Course
The river has several sources close to the village of Wappenham in Northamptonshire. It flows through Brackley, Buckingham, Milton Keynes at Stony Stratford, Newport Pagnell, Olney and Kempston, which is the current head of navigation. Passing through Bedford, St Neots, Godmanchester, Huntingdon, Hemingford Grey and St Ives, it reaches Earith, where there is a short tidal section connected by the Old Bedford River and New Bedford River to the lower river at Denver. The old course of the river passes through the cathedral city of Ely and Littleport, to reach the Denver sluice. Below this the river is tidal and passes Downham Market to enter The Wash at King's Lynn. It has a catchment area of 1,320 square miles (3,400 km2) and a mean flow of 2,590 imperial gallons (11.8 m3) per second. Its length of 143 miles (230 km) makes it the major navigable river in East Anglia, and the fourth-longest river in the United Kingdom.
The river is navigable from the Wash to Kempston Mill, which is just beyond Bedford, a distance of 72 miles (116 km). This section includes 17 locks, which are maintained by the Environment Agency, who are the navigation authority and who attempt to attract more boaters to the river.
The Ouse Washes are an internationally important area for wildlife. Sandwiched between the Old Bedford and New Bedford rivers, they consist of washland which is used as pasture during the summer but which floods in the winter, and are the largest area of such land in the United Kingdom. They act as breeding grounds for lapwings, redshanks and snipe in spring, and are home to varieties of ducks and swans during the winter months.
Read more about this topic: River Great Ouse