Hertfordshire Chalk Rivers Restoration (2024–26)

Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust completed a two-year programme of river and wetland works across the Ash, Lea, Quin and Stort. Contractors and volunteers regraded banks, reconnected meanders, replenished riverbed gravels and installed woody habitat. Weir removal and changes to fords improved fish passage.[1][2]

Current position

The trust published its completion report on 24 February 2026. Named works include the Ash at Easneye Estate, the Lea at Stanborough Park, the Quin at Braughing and the Stort near Roydon.

Project details

11.59 kilometres of chalk-river habitat restored or protected.
40.58 hectares of floodplain enhanced or reconnected, alongside three hectares of new wetlands.
Four representative site pins share this project page. The figures describe the programme as a whole.

Mapped sites

River Ash — Easneye Estate
Representative point on the estate’s river; not the full restored reach. [3]

River Lea — Stanborough Park
Representative river location within the documented Stanborough works corridor. [4]

River Quin — Pentlows Meadow, Braughing
Representative river and floodplain site; the precise 300-metre work boundary is not mapped. [5]

River Stort — Stansted Bury / Roydon
Representative river location near Roydon; not an as-built survey of the 800-metre intervention. [6]

Timeline

2024
Species Survival Fund supports river works.

2025
Restoration delivered at the four named rivers.

February 2026
Trust confirms the programme has concluded.

Sources