River Ching

The River Ching is a tributary of the River Lea, flowing from Epping Forest, in southeast England.

The Ching originates as a small stream from a spring at the foot of a tree in the southern part of Epping Forest, and flows through woodland and across a ride, coming to the Connaught Water over a fine gravel bed; the flow is not always strong enough to flow continuously to the lake. The Water – which was created by damming the Ching – lies in the parishes of Loughton and Waltham Abbey. Exiting the lake through a sluice, the small river[1] curves towards Rangers Road. Early in this stretch it is joined by the Cuckoo Brook,[1] from Ludgate Plain, northeast of Sewardstonebury, which also takes in a stream from Chingford Plain. Beyond Rangers Road, the Ching flows south and then southwest, to Chingford Hatch, in a semi-woodland setting, and largely in natural banks but with some concrete embankment.[2]

In the Highams Park area of Chingford, damming of the Ching created a boating lake about two centuries back, on the grounds of a manor house, and as part of a landscape plan by Humphrey Repton. Stones from the old London Bridge were used to form the sides of the lake. The river was re-channelled around the lake to the west in 1850, a course it still follows. After this, the Ching bends to the southwest, passing Hale End, and the former greyhound racing venue, Walhamstow Stadium, then meanders broadly west. Turning northwest behind a hotel and a supermarket, it finally runs west under the North Circular Road in a concrete channel, passes a pumping station and enters the River Lea just north of the Banbury Reservoir in South Chingford.[2] At this point, the Lea, its diversion line, and the Lee Navigation, form a complex of channels, all running south.[3][4] The overall length of the course from the Connaught Water to the Lea is 6 miles (9.5 km).[4]