River Eden

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 from the source in Titsey parish, Surrey, grid reference TQ 420 551, about 350 metres north of Clacket Lane motorway services, and flowing eastward through the Wealden clay to join the River Medway near Penshurst, Kent, grid reference TQ 537 434. The section from its source to where the Gibbs Brook joins it is also known as the Broadmead Water. 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" .

According to the Environmental Change Network, water quality in the Eden is mainly classified as General Quality Assessment Class C, although the headwaters near Oxted are Class D. The river receives treated sewage effluent from two Southern Water sewage treatment works , serving Edenbridge and Oxted respectively; 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 m³/s in January to 0.485 m³/s in July. Water to fill Bough Beech Reservoir is pumped from a point just upstream of Penshurst.

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