The River Ching is a tributary of the

River Lea The River Lea ( ) is in South East England. It originates in Bedfordshire, in the Chiltern Hills, and flows southeast through Hertfordshire, along the Essex border and into Greater London, to meet the River Thames at Bow Creek. It is one of ...

, flowing from Epping Forest, in southeast England.

Course

The Ching originates as a small stream from a spring at the foot of a tree in the southern part of

Epping Forest Epping Forest is a area of ancient woodland, and other established habitats, which straddles the border between Greater London and Essex. The main body of the forest stretches from Epping in the north, to Chingford on the edge of the London ...

, and flows through woodland and across a ride, coming to the Connaught Water over a fine gravel bed; the flow is not always strong enough to flow continuously to the lake. The Water - which was created by damming the Ching - lies in the parishes of

Loughton Loughton () is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex. Part of the metropolitan and urban area of London, the town borders Chingford, Waltham Abbey, Theydon Bois, Chigwell and Buckhurst Hill, and is northeast of Chari ...

and

Waltham Abbey Waltham Abbey is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex, within the metropolitan and urban area of London, England, north-east of Charing Cross. It lies on the Greenwich Meridian, between the River Lea in the west and ...

. Exiting the lake through a sluice, the small river curves towards Rangers Road. Early in this stretch it is joined by the ''Cuckoo Brook'', from Ludgate Plain, northeast of Sewardstonebury, which also takes in a stream from Chingford Plain. Beyond Rangers Road, the Ching flows south and then southwest, to Chingford Hatch, in a semi-woodland setting, and largely in natural banks but with some concrete embankment. In the

Highams Park Highams Park is a suburban district in the London Borough of Waltham Forest, England, near Epping Forest and 8.1 miles (13 km) north-east of Charing Cross. Traditionally a part of Walthamstow parish and municipal borough, it is primarily a ...

area of Chingford, damming of the Ching created a boating lake about two centuries back, on the grounds of a manor house, and as part of a landscape plan by

Humphrey Repton Humphry Repton (21 April 1752 – 24 March 1818) was the last great English landscape designer of the eighteenth century, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown; he also sowed the seeds of the more intricate and eclectic styles of ...

. Stones from the old London Bridge were used to form the sides of the lake. The river was re-channelled around the lake to the west in 1850, a course it still follows. After this, the Ching bends to the southwest, passing Hale End, and the former greyhound racing venue, Walhamstow Stadium, then meanders broadly west. Turning northwest behind a hotel and a supermarket, it finally runs west under the North Circular Road in a concrete channel, passes a pumping station and enters the River Lea just north of the

Banbury Reservoir Banbury Reservoir is located in the London Borough of Waltham Forest at Walthamstow. It is one of the storage reservoirs in the Lee Valley Reservoir Chain. The reservoir is owned by Thames Water. History The reservoir, which was completed in 1 ...

in South Chingford. At this point, the Lea, its diversion line, and the Lee Navigation, form a complex of channels, all running south. The overall length of the course from the Connaught Water to the Lea is .

Name

The river runs through parts of

Chingford Chingford is a town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The town is approximately north-east of Charing Cross, with Waltham Abbey to the north, Woodford Green and Buckhurst Hill to the east, Walthamstow t ...

, but the name of the river is a

back-formation In etymology, back-formation is the process or result of creating a new word via inflection, typically by removing or substituting actual or supposed affixes from a lexical item, in a way that expands the number of lexemes associated with the ...

from the name of that area, rather than the town being named after the river. It is often marked on maps simply as ''The Ching'' and sometimes documented, in whole or in part, as ''Ching Brook''.

Administration

The river lies across multiple local authority boundaries, first forming the border between Essex and the London Borough of Waltham Forest, and later marking the boundary between that Borough and its fellow Borough of Redbridge.

Pollution

The Ching is classified by the Environment Agency as a ''Heavily Modified Waterbody'', and when last studied, while in good condition on chemical standards, was deemed to be only of moderate ecological quality status, with multiple reasons for quality issues identified. In 2009, Thames Water announced a study aimed at reducing pollution of the river in its lower reaches caused by domestic waste water from sinks, showers, dishwashers, and washing machines.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ching, River Ching Ching 1Ching Rivers of London