The River Stort Navigation, England allows narrowboats and river boats to travel from Bishops Stortford to the Lee Navigation.
This Guide has many photos from along the route and information about walking and cycling beside the river.
Many years before the eventually extensive canal systems (Grand Junction Canal and Oxford Canal amongst others) were dug and used for transporting goods etc. around England several rivers in southern England were quite heavily utilised commercially - one of which was the River Stort. The River Stort starts life in Clavering, Essex and is quite a narrow shallow, twisting little river down as far as the centre of Bishops Stortford in Hertfordshire. From there the remaining 22 kilometres have been made navigable so that it provides narrowboat access to the Lee Navigation at Feildes Weir near Hoddesdon. This then means narrowboats and barges have access to the full English Canal systems via the Lee Navigation and then via Regents Canal onto the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal. Access is therefore also available to the River Thames at Limehouse in London's East End also by also using the Lee Navigation route.
The Stort Navigation was opened for commercial use towards the end of 1769 and
during it's commercial life barges carried various products such as rye, wheat,
malt dust, barley, oats, coal, lime and particularly malt from the hugely
important malting industry in Bishops Stortford.
The navigation's towpath is fully open for use by both cyclists and walkers with the towpath being in generally
good condition for the entire trip. Much of the route is through open countryside thus quite peacefull and
extremely scenic especially in Spring and Autumn.
The sequence of Photos below show the Stort Navigation as it travel from Feildes Weir (Lee Navigation Junction) up to the end
of narrowboat navigation at Bishops Stortford. Curiously it's fifteen Locks are numbered sequentially from 15 to 1
whilst the navigation's Bridges are numbered the other way round i.e. 1 to 53.
The locks visually appear to be quite wide and seemingly able to take two
narrowboats side by side at a time but are in fact only 13 feet wide so cannot do so.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Feilde Weir | Lee and Stort Junction |
Footbridge 1 | Lower Lock 15 | Footbridge 2 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Brick Lock 14 | Brick Lock 14 | Brick Lock Gates | Bridge 5 | Roydon Mill Arm |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| sluice | Bridge 6 | Railway bridge 7 | side bridge 7a | Bridge no8 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Roydon Lock - 13 | Stort - Bridge 10 | Hudson Mill Lock | Hudson Mill sidearm |
Sidebridge (wooden) |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Bridge 11 | sidebridge (metal) |
another one | Bridge 14 | Parndon Lock 11 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Parndon Lock and sidebridge |
Parndon Mill | Parndon Mill | Pipe + Bridge 15 | Footbridge 15a |
Particularly of use for cyclists who want to do the whole length of the navigation there is a frequent railway service which runs between Bishops Stortford and Broxborough so it's possible to use the Lea Navigation and then The Stort for a nice one way ride. This is probably too far for walkers but you can park up in Roydon's Council car park (which unlike the rubbish railway station carpark is free as of October 2009 anyway) and then wander down to the railway station and take a train to Bishops Stortford and walk back along The Stort to Roydon (around 13 miles).
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Roadbridge 16 | Bridge 17 | Burnt Mill Lock 10 |
Bridge 17a | Marina Bridge 17b |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Bridge 18 | Bridge 20 | Latton Lock 9 | Sluice | Footbridge 21 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Sidebridge 22 | Bridge 23 | Harlow Lock 8 | Roadbridge 24 | Sidebridge 25 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Bridge 27 | Feakes Lock 7 - gates |
Footbridge 28 | Side Bridges 29+30 |
Footbridge 30 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Nridge 31 | Sheering Mill Bridge 33 |
Sheering Mill Lock |
Old mill buildings | Bridge 35 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Bridge 36 | Sawbridgeworth Lock 5 |
Footbridge 37 | Railway Bridge 37 |
Bridge 41 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Tednambury Lock 4 |
Tednambury Mill | Tednambury Arm Bridge |
Tednambury Sidearm |
Bridge no:43 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Spellbrook Lock 3 | Spellbrook weirs | Turnover Bridge 44 |
Footbridge 47 | Bridge 48 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Twyford Lock 2 | Twyford Lock | Bridge 48b | South Mill Lock area |
South Mill Lock 1 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| South Mill Lock 1 |
Bridge 49 | Weirs - Southmill Lock area |
Railway-bridge 49 |
Bridge 50 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Odd looking footbridge |
Riverside buildings |
Pipebridge | Station Road bridge 52 |
Causeway Bridge 53 |
From Causeway Bridge in the centre of Bishops Stortford the River Stort
Navigation returns to being The River Stort -
a nice tree-lined narrow river with parkland and play areas either side and
from where
the river starts heading off back to it's source in Essex. On one side there are the
remains of Bishops Stortford Castle - however the castle is little more than a
large mound and you cannot take a look at it without first
getting the key to the locked entrance gate at the top of the steps.
Please see our Home Page for many other items about England including 100s of English Church Photos, wildflowers, toadstools and quite a few walks to try some of which involve using canal towpaths. Also take a look towards the bottom of our Home Page where there are links to our other travel sites about The Canary Islands, Cyprus, Portugal's Algarve, The Greek Islands and Athens, Egypt, India, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangkok, Bali and several other Indonesian Holiday Islands. Visit our Resources topic if you wish to Email Us and/or to see our site privacy policy.