A simple question ...or so i thought!

[Justin Cubberley]

Forgive me if this topic has been raised in the past but perhaps you could settle a debate that arose the other night whilst in conversation with some angling friends.
Whilst in the pub a conversation began regarding a recent fishing trip and the phrase ' upper Severn' was used. This seemed harmless enough untill it soon became apparent that out of three regular Severn anglers, each of us had very different ideas as to a location that was regarded by all as a Severn border, from upper, middle and lower.
We all could quote various anglers from our past who ingrained there geographic knowledge upon us. Yet nobody could quote anything seemingly more official. I myself have always classed iron bridge and below as the middle and then below the main bridge in Worcester as the lower as it just seemed to make sense...to me anyways, as they are substantial and somewhat unmissable.
The BAA car park at Chelmarsh whilst might be ingrained from your youth may not be widely accepted as a defined boundary!
Does anyone know what is the widley accepted or even official boundary of separation?

 

[Graham Tremble]

Well I can’t be definitive…..but……I always called the ‘lower’ as below Diglis Weir……I expect a few differences of opinion on this one though
G.T.

 

[Terry Simner]

Yet nobody could quote anything seemingly more official.

That's because there's nowt "official" about it @Justin Cubberley ...it's just angler-speak. It's as vague and indefinite as 'North of England', or 'The Midlands'.
But I reckon a consensus of anglers would probably say ... upstream of Shrewsbury is the Upper, and downstream from Worcester is the Lower (so the Middle is between Shrewsbury and Worcester.
That said, some will say that below Stourport, where the river becomes navigable, is the start of the Lower. The river looks very much like the river below Worcester, but is shallower and tends to be sandier bottomed.