attested again in the fifteenth century as Cadde. The second element of this name is an Old English word meaning "stream", the origin of the first element is less certain. In 1928, Eilert Ekwall guessed that Caduc was a diminutive form of a personal name Cada, thus meaning "Caduc's stream". By 1936 he had concluded that the name included a rare Old English word for jackdaw, cadac, in which case the river name meant "jackdaw stream". Andrew Breeze has more recently suggested that caduc was actually a Brittonic name for the stream, adopted into Old English with burn as an explanatory addition, related to the Modern Welsh word caddug ("mist, gloom, darkness").

The stream gave its name to the hamlet of Cad Green. By the 1920s, the stream itself seems to have been called the Ding, but recent maps show Cad Brook, suggesting that Cad Green has in turn given its name back to the stream from which it was named.

References

References

1. "River Isle". Somerset Rivers.
2. Warren, Derrick. "Mills of the Isle". Combe St Nicholas.
3. "Road Bridge over River Isle". British Listed Buildings.
4. "River Isle". Somerset Rivers.
5. "Chard Reservoir leaflet". south Somerset Council.
6. "Electronic Sawyer".
7. Eilert Ekwall. (September 1968). "English River-Names". Oxford University Press.
8. Eilert Ekwall, ''Studies on English Place-names'', Kungl. Vitterhets historie och antikvitets akademiens handlingar, 42:1 (Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand, 1936), p. 85.
9. Andrew Breeze, 'Cad Green, Ilton, Somerset', in Richard Coates, Andrew Breeze, and David Horovitz, ''Celtic Voices English Places: Studies of the Celtic Impact on Place-Names in England'' (Stamford: Tyas, 2000), pp. 83-84 [first publ. 'The Name of Cad Green, Ilton', ''Notes and Queries for Somerset and Dorset'', 34 [351 of the continuous series] (2000), 355-56].

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::