LEVEN (THE) a river of the NW of Lancashire. It issues from the foot of Windermere; flows 5 miles southwestward, past Newby-bridge, Backbarrow, and Haverthwaite; begins then to expand slowly into estuary; receives, 2½ miles below Haverthwaite, the river Crake, coming down from Coniston-water; and then goes 6 miles southward, with a breadth increasing to 3 miles, into identification with Morecambe bay. Its estuary is left dry by the receding tide, and bears then the name of leven Sands.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))