The River Cary is a river in Somerset, England. It is sourced from the Park Pond in Castle Cary and flows towards the southwest.
Etymology
The origin of the name
Cary is uncertain. It may be derived from
pre-Celtic kar-, meaning "stony, hard",
[Victor Watts, 'Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names', Cambridge University Press, 2004] or the
Celtic languages element
car meaning
dear, pleasant (cf.
Welsh language cari, "love").
[ from Hanks P. 'Dictionary of American Family Names' (O.U.P.) 2003]
Course
The River Cary has its source at Park Pond in
Castle Cary, and then flows southwest through
Cary Moor to
Babcary, where there is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest at
Babcary Meadows and
Cary Fitzpaine. It then flows northwest through Charlton Mackrell to the north of Somerton, passing under the
Somerton Viaduct. Here the river channel has been straightened and drains the surrounding wetland as it heads north to Kings Sedge Moor. The Cary passes through King's Sedgemoor continuing west across the moors south of the
Polden Hills. At Henley it joins the artificial channels of the Sutton Moor Rhyne and the King's Sedgemoor Drain, both of which drain the wetland. Much of the water is now diverted into King's Sedgemoor Drain, which continues across the moors to join the estuary of the
River Parrett at
Dunball.
Pollution
In 1995 a major pollution incident occurred when
lindane and mercury
seed dressing were poured down a drain which leads into the river near Somerton.
