Mells River

Mells River
River
Bridge over the Mells River at Great Elm
Country	England
County	Somerset
Tributaries
- right	Finger Stream, Whatley Brook, Nunney Brook
Cities	Gurney Slade, Mells, Great Elm, Frome
Source
- elevation	2 m (7 ft)
- length	31 m (102 ft)
Mouth	River Frome
- location	Frome, Somerset, England
- coordinates

The Mells River flows through the eastern Mendip Hills in Somerset, England. It rises at Gurney Slade and flows east joining the River Frome at Frome.

The river forms one of the boundaries of Mells Park, a country house estate in Mells.

Mells River also powered the Old Ironstone Works and several other mills set up by James Fussell III in 1744. It is now a 0.25 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest, as it is used by both Greater and Lesser Horseshoe Bats.

Vobster Inn Bridge, which carries the lane over the Mells River, is dated 1764, and is Grade II listed. At Great Elm the Murtry Aqueduct, built around 1795, carried the Dorset and Somerset Canal over the river.

The river takes the outfall from Whatley Quarry. Downstream of the outfall is the Mells River Sink. This acts as a spring when the water table is high and as a sink into underground aquifers, through the Limestone, when the water table is low. Water tracing showed this to be part of an underground part of the river 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) long. Archaeological investigations found the remains of woolly rhinoceros bones and a 1st-century bronze broach.