Ebbsfleet River

The Ebbsfleet River just before it enters the Thames Estuary at Northfleet

Ebbsfleet River is a river of 2½ miles in northern Kent. Today, it gives its name to the Ebbsfleet Valley redevelopment area, site of a forthcoming “Eco-town”, and it has no relation to the village of Ebbsfleet on the Isle of Thanet.

Formerly the river was known as the River Fleet and it gave its name to Northfleet and Southfleet. Its source was eight natural springs at Springhead.

In Roman times the river’s source was the site of a Roman settlement called Vagniaci and the river was used to link Watling Street to the River Thames. In the fourteenth century it was a stopping place for pilgrims going to Canterbury. A bridge across the river at Northfleet is mentioned in 1451 and it was still tidal and used for shipping in the sixteenth century.

In the nineteenth century the river was the earliest centre in Britain for the commercial cultivation of watercress, this was started by Mr William Bradbery in 1808. He later moved the business to West Hyde in Hertfordshire in 1820. Following the removal of its waters in around 1901, when all its waters were used by the local water company, its dried riverbed was the subject of a botanical study by Marie Stopes. Parts of the river can still be seen.

The name 'Ebbsfleet' is an artificial creation of seventeenth-century antiquaries, partly inspired by the name of Ebbsfleet in Thanet, 47 miles to the east.

Outside links

• 'The Colonisation of a Dried River Bed' - PDF file of Marie Stopes 1903 article
• Northfleet - Northfleet Harbour Restoration Trust
• Ebbsfleet - Ebbsfleet Station
• Ebbsfleet Valley - Ebbsfleet Valley