Monks Brook

Monks Brook
River
Monks Brook flowing through Chandler's Ford
Country	England
Counties	Hampshire
Landmarks	Fleming Park golf course Eastleigh, M27 motorway, South Stoneham House
Source	Bucket's Corner
- coordinates	50°59′22″N 01°25′30″W / 50.98944°N 1.42500°W / 50.98944; -1.42500
Mouth
- location	Swaythling (flows into River Itchen), Hampshire, England
- coordinates	50°56′08″N 01°22′33″W / 50.93556°N 1.37583°W / 50.93556; -1.37583Coordinates: 50°56′08″N 01°22′33″W / 50.93556°N 1.37583°W / 50.93556; -1.37583
Basin	49 km2 (19 sq mi)
Discharge
- average	0.25 m3/s (9 cu ft/s)

Monks Brook is a river in the English county of Hampshire. It is a tributary of the River Itchen, which it joins at a medieval salmon pool in Swaythling. The brook is formed from seven streams that rise in the chalky South Downs, with the official source of Monks Brook being known as Bucket's Corner. Monks Brook drains a clay catchment of 49 square kilometres (19 sq mi). The brook is designated a main river, which means the operating authority for managing it is the Environment Agency, not the local government authorities for the areas through which the river runs.

The brook has given its name to a public house, a street in the town of Eastleigh, a junior football team and a petrol station among other things.

In 2007, a 250 metres (820 feet) stretch of a tributary to the brook that had been culverted in the 1970s to make way for a golf course was uncovered as part of a £2.5 million community regeneration project.

Monks Brook was documented in a charter in 932, in which King Athelstan granted the estate of North Stoneham to a man named Alfred. In this charter, Monks Brook was used as the boundary of the estate. It is thought the brook was created in Saxon times to prevent flooding of a field associated with South Stoneham.

The river took its current name much later, however, with the monks of Hyde Abbey near Winchester, who were the owners of the North Stoneham Estate in the 14th century. However originally the name only applied to that northern portion of the brook, with the southern reaches referred to as Swaethling Well in a charter relating to South Stoneham in 1045. The Old English word Swaethling is believed to mean "misty stream" and the settlement of Swaythling is thought to be named after Monks Brook.