River Gade

The River Gade in Hemel Hempstead

The River Gade is a river running almost entirely though Hertfordshire. It rises from a spring in the chalk of the Chiltern Hills at Dagnall, Buckinghamshire and flows southeast through Hemel Hempstead, Kings Langley and Croxley Green to Rickmansworth, where it joins the River Colne.

For its whole course the Gade is unnavigable, although blow Hemel Hempstead it runs alongside and sometimes forms part of the Grand Union Canal.

The river’s principal tributary is the River Bulbourne which joins it at Two Waters, just below Hemel Hempstead.

The river was once used to power water mills at Water End, Cassiobury Park and Two Waters as well as powering the John Dickinson paper mills at Apsley and Croxley Green.

The Gade supported the farming of watercress at Cassiobury Park, Water End, the Water Gardens and Two Waters until water was diverted from the river in 1947 to supply the growing new town of Hemel Hempstead.

The remains of a Roman villa were found at Gadebridge Park in Hemel Hempstead.

References

• Dacorum Landscape Character Assessment High Gade Valley, Dacorum Borough Council, 2004. Accessed April 2007