- Ebbsfleet River
Ebbsfleet River was a
river in south-eastEngland . It gives its name to theEbbsfleet Valley redevelopment area. Its source was eight natural springs atSpringhead . In Roman times the river was used to linkWatling Street to theRiver Thames , in the fourteenth century it was a stopping place forpilgrims going toCanterbury . A bridge across the river atNorthfleet 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 ofwatercress , this was started by MrWilliam Bradbery in 1808. He later moved the business to West Hyde,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 byMarie Stopes .External links
* [http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/action/showPdf?submitPDF=Full+Text+PDF+%284%2C423+KB%29&doi=10.1111%2Fj.1469-8137.1903.tb04974.x&cookieSet=1 'The Colonisation of a Dried River Bed'] - PDF file of
Marie Stopes 1903 article
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