The river passes to the north of Wellington, and a mile further on the course of the derelict Grand Western Canal crosses the Tone on an aqueduct which now carries a footpath.

Firepool weir was reconstructed in 1967 as part of the plans to straighten the river through the town centre and down to Bathpool in order to provide better flood defences.

Curry and Hay Moors, an area of low-lying fenland close to the river, are a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The Brendon Hills are largely formed from the Morte Slates, a thick faulted and folded sequence of Devonian age sedimentary rocks.

[27] The physical modifications include dredging work on the lower reaches, near the junction with the Parrett to increase the channel flow to reduce flooding.

[42][43] The flow in two tributaries and two points on the river is also monitored, primarily to act as an early flood warning system for Taunton.

[49] Navigation on the first 7 miles (11 km) from Burrowbridge to Ham Mill was much easier than on the final stretch to Taunton, and in 1638, John Mallett, the Sheriff of Somerset and member of parliament for Bath, obtained a Commission under the Great Seal from King Charles II.

This granted him and his heirs sole navigation rights from Bridgwater to Ham Mills, and allowed him to improve the river at his own expense.

He saw this as a philanthropic action, as it reduced the price of coal to the poor people of Taunton, as well as improving the transport infrastructure.

[54] The navigation included a lock and two or more half-locks, consisting of a pair of gates to hold back the water, and an agreement to build a towpath between Ham Mills and Taunton was reached in 1724.

[56] The 1699 act of parliament had stipulated that the Conservators could receive dividends of six per cent on the money they had invested into the undertaking, until the capital was repaid, and that after that the tolls were to be reduced, while profits were to be used for "the benefit and advantage of the poor of Taunton", particularly by the building of hospitals.

[52] Local landowners complained about rights of access across their land and increased flooding in a petition of 1707,[57] however in 1708 another act was passed to allow the completion of the navigation to Taunton.

[58] Because the receipts were initially insufficient to cover the six per cent dividend on the £5,697 that the Conservators had invested, they added the difference to the capital, so that the debt steadily increased.

Dividends for 1797 were 11.5%, but the capital debt had risen to £85,466 by 1800, when the auditors refused to examine the accounts, because the likelihood of the poor ever benefitting from the navigation was receding.

The canal company used a similar accounting practice to manage the Tone debt, inflating it at six per cent each year, to ensure that they could demonstrate that the river was unprofitable.

The Conservators were required to light the area after a boatman fell into the river and drowned while attempting to use the lock after dark in March 1826.

[66] A surviving mill house which dates from the early 19th century has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building.

In March 1812, the structure was burnt down by a fire, caused, according to the Taunton Courier, by "the excessive friction excited in the stones used in the process of shelling clover seeds".

Redler rebuilt it with safety in mind, and as at Ham, installed a steam-driven turbine as water levels were often inadequate to power the wheels.

In October 1830, while replacing the mill stones, the millers had opened the flood gates for 16 days, and built a dam across the river, thus preventing navigation.

Analysis of what had happened indicated that the channel was of insufficient size to carry the volume of water, which fell on the hills to the west and then flowed down the river.

The easy solution of widening the channel was not available, as there were houses built along the south-eastern bank for around 2 miles (3.2 km) above the junction with the River Parrett.

There was no likelihood of sufficient money being available to buy all the houses to demolish them, and so a program of constructing concrete cores in the centre of the banks began in 1956 and continued until 1964.

The removal of the navigation works at Ham proved particularly difficult, and acted as a training exercise for the Territorial Royal Engineers.

Men from the 205 (Wessex) Field Squadron RE (TA) used 200 pounds (91 kg) of explosives to blow up the half-lock and a mud-filled barge which could not be moved.

[81] In addition plans were developed for a flood storage area or "Superpond" with a capacity of 1,800,000 cubic metres (64,000,000 cu ft), on the Tone at Taunton.

[82][83] Download coordinates as: Clatworthy Reservoir is an important wildlife habitat managed by Wessex Water, and offers facilities for fishing and walking.

Frogbit (Hydrocharis morsus-ranae), flowering rush (Butomus umbellatus), wood club-rush (Scirpus sylvaticus) and lesser water-plantain (Baldellia ranunculoides) are among the aquatic and bankside vascular plants which have been identified.

Significant numbers of waterfowl with several thousand northern lapwing, hundreds of snipe and some golden plover and dunlin can be found on the flooded fields in winter.

[18] Southlake Moor is another biological Site of Special Scientific Interest, this one covering 196.1 hectares (485 acres) near the junction of the Tone and Parrett at Burrow Mump and Burrowbridge.