River Lee, Lea, (or Ley) ?

A very old controversy

By Terry Askew

The River at Hertford Lock
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
The River at Hartham
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
The River at Hertford Castle
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
The River at Ware
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
Showing a sailing barge on the River with the site of Bircheley Green on the right
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies

Often when I fished the River as a child in the 1950’s I used to ponder on the question of why its name was spelt in at least two different ways. However, my ponderings were only of very short duration as I filled my keepnet with dace, bream, roach and tench at Dobbs Weir on a fine sunny day, or shivered on a frosty day on the bank of a backwater near Cheshunt waiting for a pike to take my lure. I never found the answer, despite asking many fellow anglers who were pretty evenly split between favouring the two, more common, spellings.Even maps appeared divided in their spellings – some offering both versions.

Perhaps the answer lies back in the 15th century, in the two ‘River Improvement Acts’ of 1424 and 1430, when the spelling of “Ley” was used. There was, however, a later Act, in 1571, which was to improve the river greatly as a major transport link with London when the waterway was denoted as the “Ryver of Lee” or the “Ryver of Lee otherwise called Ware Ryver”. It is interesting to note that Ware, at the time, was considered an important inland port.

Research into the history of the River has revealed that, in Elizabethan documents of the period, all three spellings – Lee, Lea and Ley – were used, Lee being the most frequent. Later in 1739, when a body of trustees was appointed  for the canalised navigation of the River that was introduced in 1767, it was determined that the spelling – Lee – must be adopted because that was the official spelling in the enabling acts of parliament, and subsequently in official documents.  

Accordingly, at the end of the day, it seems that the answer to the conundrum is – River Lee, or Lea, and the Lee Navigation.

With acknowledgements to ‘London’s Lea Valley’ by Jim Lewis

This page was added on 19/05/2011.

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  • Interesting stuff to read. Thanks.

    By LI (05/04/2019)
  • WE HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM HERE IN NORTHANTS OUR LOCAL RIVER IS THE NEN BUT SOME IGNORANT PEOPLE INSIST ON CALLING IT NEENE USUALY WHEN YOU GET TOWARDS PETERBOROUGH.

    By KENNETH ROBSON (15/09/2014)
  • As a young man in the ’60s and early ’70s I taught at Leagrave Junior School. We were under the impression that the village was called Leagrave because that was where the river started, rather than the other way round. I don’t, however, know for sure that this is correct. When I first knew the place there were cows grazing peacefully in a field alongside the main road. They might have been less peaceful had they been able to read the sign ‘Abbatoir’ on the opposite side of the road! Although there are still one or two villagey buildings left Leagrave is now a totally surrounded suburb of Luton.

    By Robert Oakhill (23/02/2014)
  • the River Lea is called the River Lea because it rises at a place called LEAGRAVE near Luton Bedfordshire.

    By k robson (18/02/2014)
  • Hi folks i also fished the river lea , i fished at Rye house ware and hertford , i also fished the rib which was a beutifull small feeder river to the lea full of smashing fish ie roach dace chub grayling perch and some decent pike, and upstream of the little road bridge below Bengeo there were brown brook and some stocked rainbow trout, i was always told the river lea got its name because its source was at Leagrave luton beds.

    By kc robson (25/11/2012)