RIVER COLNE
The river Colne rises at Steeple Bumpstead & flows south east through Halstead & the Colne Valley to Colchester, where it becomes tidal before joining the Blackwater Estuary and ultimately the North Sea.
The headwaters of the catchment are predominantly rural in nature, giving way to a more urban environment downstream at Colchester. There are a number of abstractions along the river for irrigation and water is abstracted and pumped to Abberton Reservoir for public drinking water supply.
To view the Environment Agency's Catchment Data Explorer page on this river click here.
The Essex Rivers Hub has completed improvement projects on the river, which you can read about here.
Water Net Gain is an OFWAT Innovation Fund project lead by the Southwest Rivers Trust, scoping opportunities to deliver improved water resource resilience through small scale on-farm water storage and use in ponds. ESRT contributed to this project in collaboration with Anglian Water by conducting in-person on farm surveys throughout the River Colne operational catchment in Essex. Data collection was completed in January 2026, and findings will now be aggregated and analysed to inform future policy at both local and national scale.
In the Colne catchment farmers expressed an interest in funding opportunities to construct ponds in which to store winter high flows for later release in support of Environmental Destinations during the summer months.
Read more about the study here
