The River Orwell flows through the county of Suffolk in England. Its source river, above the tidal limit at Stoke Bridge, is known as the River Gipping. It broadens into an estuary at Ipswich where the Ipswich dock has operated since the 7th century and then flows into the North Sea at Felixstowe after joining with the River Stour at Shotley. The large Orwell Bridge carries the A14 trunk road over the estuary to the south of Ipswich.