Combwich slipway (Riverside)

Immediately alongside the launch, Combwich Wharf works as a roll-on/roll-off berth for Hinkley Point C: in February 2023 it took delivery of the power station's first 500-tonne reactor pressure vessel, shipped from France and brought up the estuary by barge. Combwich stands within the statutory Port of Bridgwater, whose limits on the Parrett run up to Bridgwater town centre. The reach dries completely at low water as far up as Bridgwater, and a tidal bore runs upstream on the flood, typically around six miles an hour and stronger on spring tides.

The banks here are mudflats and saltmarsh, typical of the upper Parrett estuary. Combwich Pill, the tidal creek beside the village, holds the area's only recreational moorings and dries with the rest of the reach. Downstream, past the Steart Peninsula, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust breached the old sea defences in 2014 to create Steart Marshes, around 300 hectares of new saltmarsh. The whole estuary here is part of the Severn Estuary SSSI and Bridgwater Bay National Nature Reserve, and carries Special Protection Area, Ramsar and Special Area of Conservation status for its wintering and passage waders and wildfowl.