A clear chalk river of west Norfolk, navigable up from the Great Ouse to Stoke Ferry and Oxborough
The Wissey is a chalk river in west Norfolk, a tributary of the Great Ouse which it joins near Denver Sluice at the edge of the Fens. It rises near Bradenham and runs about 30 miles west across the county; the lower stretch, roughly nine miles from the Ouse up to Stoke Ferry, is navigable, with light craft able to go a little further to Oxborough.
It is one of the quieter and clearer navigations of the region — a narrow, winding chalk stream running through farmland and woodland, well away from the Broads and their traffic, and valued more by anglers and canoeists than by cruisers. It is managed for navigation by the Environment Agency, and above the head of navigation the river carries on as an unspoilt chalk stream.
For a mile or so the Wissey passes the large sugar-beet factory at Wissington, which was once served by barges bringing beet down the river until the late 1950s. Oxborough, just off the upper river, is best known for Oxburgh Hall, the moated Tudor house on its edge. Stoke Ferry, at the head of the navigation, was a small river port in the days when the Wissey carried trade down to the Ouse.
