Cove
Brook
A brook is a small river or natural stream of fresh water. It may also refer to:
Computing
*Brook, a programming language for GPU programming based on C
*Brook+, an explicit data-parallel C compiler
*BrookGPU, a framework for GPGPU programming ...
runs from near
Farnborough Airport
Farnborough Airport (previously called: TAG Farnborough Airport, RAE Farnborough, ICAO Code EGLF) is an operational business/executive general aviation airport in Farnborough, Rushmoor, Hampshire, England. The airport covers about 8% of Rush ...
in
Farnborough,
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and flows through the former Southwood Golf Course where it is joined by Marrow Brook and other smaller streams. It runs north through
Cove
A cove is a small type of bay or coastal inlet. Coves usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creeks, or recesses in a coast are o ...
before joining the
Blackwater at Hawley Meadows near the
M3 motorway.
Route
The brook, so-named, begins on Southwood golf course, between the western edge of Farnborough and the eastern edge of Southwood. Here
four streams meet, the first of which is Marrow Brook, which flows westwards from Farnborough Business Park. It is joined by a stream which rises near Hungry Hill on the south side of Aldershot, passes under the
Basingstoke Canal
The Basingstoke Canal is an English canal, completed in 1794, built to connect Basingstoke with the River Thames at Weybridge via the Wey Navigation.
From Basingstoke, the canal passes through or near Greywell, North Warnborough, Odiham, ...
in a culvert and across the Army Golf Club on Watts Common beford flowing through a culvert which takes it under the runways of
Farnborough Airport
Farnborough Airport (previously called: TAG Farnborough Airport, RAE Farnborough, ICAO Code EGLF) is an operational business/executive general aviation airport in Farnborough, Rushmoor, Hampshire, England. The airport covers about 8% of Rush ...
and the A327 road. The third is one which rises in the network of channels on Eelmoor Marsh, before passing under an engineering workshop on the edge of the airport and the A327 road. It is joined by the Pyestock, which rises in another series of channels on Southwood Woodland.
[Ordnance Survey, 1:2500 map][
The section that now flows under the airport runways was also called Cove Stream in the 1930s, and carried the overflow from Cove Reservoir, which had a boat house and a bathing shelter. To the south of the Basingstoke Canal, it is known as Claycart Stream, and ran through a valley called Claycart Bottom. As the airport expanded, the reservoir was removed, and more and more of the channel was culverted. Similarly, the Marrow Brook was still on the surface in 1964, running all the way from Kingsmead, to the east of the library. As housing estates were erected in the locality, the meadows of Southwood Farm became a designated flood storage area, with a bund to retain the water under flood conditions, and a new straight concrete channel was constructed, with little thought to environmental impact. To the north of the railway bridge carrying the ]South West Main Line
The South West Main Line (SWML) is a 143-mile (230 km) major railway line between Waterloo station in central London and Weymouth on the south coast of England. A predominantly passenger line, it serves many commuter areas including south we ...
the channel was enlarged to make it wider and deeper, reducing the risk of flooding. The volume of water in the brook at the time was increased, because it was swelled by the treated outflow from Cove sewage treatment works.[
The brook is joined by Hawley Lake Stream that drains ]Hawley Lake
Hawley Lake is an American lake and place in east-central Arizona, in the White Mountain Apache Indian Reservation, and has an elevation of .
The lake is a remnant of Pliocene volcanism on the Mogollon Rim but it has been artificially extended ...
east. This is a large, irregular shaped lake covering , the level kept up by a weir. Hawley Lake Sail Training Centre is based on the lake, and is an Army Sailing Association club, open to military personnel and civilians. Their courses are accredited by the Royal Yachting Association
The Royal Yachting Association (RYA) is a United Kingdom national governing body for sailing, dinghy sailing, yacht and motor cruising, sail racing, RIBs and sportsboats, windsurfing and personal watercraft and a leading representative for i ...
.[ The stream passes under two roads and the M3 motorway.][
In 1996 the Cove Brook environmental initiative began, and as part of that the Environment Agency dug out the concrete sections, and recreated a more naturalised channel. The river passes under the railway through five circular culverts, and to the north of this feature, the banks of the river were re-profiled, so that at low flows the water still scoured the bed, making dredging unnecessary. The previous regime of mowing the banks very regularly was abandoned, and vegetation allowed to grow, to enhance the habitat. With assistance from volunteers who were part of the Cove Brook Greenway Group, paths were created, which now run for most of the length of the river.][
]
Cove Brook Greenway
Cove Brook Greenway is a leisure facility that runs along the brook; it was provided in the 1990s by Rushmoor Borough Council
Rushmoor is a local government district and borough in Hampshire, England. It covers the towns of Aldershot and Farnborough as well as Cove and North Camp.
It was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of the borough of Aldershot and the Far ...
as an environmental initiative in partnership with the Environment Agency, and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust is a Wildlife Trust with 27,000 members across the counties of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, England.
The trust describes itself as the leading local wildlife conservation charity in Hampshire and th ...
. In the mid-1990s, much of the upstream section of the brook was little more than a concrete channel. The Environment Agency carried out a programme of works to re-create a more natural waterway, and although it runs through an urban area, it now provides a green pathway through Farnborough which is rich in wildlife. The work included the construction of paths, a footbridge across the brook, and dipping areas with safe access. In 1996, residents formed the Cove Brook Greenway Group, a volunteer organisation which undertook further work, clearing rubbish, planting hedges and creating a nature reserve. They have also erected bat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most ...
boxes and carried out surveys to monitor progress. The river is host to several species of fish. Birds that have been observed include heron, kingfisher
Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...
s, and egrets
Egrets ( ) are herons, generally long-legged wading birds, that have white or buff plumage, developing fine plumes (usually milky white) during the breeding season. Egrets are not a biologically distinct group from herons and have the same build ...
. Signal crayfish
The signal crayfish (''Pacifastacus leniusculus'') is a North American species of crayfish. It was introduced to Europe in the 1960s to supplement the North European ''Astacus astacus'' fisheries, which were being damaged by crayfish plague, but ...
, an invasive species, are also to be found.
Water Quality
The Environment Agency measure water quality of the river systems in England. Each is given an overall ecological status, which may be one of five levels: high, good, moderate, poor and bad. There are several components that are used to determine this, including biological status, which looks at the quantity and varieties of invertebrate
Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...
s, angiosperms and fish. Chemical status, which compares the concentrations of various chemicals against known safe concentrations, is rated good or fail.[ Text was copied from this source, which is available under a]
Open Government Licence v3.0
© Crown copyright.
The water quality of the Cove Brook was as follows in 2019.
Reasons for the quality being less than good include the presence of flood protection structures, which prevent the free movement of fish and other organisms, and runoff of water from roads and contaminated land.
References
External links
Cove Brook Greenway Group
{{authority control
Rivers of Hampshire
Farnborough, Hampshire