River Penk

Penk
The Penk at Penkridge, with Penkridge Viaduct in the background.
Country	England
Basin features
Main source	Perton, South Staffordshire
River mouth	Confluence with the Sow 52°48′12″N 2°04′55″W / 52.80333°N 2.08194°W / 52.80333; -2.08194Coordinates: 52°48′12″N 2°04′55″W / 52.80333°N 2.08194°W / 52.80333; -2.08194
Progression	Sow—Trent—Humber—North Sea
Basin size	356 km2 (137 sq mi)
Tributaries	Left: Moat Brook, Whiston Brook, Pothooks Brook, Rickerscote Drain Right: Watershead Brook, Saredon Brook, Deepmoor Drain
Physical characteristics
Length	36 km (22 mi)
Discharge	Location: Penkridge Average rate: 2.27 m3/s (80 cu ft/s)

The River Penk is a small river flowing though Staffordshire, England. Its course is mainly within South Staffordshire, and it drains most of the northern part of that district, together with some adjoining areas of Cannock Chase, Stafford, Wolverhampton, and Shropshire. It flows into the River Sow, which is a tributary of the River Trent, so its waters flow ultimately into the North Sea via the Humber Estuary.

The name "Penk" is actually a back-formation from the toponym Penkridge. This was understood to mean "ridge by the Penk"; hence the river was assumed to be the Penk. In reality the settlement name is from Celtic roots: pen crug, signifying the crest of a hill, or a main mound or tumulus. From this was derived the name of a Roman fort in the area, Pennocrucium, from which the present town takes its name. Margaret Gelling has proposed a precise location for the mound, now destroyed by ploughing, that gave both the town and the river the names.

The general course of the Penk is a descent from the mid-Severn sandstone section of the Midlands Plateau to the Cheshire-Shropshire-Staffordshire plain. Along much of its length, the Penk is shadowed to within a few miles by the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal.

The Penk rises in Tettenhall Wood east of the village of Perton, South Staffordshire, approximately three miles west-north-west of Wolverhampton OS grid reference SO878999 at an altitude of 148msl (est). The Penk itself flows entirely within Staffordshire, skirting around the Wolverhampton suburbs of Tettenhall and Pendeford, although it is joined on its right by a number of streams from within Wolverhampton, as well, on the left, the Moat Brook, which drains Oaken, Codsall and Bilbrook. It flows through the village of Coven and is then joined by a major tributary, the Saredon Brook, which drains the area around Cheslyn Hay and Great Wyrley.