River Leck

The River Leck is a 7.5 mile 12.070 km long river in Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire; it is a small tributary of the River Great Ouse.

Course

River Leck at Church End Leckhampstead looking upriver from a bridge across the river.

Mouth of the River Leck at Thornton at its confluence with the River Great Ouse.

The River Leck rises from a spring next to Silverstone Circuit near Whittlebury Park golf course near Silverstone and flows through Shrines Wood and Shirehill Wood and past Lovel Wood; the river then flows under a bridge carrying the A413 Gerrards Cross to Towcester road. It then flows past St Nicholas' Church at Lillingstone Dayrell. It then flows under Chapel Lane bridge. The Leck then flows through Leckhampstead and past Weatherhead Farm; the river then flows under Cattleford Bridge which carries the A422 Bedford to Worcester road over the river and also used to serve as an aqueduct to carry the Buckingham Arm of the Grand Union Canal over the river at the same time, but now most of the canal is now disused and dried up and filled in and the bridge now only carries the A422 Bedford to Worcester road over the river. The Leck then flows just over half a mile (1 km) before flowing into the Great Ouse at Thornton.

Wildlife

The River Leck is home to fish such as the stone loach-(Barbatula barbatula), the common minnow-(Phoxinus phoxinus), the common roach-(Rutilus rutilus), the common bullhead-(Cottus gobio), and the Three-spined stickleback-(Gasterosteus aculeatus), There is also signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus), in the river, most of the crayfish being small in size with a small number of larger ones. There is a range of other wildlife such as swans, ducks and many types of water insect such as the freshwater shrimp-(Gammarus pulex).

Gallery

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  Mouth of the River Leck at Thornton.

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  River Leck at Church End Leckhampstead.

Coordinates: 52°02′06″N 0°56′26″W / 52.03500°N 0.94056°W