Broxbourne Old Mill and Meadows

Mill Lane, Broxbourne, Hertfordshire EN10 7AX

Never sleeps, open 24/7

Situated at the top of River Lee Country Park, the site combines history, conservation and leisure, all within easy reach by road and rail.

info@leevalleypark.org.uk

03000 030 610

Facilities

Things to do

If you fancy exploring the country park by bike, you can hire cycles (Wednesday to Sunday) from Lee Valley Canoe Cycle (pilots.focal.slice), along with canoes and kayaks. Or if you can take a trip up the river, with pedaloes, rowing boats and electric boats available for hire from the nearby Lee Valley Boat Centre (delay.novel.ships). With riverside chalets also available you can stay for longer and take your time to explore the area.

Café

All year round the Old Mill Retreat Café offering drinks, snacks and hot and cold food. Toilets are also available on site.

Things near by

Broxbourne Old Mill and Meadow

Nature reserve near Broxbourne station where you can hire a boat, bike or even pitch up at our almost wild campsite.

Lee Valley Boat Centre

Set on the banks of the River Lee, you can explore the waterways by boat with all the family

Rye House Gatehouse

One of the first brick built houses in England, packed full of history and mystery

Board walk closure

The board walk at Broxbourne Old Mill and Meadows is closed due to damage and flooding in the area. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.

The Mill was first mentioned in the Doomsday Book, 1086. The Knights of St John of Jerusalem were the first recorded owners of the mill. Under the reformation of Henry VIII in 1544, ownership was taken away from the monasteries and granted to a local miller, John Cook. The mill’s function and ownership changed repeatedly over the years. The role of the mill up until 1892 was to grind corn into flour. Then in 1919 the restoration of the water turbine allowed the owner to produce auxiliary power. By the 1940’s the mill was used as factory storage space but on 1st October 1949 the mill was destroyed by a fire. Now all that remains of the mill is the 16th century brickwork floor, and window frames of a 19th century two-storey miller's house that was restored in 1977 by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority.

Broxbourne Old Mill and Meadow

This site is a mosaic of meadows intersected with a network of ditches and small wooded patches.

Walk through the meadows in spring/summer and look out for the delicate flowers of Ragged Robin. The prehistoric looking Giant Horsetail forms impressive dense stands. Kingfisher and Grey Wagtail are often seen, along with Banded Demoiselle damselflies, especially around the Old Mill wheel house and mill pool.

A small section of woodland also provides habitat all year round for various garden bird species and good cover for a number of mammals such as Foxes and Muntjac Deer.

For further wildlife interest, why not head down the towpath to Silvermeade where you might be lucky enough to catch site of the shy Water Vole along one of the ditches. The wet meadows are preserved for conservation interest and Water Voles can be found in and around the ditches, whilst dragonflies and damselflies hover over the meadows and reed beds during the summer months.

Silvermead

Silvermeade is a stronghold for the highly endangered Water Vole and is one of the best places in the region for viewing this charismatic mammal. It’s also an excellent site for dragonflies. Its wet meadows are intersected by a network of richly vegetated ditches, pools and reedbeds.

Spring

Water Vole and their field signs can be seen throughout the year but spring is a particularly good time to look for them as they’re actively reasserting their territories. Look out for piles of neatly cut grass stems, their droppings or the tracks they create as they move along the bank.

You can’t miss the delicate pink-white of Cuckooflower, so called as it flowers around the same time as the first Cuckoo is heard. The striking pink flowers of Ragged Robin can also be seen amongst the grasses and sedge. Both plants thrive in the damp meadows found here.

Summer

The ditches are home to dragonflies of which the Hairy Dragonfly is one of the earliest to emerge. Look along the ditches to see them hunting for food from May onwards. The Banded Demoiselle is an impressive damselfly; the male has conspicuous dark banding on its wings. The long grass adjacent to the water is a good place to see Grass Snake which are competent swimmers and regularly take to the water to hunt for prey.

Reed Bunting, Sedge and Reed Warbler all nest on site. Look out for the darting flight of the Large Skipper butterfly on the wing from early June.

Rushey Mead

The scrub and woodland of Rusheymead is excellent for flocks of small birds. Bullfinch can be seen all year and in summer it’s a good spot for warblers. Sparrowhawk can often be glimpsed hunting amongst the trees.

The patches of grassland offer good feeding areas for the striking Green Woodpecker, which feed on ants and can be found throughout the year.