We continued our journey northward on the Lee Navigation, feeling somewhat deflated after an amazing summer on the Thames, with its beautiful boats and its clean clear water. We were now surrounded by squalor, abandoned and sunk boats, constant having to defoul the prop, and on more than one occasion Eric was warned not to “let his woman out alone after dark”.
Yet the people we spoke to were friendly and helpful and all said it gets nicer the further along you go.
But what concerned us the most, was the correct spelling of where we were so I did a bit of reading up.
The River Lea is a major tributary into the River Thames with its confluence at Bow. Therefore as you might expect there’s a lot of documentation referencing its turbulant and profitable times. Archaeologists have discovered bronze age canoes along its route. Viking raiders sailed up the river, and King Alfred actually changed the river levels in order to strand Guthrum’s fleet to protect his lands.
The river continued to flow through its marshy course but in the late 12th century that the Abbot of Walthamstow instigated improvements to navigation along the River Lea to help transport grain from Hertfordshire into London. In the 15th century, not only did you need financial backing to create a more efficient waterway, but an act of parliament. In the 1424 and 1430 Acts the river was referred to as the Ley, but the later 1571 Act referred to the Ryver Lee, otherwise known as the Ware Ryver. It wasn’t until 1767 that trustees were canalising the navigation and on its completion in 1771 determined its name should be the Lee Navigation.
Nowadays its 27 miles from Bow to Hertford is no longer used for commercial trade, but is home to many Londoners needing affordable places to live, who have taken to the water. And used by the leisure and sports fraternity, with paddle sports and towpath trawlers all jiggling alongside each other, though not always companionably.
Despite the difficulties in navigating this stretch of water, the history is interesting and these are the two pages are worth a read if you want more information.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Navigation
https://www.hertsmemories.org.uk/content/herts-history/places/rivers-and-canals/river-lee-lea-or-ley
The conclusion is, the River Lea, and the Lee Navigation, and it wasnt all bad
