River Orwell

The River Orwell flows through the county of Suffolk in England from Ipswich to Felixstowe. Above Ipswich, the river is known as the River Gipping, but its name changes to the Orwell at Stoke Bridge, about half a mile below where the river becomes tidal. The writer Eric Blair chose the pen name under which he would later become famous, "George Orwell," because of his love for the river. The Orwell provides a popular venue for sailing, originally centred on the hamlet of Pin Mill (featured in two children's novels by Arthur Ransome: We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea and Secret Water), which is home to the Pin Mill Sailing Club and its Hard. A whale was beached on Downham Reach around 1816. In November 2014, a contract for £28 million was awarded to VBA, a joint venture between Boskalis and Westminster Atkins, for construction of the Ipswich tidal barrier. The barrier is designed to prevent tidal surges passing up the river, passing further up the stream, and allowing fluvial flows to be controlled.