Brokenborough

The Tetbury Avon, also known as the Little Avon or the Ingleburn (Anglo-Saxon - English river), is a tributary of the Bristol Avon. It is also referred to as the River Avon (Tetbury Branch). It rises at Tetbury in Gloucestershire and flows in a generally south easterly direction, joining the Sherston Avon at Malmesbury in Wiltshire. The water flow has been reduced by public water extraction from its source aquifer in the Cotswold Hills. In the past watermills were used for fulling wool and grinding corn. The Environment Agency has a gauging station at Brokenborough and reports a mean flow of 24.4 cubic feet per second (0.69 m3/s) with a maximum of 141 cubic feet per second (4.0 m3/s) and a minimum of 1 cubic foot per second (0.028 m3/s). It is believed that abstraction of public water supplies from the Great Oolite aquifer of the Cotswolds has reduced flows in the Tetbury Avon, making it difficult to maintain high water quality and having a negative effect on the ecology.  This camera was installed and is maintained by the Environment Agency and can be viewed here All  content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0.The name of Brokenborough may derive from a geographic descriptor meaning 'broken hill' (Old English brocen = broken, uneven + Anglian berg = hill, barrow). Alternatively it could mean 'ruined fort', from Old English brocen = broken + burg = fort. The early history of Brokenborough is based on unreliable sources. The antiquarian John Leland (1503–1552) relates that Máel Dub (d. 675) came as a hermit to the area and started his monastic school in the shelter of a castle built by Dunwallo Mulmutius at Bladon or Bladow, called in Old English Ingelborne Castle. King Æthelstan (r. 924 – 939) is said to have resided in a royal palace in Brokenborough, close to this site. The Domesday Book records that in 1086 Malmesbury Abbey held a large estate of 50 hides at Brokenborough. In the 11th and 12th centuries the abbey claimed it had held it since AD 956.