IWA Lee & Stort Branch

Navigable waterways in Lee & Stort Branch’s area are the River Lee* (north of the M25) and the River Stort.  The respective ends of navigation at Hertford and Bishop’s Stortford represent the most south-easterly ends of the mainline inland navigable network.

* Most references suggest an earlier spelling as ‘Lea’, but the Bill put to parliament in the late 18th century to provide for extensive re-routing and installation of locks and thus make the river navigable to Hertford mistakenly used the spelling ‘Lee’.  By current convention, then, reference to the original river uses ‘Lea’ but to the navigable course as ‘Lee’.