[1] Around 10.5 miles (16.9 km) in length,[2] the Wye rises close to West Wycombe village in the Chiltern Hills and flows through High Wycombe, where it is fed from other tributataries such as Hughenden Stream,[3] before emptying into the River Thames at Bourne End, on the reach above Cookham Lock.

In particularly wet years, the source can temporarily change and effectively extend the river by another mile, due to a chalk spring rising above the ground in a field further up the same valley.

At this time paper was made from rags and by the end of the eighteenth century more than 150 men were recorded as papermakers in the valley.

The Soho mill in Wooburn was the prime supplier of high-grade colour paper till its demise in 1984.

Note that Marsh Green to Treadway are on an extra cut parallel to Pan to Loudwater Mills.