The Rye is a stream rising east of

Ashtead Ashtead is a large village in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England, approximately south of central London. Primarily a commuter settlement, Ashtead is on the single-carriageway A24 between Epsom and Leatherhead. The village is on t ...

and flowing into the

River Mole The River Mole is a tributary of the River Thames in southern England. It rises in West Sussex near Gatwick Airport and flows northwest through Surrey for to the Thames at Hampton Court Palace. The river gives its name to the Surrey district ...

near

Leatherhead Leatherhead is a town in the Mole Valley District of Surrey, England, about south of Central London. The settlement grew up beside a ford on the River Mole, from which its name is thought to derive. During the late Anglo-Saxon period, Leath ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

Course

The Rye Brook flows westwards across

Ashtead Common Ashtead Common, nearly 495 acres (c. 200 ha), is a wooded area open to the public, to the north of the village of Ashtead in Surrey, England. It is owned and managed by the City of London Corporation, after being bought by the City due to conc ...

, through the Ashtead Common National Nature Reserve, managed by the

City of London Corporation The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the municipal governing body of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United King ...

. For much of its course the brook follows a straight channelled course which was dug during the Second World War in order to drain the surrounding land so that it could be used for agriculture. Under a recent (2005) initiative by the City of London Corporation, parts of the course have been remodelled. The remodelling includes meandering and reprofiling the riverbed, banks and adjacent land to create a more natural setting, in order to create a wetland habitat that will encourage a diverse wildlife.

Water quality

The Environment Agency measures the 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 invertebrates, 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. Water quality of the Rye in 2019:

References

External links

- A Vision for Ashtead Rye Meadows Wetlands
Rivers of Surrey Mole catchment, 1Rye {{England-river-stub