Reigh Belisama

Industry: Environment
Occupation: Most Important estuarine River in Britain
Location: From West Yorkshire to Lancashire : United Kingdom

About Me

In Roman-British Celtic times, the River Ribble was known as the goddess of Shining Waters. Reigh is an ancient word for "waters", and bel as a prefix denotes "shining", hence, over the centuries, Reigh Belisama has become known as Reigh-bel, Ribble. That traveller of ancient times, Ptolemy, mentions the Belisama estuary at coordinates which correspond to the mouth of the Ribble. In Britain, only the River Wharfe and the River Ribble are known to have named deities, and interestingly both rivers begin on Cam Fell in the Pennines. I am a local resident of the River Ribble and set up the Save The Ribble Campaign with friends who, like me, live by this beautiful River and are all passionate about protecting it for its own sake, and for future generations of Ribblesiders.