The legend says that the Druids were assembled with a vast band of ancient Britons on the west bank of the river, at the place called the Noose (Awre). Here the river is over a mile wide with a vast sandbank surrounded by two shifting narrow channels. It was low tide and the Roman army was goaded by the wild dancing of the British to engage in battle. The army comprised armoured foot soldiers and cavalry, who quickly crossed the small channel of the eastern bank.

When the army reached the far side of the Noose sands, and as the Druids chanted to the goddess Sabrina, the Roman's were horrified to see the river sweeping up the western channel in the flood tide. Unable to cross they retreated back across the sands, but on reaching the eastern side their retreat was now cut off by the tide flowing back down and around the Noose to meet the flood tide still moving up the eastern channel. Perhaps the Two Kings of the Severn so vividly portrayed by the sixth century historian Nennius.

As the army struggled to get to the east bank and the soldiers and horses became were trapped on the sand, the bore tide sweept across the Noose. Legend says that, in their panic, the army was totally drowned infront of the eyes of the Roman general and his standard bearers on the eastern bank.