page_title: Longford River
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Longford River / History
caption_attribution_description: English: River Mole joins the Thames
context_page_description: The Longford River is an artificial waterway, a distributary designed to embellish a park, that diverts water 12 miles from the River Colne at Longford near Colnbrook in England, to Bushy Park and Hampton Court Palace. Its main outlet is to the reach above Molesey Lock with lesser pond outlet channels to that above Teddington Lock. The waterway was built for King Charles I in 1638/39 as a water supply for Hampton Court. Water features in Bushy Park were added in 1710. North of the A30, its course has been diverted more than once as London Heathrow Airport has grown. Its cascades, grassed banks and fountains in Bushy Park were restored and reopened to the public in 2009 to close to their original state.
context_section_description: Constructed in 1638–39 at the instigation of Charles I, the purpose of the Longford River was to bring water from the River Colne to augment the water supply to the Royal Parks at Bushy Park and Hampton Court. It was designed by Nicholas Lane, and took around nine months to build, at a cost of £4,000. It was not universally popular, as it was illegally stopped up in 1648 or -49, and petitions were presented to the authorities in 1653, arguing that it should not be reopened, alleging it caused flooding which damaged crops and livestock.
  At Longford, Bath Road crosses the Duke of Northumberland's River, the Longford River and the Colne. Once London's main route to much of the south-southwest, but has since been bypassed by the A4 road, which crosses the Colne above its outlet to the Longford River. Longford Bridge carries Bath Road over the Duke's river. Moor Bridge carries it over the Colne. The first bridge there for crossing the Longford River was from time of construction. It was demolished in 1648, and is known to have been reinstated by 1675. It was known as Stone Bridge in the nineteenth century, and the responsibility for keeping it in good order belonged to the Crown. A name change had taken hold by 1960 to (the) King's Bridge.
  Before the 20th century, the watercourse was known variously as the New River, the King's River, the Queen's River, the Cardinal's River, the Hampton Court Cut, and the Hampton Court Canal.
  Before Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 was built, the Longford River and the Duke of Northumberland's River passed under the runways in culverts. As part of that project they were re-routed in open channels around the west edge of the airport. A new 3.7-mile (6.0 km) channel was constructed for each river, over 75 per cent of which were made from pre-cast panels manufactured off-site. Despite this construction method, biodiversity was encouraged by the use of hazel hurdles and coir rolls, pre-planted with native species, to provide habitat for small mammals. Habitat for fish was provided by creating meandering flow patterns using gravel and recycled trees, and the channels were populated with some 84,000 river plants. Water voles, plants, fish, freshwater mussels and silts from the original river bed were moved to the new channel to assist its regeneration, and landscaping involved planting 450 semi-mature trees, 2,000 shrubs and 100,000 groundcover shrubs. The scheme took 18 months to complete, and is now managed by the Twin Rivers Management Committee, with representatives from Heathrow Airport, the Environment Agency and the Royal Parks Agency. It was awarded a Civil Engineering Environmental Quality (CEEQUAL) Award, in recognition of the fact that it was completed on time, to budget, and maintained very high environmental standards throughout its construction.
caption: One outlet of the Longford River is visible on the bank of The Thames at the Water Gallery at Hampton Court, just above the junction with the River Mole.  Viewed from the Mole across the Thames to Hampton Court
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