[1] The river is formed from two small unnamed streams that drain the area around Bishops Castle, the stream on the western side of the town rises near Bishops Moat and flows south-easterly in a well defined valley.

[1] From this point the river then flows south, to reach the hamlet of Brockton, where it turns in a south-easterly direction to pass through the grounds of Walcot Hall, near Lydbury North.

[1][2] To the south of Walcot Park, it is crossed by the Shropshire Way and then passes through the village of Kempton, where there is a ford and footbridge.

[1] The River Kemp was classed as having moderate ecological quality under the Water Framework Directive in 2009, but this regressed to poor in 2016.

The five part framework scale ranges from high, good, and moderate, through to poor and finally bad.