Ebbsfleet River in Kent, south-east England, is a tributary of the Thames Estuary. It joins the Thames at

Northfleet Northfleet is a town in the borough of Gravesham in Kent, England. It is located immediately west of Gravesend, and on the border with the Borough of Dartford. Northfleet has its own railway station on the North Kent Line, just east of Ebbsfl ...

, opposite the container port of Tilbury Docks. Today, the river gives its name to the

Ebbsfleet Garden City Ebbsfleet Valley is a Planned community, new town and redevelopment area in Kent, South East England, and part of the Thames Gateway, southwest of Gravesend, Kent, Gravesend. Development is coordinated by the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation. ...

which is currently (2020) being developed in and around the course of the Ebbsfleet.

History

It was formerly known as the River Fleet, giving its name to

and Southfleet. Its source was eight natural springs at

Springhead Springhead lies at the source of the River Ebbsfleet, just southwest of the Gravesend suburban conurbations. Springhead forms one of the major quarters of the Ebbsfleet Valley development, with housing and the associated facilities now under con ...

. In Roman times the source was the site of a Roman settlement with many temples called ''Vagniacis'', and the river was used to link Watling Street to the River Thames; in the fourteenth century it was a stopping place for pilgrims going to Canterbury. A bridge across the river at

is mentioned in 1451 and it was still tidal and used for shipping in the sixteenth century. In the nineteenth century the river was the earliest centre in Britain for the commercial cultivation of watercress, begun by William Bradbery in 1808. He moved the business to West Hyde,

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

in 1820. Following the removal of its waters in around 1901, when all its waters were used by the local water company, its dried riverbed was the subject of a botanical study by Marie Stopes, the

birth control Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth contr ...

activist. Parts of the river can still be seen.

Etymology

The name Ebbsfleet may well be an artificial creation of the seventeenth-century

antiquary An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...

Thomas Philpott and mentioned in his ''Villare Cantianum''; the name may have been partly inspired by Ebbsfleet in Thanet, to the east on the Kent coast. This latter is the place in East Kent mentioned in the ''

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alf ...

'' as Ebba's Creek, (version A) or (version E). Thomas Philpott was the elder son of

John Philipot John Philipot (1588 – 22 November 1645) was an officer of arms at the College of Arms in London and a politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1628 to 1629. Though he successfully attained the position on Somerset Herald of Arms in ...

, Somerset Herald, whose early list of Lords Warden of the Cinque Ports appears on p. 12 of ''Villare Cantianum''.

References

External links

Northfleet
- Northfleet Harbour Restoration Trust
Ebbsfleet Valley
- website
Ebbsfleet Garden City
- website Rivers of Kent {{England-river-stub