Dark Water (river)

Dark Water
Dark Water river and marsh, Lepe Country Park
Location
Country	England
County	Hampshire
District	New Forest
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	North of the south limits of Dibden Purlieu with New Forest National Park
• coordinates	50°50′52″N 1°24′26″W / 50.8478°N 1.4072°W / 50.8478; -1.4072
• elevation	38 metres (125 ft)
Mouth	Solent
• location	Lepe
• coordinates	50°47′04″N 1°21′33″W / 50.7845°N 1.3592°W / 50.7845; -1.3592
• elevation	0 metres
Length	5.5 mi
Basin features
Progression	Dark Water, Beaulieu River estuary, Solent (off English Channel off Atlantic Ocean)
River system	Dark Water basin
Tributaries
• right	Stock Water

The Dark Water is a 5.5-mile (8.9 km) river in south-west Hampshire, England. It flows south from a source a few metres north-east of the New Forest, reaching the sea through the end of the Beaulieu River estuary, next to the Solent, at Lepe, part of the national park.

Its drainage basin reduces towards its mouth. It drains (with its main tributary, Stock Water) most of the largely heathland forest's "Beaulieu Heath". It then drains smaller Blackwell Common (the south of which was called Blackfield Common after neighbouring Blackfield).^[1] Then it drains the similar combined area: Horsemoor Copse, West Common (a meadow) and Chale Wood, below which narrow woods line one or both of the banks, beyond an inner marshy zone.