Editing River Frome, Dorset (section)

==Geography==
The river [[source (river)|rises]] in the [[Dorset Downs]] at [[Evershot]], passes through [[Cattistock]], [[Maiden Newton]], [[Dorchester, Dorset|Dorchester]], [[West Stafford]] and [[Woodsford]]. At [[Wareham, Dorset|Wareham]] it and the parallel [[River Piddle]] flow into [[Poole Harbour]] via the Wareham Channel. The catchment area is {{cvt|181|sqmi}}, approximately one sixth of the county.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wallis |first1=Steve |title=River Frome: From Source to Sea |date=2014 |publisher=[[Amberley Publishing|Amberley]] |location=Stroud, England |isbn=9781445618043}}</ref> 

East of Dorchester the river runs over sands, clays and gravels which overlie the chalk; as the valley gradient is gentle the Frome has deposited much sediment here and thus created a broad [[floodplain]]. Historically this contained [[marshland|marshes]] and gave the name to the [[Durotriges]], ''water dwellers'', the [[Brittonic Peoples|Brittonic]] [[Celt]]ic tribe who inhabited Dorset. The river forms a wide, shallow [[ria]] at its estuary, Poole Harbour.

Prior to the end of the [[Last glacial period|last ice age]], the [[Purbeck Hills]] were continuous with the [[Isle of Wight]], and the Frome would have continued eastwards through what is now Poole Harbour and [[Poole Bay]] along [[the Solent]], collecting the [[River Stour, Dorset|Stour]]–[[River Avon, Hampshire|Avon]], [[Beaulieu River|Beaulieu]], and [[River Test|Test]]–[[River Itchen, Hampshire|Itchen]]–[[River Hamble|Hamble]] catchments, before emptying into the [[English Channel|Channel]] between [[Bembridge]] and [[Selsey Bill]].