You are at the fourth stop on the audio tour of the Bow Back Rivers. Play the audio file below to hear the first track for this location.
This track gives a quick overview of the location, and where to go from here.
You are at the fourth stop on the audio tour of the Bow Back Rivers. Play the audio file below to hear the first track for this location.
This track gives a quick overview of the location, and where to go from here.
This waypoint is located in the middle of the old iron footbridge by Carpenters Road Lock.
Meet the Old River Lea, the third of the Bow Back Rivers you will see on this route…it is the waterway stretching off to your left as you look at Carpenters Road Lock. By a peculiar convention, the river’s name has two spellings. Where the water lies in the original channel, it is spelled L-E-A, but where its direction has been altered it is spelled L-E-E. The section you can see here is L-E-A because it is old.
Talking of old and new, from where you are you can see two of the oldest and the newest bridges in the Park. The sturdy, practical old lock keepers bridge you are standing on dates back to days when canals were just part of the industrial landscape. The Diamond Bridge over Carpenters Road Lock is a masterpiece of precision engineering, with hundreds of individual polished steel panels reflecting the water beneath it – this design won a public competition when the bridge was proposed. You’ll be coming back to see it close up at the end of this trail.
To find the next waypoint, continue across the bridge and follow the footpath under the rather functional access bridge. You will find a metal platform and steps at a place where the river narrows, which is our next stop.
This page is part of Start the audio trail
