River Eden, Kent
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The River Eden in West Kent is a tributary of the River Medway. It travels through the Weald of Kent from the border with Surrey, rising south of Caterham and flowing eastward through the Wealden clay to join the River Medway near Penshurst. Its name is a back formation deriving from Edenbridge, the main town through which it flows, and which was originally called in the Old English language "Eadhelmsbrigge" ("Eadhelm's Bridge" in Modern English).
Its main tributaries are the Gibbs Brook, Eden Vale Stream, Eden Brook, and the Felbridge Water.
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 Services Limited Sewage Treatment Works (STW), serving Edenbridge and Oxted repectively; 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 cumecs in January to 0.485 cumecs in July. Water to fill Bough Beech Reservoir (Sutton and East Surrey Water Company) is pumped from a point just upstream of Penshurst.
