River Gowan, Cumbria

The Lakeland poet William Wordsworth also uses the word gowan to refer to a common wayside flower indicating that the name was used in the area and therefore it is possible that the river got its name from the fact that it flows through many flower meadows on the valley floor.

The name may therefore otherwise have come from the Scots Gaelic or from Irish missionaries who are known to have travelled in Cumbria during the Anglo-Saxon period and have given many words to the local dialect.

In 2013 work was completed on a river improvement project to restore meanders between Ings and Staveley involving the removal of 71 metres of man-made flood embankment.

This was part of project funded by the Environment Agency and Natural England which aims to bring river units of the River Kent & Tributaries Site of Special Scientific Interest/Special Area of Conservation into "improving" condition.

The Kent is designated a Special Area of Conservation, primarily as an important habitat for the endangered White-clawed Crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes).