<P> The river passes through Stoke - on - Trent, Burton upon Trent and Nottingham before joining the River Ouse at Trent Falls to form the Humber Estuary, which empties into the North Sea between Hull in Yorkshire and Immingham in Lincolnshire . The course of the river has often been described as the boundary between the Midlands and the north of England . </P> <P> The name "Trent" is from a Celtic word possibly meaning "strongly flooding". More specifically, the name may be a contraction of two Celtic words, tros ("over") and hynt ("way"). This may indeed indicate a river that is prone to flooding . However, a more likely explanation may be that it was considered to be a river that could be crossed principally by means of fords, i.e. the river flowed over major road routes . This may explain the presence of the Celtic element rid (c.f. Welsh rhyd, "ford") in various place names along the Trent, such as Hill Ridware, as well as the Old English ‐ derived ford . Another translation is given as "the trespasser", referring to the waters flooding over the land . According to Koch at the University of Wales, the name Trent derives from the Romano - British Trisantona, a Romano - British reflex of the combined Proto - Celtic elements * tri-sent (o) - on - ā - (through - path - augmentative - feminine -)' great thoroughfare' . A traditional but almost certainly wrong opinion is that of Izaak Walton, who states in The Compleat Angler (1653) that the Trent is "...so called from thirty kind of fishes that are found in it, or for that it receiveth thirty lesser rivers ." </P> <P> The Trent rises on the Staffordshire moorlands near the village of Biddulph Moor, from a number of sources including the Trent Head Well . It is then joined by other small streams to form the Head of Trent, which flows south, to the only reservoir along its course at Knypersley . Downstream of the reservoir it passes through Stoke - on - Trent and merges with the Lyme, Fowlea and other brooks that drain the' six towns' of the Staffordshire Potteries to become the River Trent . On the southern fringes of Stoke, it passes through the landscaped parkland of Trentham Gardens . </P> <P> The river then continues south through the market town of Stone, and after passing the village of Salt, it reaches Great Haywood, where it is spanned by the 16th - century Essex Bridge near Shugborough Hall . At this point the River Sow joins it from Stafford . The Trent now flows south - east past the town of Rugeley until it reaches Kings Bromley where it meets the Blithe . After the confluence with the Swarbourn, it passes Alrewas and reaches Wychnor, where it is crossed by the A38 dual carriageway, which follows the route of the Roman Ryknild Street . The river turns north - east where it is joined by its largest tributary, the Tame (which is at this point actually the larger, though its earlier length shorter) and immediately afterwards by the Mease, creating a larger river that now flows through a broad floodplain . </P>

Where does the last name trent come from