River Itchen
A Hampshire chalk stream running clear and cold past Winchester, and one of the most famous trout rivers in England
Rain falling on the Hampshire downs sinks into the chalk and comes back out months later through springs, filtered and at a steady temperature all year. That is what makes the Itchen what it is: water you can see the gravel through, weed beds waving in the current, and a river that neither floods hard nor dries up. It rises around Hinton Ampner and Cheriton, gathers at New Alresford, and runs down to Southampton Water. The fly fishing on it is famous, and almost all of it is private, so the bank is not somewhere to wander freely.
Where you can get to it, it is lovely. The water meadow walk from Winchester Cathedral down to the Hospital of St Cross follows the river the whole way and is about a mile each way on the flat. Winnall Moors just north of the city has boardwalks through reedbed and carr, and St Catherine’s Hill gives you the valley from above. Further up, Itchen Valley Country Park has easier riverside paths and a car park.
Winchester Station is ten minutes’ walk from the water, which makes this one of the easier chalk streams to reach without a car.
