River Alre

River Alre
River
Alre Valley
Country	England
County	Hampshire
Source
- location	near Bishop's Sutton, South East, England
- elevation	72 m (236 ft)
- coordinates	51°4′56″N 1°7′11″W / 51.08222°N 1.11972°W / 51.08222; -1.11972
Mouth	River Itchen
- location	near New Alresford, Hampshire, England
- elevation	51 m (167 ft)
- coordinates	51°5′16″N 1°11′2.9″W / 51.08778°N 1.184139°W / 51.08778; -1.184139Coordinates: 51°5′16″N 1°11′2.9″W / 51.08778°N 1.184139°W / 51.08778; -1.184139
Length	5.65 km (4 mi)
Location of the mouth within Hampshire

The River Alre (also, occasionally, Arle) is a short river in the English county of Hampshire. It is a tributary of the River Itchen, which it joins just downstream of the town of New Alresford.

The river is a classic English chalk stream with shallow gravel bottom and fast flowing waters fed year round by chalk springs. The section around Bishop's Sutton form a good natural trout fishery.

The river rises at a spring in the parish of Bishop's Sutton, around a kilometre to the east of the village. Flowing west, it reaches the village by crossing Water Lane as a ford, before turning north west and running just to the north of the village itself. Here the Alre runs between the parish church of St Nicholas and the site of the former bishop's palace, owned by the Bishop of Winchester for centuries, that gives the village its name.

Leaving Bishop's Sutton it runs through Western Court Farm, where it provides the water for the farm's sizeable watercress beds, and soon after it runs under the railway bridge of the Mid Hants Railway that is now known as the Watercress Line as it was formerly used to transport watercress from New Alresford to Alton.

North east of Alresford, the river has been split with one channel running through the Old Alresford Pond, an artificial 12th-century stew pond that was dug to provide fish for the Bishop of Winchester. It may also have served as a balancing pond for a navigation channel dug to the south. It is now designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The Alre runs just to the north of New Alresford, separating it from the smaller village of Old Alresford and forming the parish boundary between the two for much of its route. Here it runs under two water mills, Arle Mill and The Fulling Mill, as well as supporting additional watercress farms. Fulling is the process of removing oils from wool and the mill dates back to the 13th century. Derelict by the 19th century, it was saved from demolition in 1951 and is now a private residence.