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The River Windrush is a tributary of the River Thames in central England. It rises near Snowshill in Gloucestershire and flows south east for via Burford and Witney to meet the Thames at Newbridge in Oxfordshire.
The river gives its name to the village of Windrush in Gloucestershire.
The river-name Windrush is first attested in an Anglo-Saxon charter of 779, where it appears as Uuenrisc. It appears as Wenris and Wænric in charters of 949, and Wenríc in one of 969. The name means 'white fen', from the Welsh language gwyn and the Old Celtic reisko.Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names, p.523.
The river may still host trout, grayling, perch, chub, common roach and dace. It held good populations of native crayfish until at least the 1980s. Its waters were used in cloth and woollen blanket making in Witney from mid 17th century. In 2007, it was among many of the district's rivers to flood. It flooded generally but perhaps most acutely in Witney, whose only bridge across the river was submerged. Some decline has been noted, especially in years of release of untreated sewage from plants of Thames Water. The river after drier spells sees algae formations.
The ship , synonymous with WWII immigration of West Indian people to the UK, was named after the river.
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