River Restoration

Restoring | Creating | Transforming

Woodhall Estate is located in the Beane Valley, with about 3 miles of the River Beane flowing through it. The river is a rare chalk stream, one of only about 200 in the entire world. In the middle of Woodhall Park  is a beautiful lake called The Broadwater.  Originally formed in the 19th century by significantly widening the river, the Broadwater provides a striking landscape feature below the Main House. The river and the lake are teeming with wildlife, flora and fauna, creating a rare and exceptional wildlife corridor in close proximity to London. Learn more about our river, lake and wetlands in Watercourses.

Over many decades, a slow and damaging build-up of silt in the river and the lake reduced the lake’s water carrying capacity. Increased water abstraction in the area by the water authorities  further depleted the quality and quantity of river flow. In March 2016, a major storm caused flash flooding and a surge of the Broadwater Lake. In a matter of hours, one of the banks had given way and collapsed, and the entire lake discharged downstream, leaving behind 25,000 cubic metres of muddy and odorous silt.

Happily, we were able to turn this calamity into an exciting opportunity. In 2017 we entered into a close partnership with Affinity Water to carry out a major restoration project to the River Beane and Broadwater, as follows:

Phase 1 – 2017

A new 400-metre new chalk stream river channel was formed in the southern area of Woodhall Park. The new channel bypassed the Horseshoe Weir, allowing fish to travel upstream, and created diverse river features contributing to a range of habitats and environments.

Phase 2a – 2018

A 1km new chalk stream river channel was created along the Broadwater Lake to ensure a clean, quick flow of river water, as compared to the slow and still lake. The new stream bypassed the obstacle of the Tumbling Bay weir and waterfall, allowing fish to swim upstream. The new section included engineered berms, riffles and point bars, as well as side channels and in-channel ponds.

Phase 2b – 2018

Alongside the chalk stream creation above, the Estate carried out a major operation to dredge 25,000 cubic metres of dried-up silt in the Broadwater Lake, left over when the lake drained in 2016 as a result of a bank collapse from flash-floods. The operation involved a large number of long-reach excavators and dumper-trucks to move the silt, which was then spread on adjoining land to take advantage of its nutrient qualities. The long hot summer of 2018 greatly helped this operation by drying out the silt and reducing the need for further treatment.

Special spawning shelves were also engineered in the lake, and the banks re-formed.  A restoration project took place to the dilapidated weir structure and sluice gate, plus a further dredging operation below it at Tumbling Bay. This transformative project quickly yielded results; with the benefits to water quality and habitat diversity easy to see.

Phase 2c – 2019

A new brick section of the river channel was constructed around the Tumbling Bay weir in 2019. Approximately 40,000 bricks were laid by hand using traditional lime mortar and techniques, capped with stone copping stones. The result is a large-scale and spectacular example of traditional masonry, which is expected to last for centuries.

Phase 3 – 2020

This phase involved the creation of a 10,000 sqm continuous reed bed in Ryefield Mead, upstream of the Broadwater. This wetland created a mosaic of habitats that benefits a range of wildlife and provides a functional water storage area to reduce flooding.


Members of the public can see the Broadwater Lake and the central part of the river from the public footpath running through Woodhall Park. Access off the footpath is not permitted without prior permission. This is strictly enforced due to safety around water. Learn more about enjoying the extensive network of footpaths, bridleways and permissive paths at Woodhall Estate in Walk, Run, Ride.

If you are an organisation interested in visiting this project, please see our Private Tours page.

Learn more about the river project at Affinity Water. The primary contractor for the river creation and dredging project was Salix Rivers & Wetlands, and the masonry project was carried out by Herts Renovation.

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