The River Lee Country Park is located in the Lee Valley Park and is managed by the

Lee Valley Regional Park Authority Lee Valley Regional Park Authority (LVRPA) is a statutory body that is responsible for managing and developing the long, Lee Valley Regional Park. The park was established by Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1967. The headquarters of the ...

. Covering on either side of the

River Lee Navigation The Lee Navigation is a canalised river incorporating the River Lea (also called the River Lee along the sections that are navigable). It flows from Hertford Castle Weir to the River Thames at Bow Creek; its first lock is Hertford Lock and its ...

between

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 ...

and

Broxbourne Broxbourne is a town and former civil parish, now in the unparished area of Hoddesdon, in the Broxbourne district, in Hertfordshire, England, north of London, with a population of 15,303 at the 2011 Census.Broxbourne Town population 2011 I ...

, it is an area of lakes, watercourses, open spaces and three

Sites of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

(SSSI) linked by footpaths and cycle tracks. The site straddles the Hertfordshire/Essex boundary.

History

Since the 1930s the area which was originally part of the River Lea flood plain has been the centre of the sand and gravel industry, as a result there are many mature

gravel pit A gravel pit is an open-pit mine for the extraction of gravel. Gravel pits often lie in river valleys where the water table is high, so they may naturally fill with water to form ponds or lakes. Old, abandoned gravel pits are normally used either ...

s. Some of the lakes were used for land fill purposes. In a joint effort by the St Albans Sand and Gravel Co Ltd and the

the area has been transformed, with much of the park a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)

Olympics 2012

The park at the Showground site, Highbridge Street A121, Waltham Cross was the chosen venue for the 2012 Olympics canoeing events. The site is now known as the

Lee Valley White Water Centre Lee Valley White Water Centre (previously known as Broxbourne White Water Canoe Centre) is a white-water slalom centre, that was constructed to host the canoe slalom events of the London 2012 Olympic Games. On 9 December 2010, Anne, Princess R ...

Watercourses

* Cornmill Stream, flows from the Lea at Fishers Green to rejoin the Lea at Waltham Abbey. * Millhead Stream, flows through the former Royal Gunpowder Mills at Waltham Abbey. * River Lea *

River Lee Flood Relief Channel The Lee Flood Relief Channel (FRC) is located in the Lea Valley and flows between Ware, Hertfordshire, and Stratford, east London. Work started on the channel in 1947 following major flooding and it was fully operational by 1976. The channel in ...

, the Channel incorporates the former Horsemill Stream close to Waltham Abbey. *

* Small River Lea

Lakes

The following are some of the larger waters that can be visited in the park. Some of them form the Turnford and Cheshunt Pits SSSI.

* Bowyers Water. Believed to be hand dug in the 1920s, and one of the oldest lakes in the Lee Valley. * Cheshunt Lake. Home of the Herts Young Mariners. Herts Young Mariners
Retrieved 23 May 2008 * Friday Lake A carp fishery. * Hall Marsh Scrape. The lake was specifically constructed for the use by

wildfowl The Anatidae are the biological family of water birds that includes ducks, geese, and swans. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on all the world's continents except Antarctica. These birds are adapted for swimming, floating on ...

. * Holyfield Lake. The lake incorporates part of the River Lee Flood Relief Channel. * Hooks Marsh Lake The over- wintering

bittern Bitterns are birds belonging to the subfamily Botaurinae of the heron family Ardeidae. Bitterns tend to be shorter-necked and more secretive than other members of the family. They were called ''hæferblæte'' in Old English; the word "bittern ...

can be found here between December and March. * North Metropolitan. Better known as North Met Pit. Due to the many islands and inlets, the lake has an estimated shoreline of . * Seventy Acres Lake. The bittern and the otter can be seen here. * Turnford Pits. Small relics of unimproved grassland that preceded gravel extraction can be found adjacent to the lakes.

Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)

The park contains three SSSIs; * Cornmill Stream and Old River Lea * Turnford and Cheshunt Pits * Waltham Abbey SSSI

References

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