The River Eden is a tributary of the River Medway in south east England. It rises at the foot of the North Downs escarpment near Titsey in Surrey and runs initially southwards through Oxted before turning eastwards to enter Kent. After flowing through Edenbridge and passing Hever Castle, the Eden meets the Medway at Penshurst.Issues at
The name 'Eden' is a back-formation from Edenbridge, (Eadhelmsbrigge (Eadhelm's Bridge) in Old English).
Course The Eden rises at the foot of the North Downs in Titsey parish, Surrey (grid reference TQ 420 551), about 350 metres north of Clacket Lane motorway services. It initially runs southwestwards through Oxted, before turning south. From its source to its confluence with the Gibbs Brook (which it meets to the north of Crowhurst), the Eden is also known as the Broadmead Water.
Downstream of Haxted Mill, the river meets its principal tributary, the Eden Brook, and turns eastwards to enter Kent above Edenbridge. The river continues to flow eastwards, feeding the ornamental lake at Hever Castle, before turning southeastwards to meet the Medway at Penshurst.
Much of the catchment area of the Eden lies on Weald Clay.
Water quality According to the Environmental Change Network, water quality in the Eden is mainly classified as General Quality Assessment (GQA) Class C, although the headwaters near Oxted are Class D. The river receives treated sewage effluent from two Southern Water sewage treatment works (STW), serving Edenbridge and Oxted respectively; the stretches receiving these effluents are both subject to EC Urban Water Treatment "Sensitive Waters" investigations. There are other, much smaller, private sewage treatment works throughout the catchment. The river and its tributaries support coarse fisheries. Average flows at Penshurst range from 3.909 m3/s in January to 0.485 m3/s in July. Water to fill Bough Beech Reservoir, owned by SES Water, is pumped from a point just upstream of Penshurst.
Water quality of the River Eden in 2019: Section EcologicalStatus ChemicalStatus OverallStatus Length Catchment Channel Heavily modified Heavily modified
Watermills
The River Eden powered a number of watermills. From source to the Medway they were:
Titsey Mill
This was an old manorial mill. A Roman Villa at Titsey was converted into a fulling mill.British History
Limpsfield Mill TQ 404 534
The 1868 ordnance survey map identifies the site of this pre-conquest mill from the position of its sluice. This has been renewed and the pond is occasionally in water.
Tidy Green Mill, Limpsfield
This was a Domesday site, the mill at Limenensfeld then being valued at 2s. This mill may take its name from the Tydye/Tidy family. This mill was demolished in 1892.Curious Fox
Upper Mill, Oxted TQ 386 523
This mill was demolished in the late 18th century; by 1817 the site of the millpond was used for cottages.
Middle Mill, Oxted TQ 390 513
The surviving corn mill building, now just "Oxted Mill", has been converted into offices. It dates from 1892-5, although on a site in use from much earlier. Originally two buildings, the older one housed an overshot wheel of diameter, breadth . The newer mill, opened on 12 June 1893, was a roller mill driven by a turbine producing at 63 revolutions per minute. The building was used as a factory for making woodworking tools in the 1950s.UK Online Traditional Tools Group
Coltsford (Cottsford) Mill, Oxted
TQ 397 506
A Domesday site. This mill retains its machinery, which dates from c.1860 and is all cast iron. The mill is used as a corporate event centre, and there is a trout fishery nearby. The cast iron waterwheel still turns.Coltsford Mill
Mill site
This mill stood just downstream of Coltsford mill, it may have been known as "Crowherstmelle".
Haxted Mill, Edenbridge
TQ 418 455
Haxted Watermill stands in Surrey close to the borders with Kent. It is a Domesday site and the mill was mentioned in the will of Sir Reginald de Cobham in 1361. The western half of the building dates to c.1580 and the eastern half dates to 1794. The mill was last used to grind flour in 1919 but worked until 1945. It was turned into a museum in 1969 but is now a brasserie and bar.Haxted Mill Edenbridge Town
The current overshot waterwheel has a diameter of and a width of . It was installed in about 1830, but by 1972 the 72 iron buckets had failed and were replaced by fibreglass replicas. The bearing-stone for an earlier, undershot waterwheel was found during renovation and this dates to the 14th century. In full working order the current wheel produced about , rotating at 8 r.p.m. and driving three pairs of millstones, through gearing, at 120 r.p.m. The pit wheel and wallower are of the same date as the waterwheel, but the great spur wheel, made of oak with applewood teeth, has been dated to 1580. The mill originally operated three pairs of millstones, but in the later years of its working life one pair was removed.
Town (Honour's) Mill, Edenbridge
In 1291 a water powered pump was at work here, draining the marshland between Lingfield and Edenbridge. The present corn mill building dates to the early 19th century, but incorporates parts of an older structure. The cast iron low breastshot waterwheel drove three pairs of stones. The mill last ground by water sometime before the First World War, and was working by electricity into the 1970s. The waterwheel was used to work ancillary machinery until 1968, when the cast iron pit wheel was broken in the floods of that year.Edenbridge Town
Hever Castle Mill
There was a corn mill at Hever Castle.Mills Archive
Chiddingstone (Cranstead) Mill
TQ 496 461
Possibly a Domesday site. In the 18th century, the millers were the Keeys family, Richard c.1740, followed by his son Richard. In 1840, the mill was owned by Henry Streatfield and in the occupation of James Young. The wife of his son James Jr died in 1853, James Jr was describes as being "of Chiddingstone mill". The mill was last worked in the 1930s.
This mill was a derelict shell for many years, but the building has now been house converted. No machinery survives. A picture of the mill before conversion can be seen here and more pictures can be seen here.Chiddingstone Chiddingstone Kent ArchaeologySussex Mills Group
Vexour Park mill
TQ 511 454 approx
A weir in Vexour Park marks the site of a long vanished watermill.
Tributaries
The main tributaries of the Eden are the Gibbs Brook, Eden Vale Stream, and the Eden Brook, which has the Felbridge Water as a tributary. The Kent Brook, which forms the boundary between Surrey and Kent for part of its length, joins near Edenbridge.
Watermills on the tributaries
Various tributaries also powered watermills:
Gibbs Brook
The Gibbs Brook, formerly known as the Gippes River powered four watermills.British History
Mill site
Ivy Mill, Godstone.
This mill belonged to the manor of Chevington in Bletchley. In 1698 the owner was George Whatman, the mill being partly rebuilt in that year. A photograph of Ivy Mill in 1898 can be seen here. It was burnt down in the 1920s.
Leigh Mill, Godstone
This Domesday mill was valueless in 1349, as all the soke tenants had perished in the plague. It had previously been worth 20s or 30s per year. In the Elizabethan times the mill was used as a gunpowder mill, in the ownership of George Evelyn, grandfather of diarist John Evelyn. On 28 January 1589 Evelyn was granted a wide-ranging royal licence to explore for saltpetre, a principal ingredient, and his mills at Godstone were the most important in the country. The mill has been house converted, only the axle and pit wheel remaining of the machinery.British HistoryUK Online
Mill site
Eden Brook
The Eden Brook powered three watermills.
Hedgecourt Mill, Felbridge
TQ 359 404
This was an old hammer mill site. The mill was first mentioned in 1562 when John Thorpe was listed as repairing buildings, the mill and banks to the value of £64. He was leasing the manor of Hedgecourt from the Gage family of Firle at the time. In 1567 John Thorpe took out a 21 year lease on the mill, the mills being described as "newly erected" and having an overshot waterwheel. In 1594, the mill was in the tenancy of Thomas Thorpe, son of John Thorpe. In 1652, the mill was in the tenancy of Robert Filkes of Godstone. In 1663, John Finch took out an eleven-year lease on Hedgecourt Mill. A toll chest is mentioned in the lease, indicating that the mill was a corn mill, at least in part. He was still there in 1669, paying a half-yearly rent of £14 and tax of 2/-. By March 1670 Joseph Marchant had joined him, but he died in 1674. His widow Sarah took out a lease on the mill in October of that year. The mill passed to her son John in 1688. In 1701, Joseph Marchant (son of John) was at the mill. He built or extended a house in 1701, possibly an extension to the mill. In 1723, Joseph Marchant renewed his lease on the mill and in 1739 James Marchant (son of Joseph) took a sixty-year lease with William Clayton of Marden on of Hedgecourt Heath in Horne, on which to erect a windmill. The mill was an open trestle post mill. Joseph Marchant seems to have retired by 1742. An unexecuted lease of 1743 mentions that the miller has permission to take timber for the purpose of making charcoal (used in the smelting of iron). The site remained in the ownership of the Gage family until 1745, when Colonel Edward Evelyn bought it. It was a furnace mill at that time.
Edward Evelyn commissioned a map of his new estate. This was drawn by J Bourd of Tunbridge Wells, Kent in 1748. James Marchant was still at the mill in 1773, when he bequeathed all his possessions to his brother Benjamin Marchant, a cooper and innkeeper of Cheam, Surrey. James Marchant seems to have retired in the 1780s. The next known millers were Messrs Stenning, Lock and Stone are recorded as paying rent for the Mill at Hedgecourt. This can only be the watermill as the windmill had gone by 1789. Thomas Stone was the miller in 1814, followed by his son John, who was joined by Laurence Hardy by 1822. John Saunders was the miller in 1840, having previously been at Wiremill. Saunders was still at the mill in 1855 when it was sold by Lady Selina Charlotte, Viscountess Milton to George Gatty. At that time the mill had an diameter overshot waterwheel driving two pairs of millstones. John Tully Coomber had joined Saunders by 1858, working the mill until at least 1861. George Gatty died in 1864 and the mill passed to his son Charles Henry Gatty. Robert Bartley was the miller in 1869, working the mill until at least 1871 and then Sydney Killick was the miller in 1881, followed by Thomas Colvin who was there in 1891. Charles Gatty died in 1903, and the mill passed to two of his cousins, Charles Lane Sayer and Alfred Leighton Sayer. The mill was probably still operable at this time. In 1910 the mill was sold to Percy Portway Harvey, and in 1916 the mill was in the ownership of Henry Willis Rudd, later passing to a Belgian by the name of Mr Honore Dubar.
The mill was visited by Robert Thurston Hopkins in 1926, the machinery still being intact at this time. The mill was also visited by Jack Hillier in 1948, while researching his book on Surrey watermills. By this time the mill was a ruin, still containing its machinery. The upper floors of the mill were demolished in 1949 with the lower part of the mill being used as a boat store. in 1962, the Dubars sold the mill to John Edwards. The mill house was condemned in 1964 and stood empty until 1969. The building being then converted and extended to form two residences.
Machinery Overshot waterwheel, cast iron spokes, wooden soleboard and buckets, diameter by wide on an oak axle, driving a diameter cast iron pit wheel with oak cogs. This drove a cast iron wallower on a wooden hexagonal upright shaft, driving a wooden Great Spur Wheel in diameter, driving two pairs of millstones.
Felcourt (Woodcock Hammer, Weir, Wire) Mill. Felbridge