Avon Water

Avon Water, between Homlsley Bridge and Wootton Bridge, sports some of the few remaining straightened sections of stream in the forest, running parallel with the former path of the Ringwood to Brockenhurst railway, it skirts the interface of woodland and wetland. Numerous, shallow rooted, bank side trees have succumbed to erosion and the elements, fallen across the flow and become ad hock bridges between the two opposing environments. As the fallen trunks slowly sink into the flow they frequently become the focus of log jams and dams, common in these parts, flooding swathes of adjacent woodland. Avon Water will shortly leave the forest, travel through farmland punctuated by copses and wooded corridors, before joining the Solent at Key haven.