Home › Rivers › Atherton Lake Brook

Atherton Lake Brook water levels

Live levels from 2 monitoring stations across Greater Manchester, updated every 15 minutes.

2stations
0above typical high

Gauges

Monitoring stations, source to mouth

StationTownLevel nowStatusTrend
Howe BridgeAtherton0.05 m 29m agoNormal—
Lilford Park, LeighLeigh0.16 m 29m agoLow—

Stations are listed from source to mouth as the water flows, traced on the river map (OS Open Rivers) and the Environment Agency’s own links between its gauges. A distance “by river” is along the river, and is shown only where the map traces the path.

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database rights 2026.

Gauged tributaries

Streams and rivers with a gauge whose water joins Atherton Lake Brook above one of its gauges, from the source down. Named streams without a gauge that have a page here are listed at the end.

2 gauged tributaries, 2 gauges

Carr Brook

Joins Atherton Lake Brook between Howe Bridge and Lilford Park, Leigh, no more than 5.0 km by river above Lilford Park, Leigh.

Atherton Woodland Drive0.13 m 29m agoNormal

Its water passes Lilford Park, Leigh and every gauge below it on Atherton Lake Brook. It does not pass Howe Bridge or the gauges above it.

Where Atherton Lake Brook goes

Below Lilford Park, Leigh, its water next reaches Little Woolden Hall, a gauge on Glaze Brook, 9.0 km by river downstream.

Tributaries and where they join are traced on the river map (OS Open Rivers, edition 2026-04) and the Environment Agency’s links between its gauges. The map holds distances between gauges, not the junctions themselves, so a junction is placed between two gauges, and no further up than the tributary’s own lowest gauge. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database rights 2026.

Streams without a gauge

Named streams on the river map that flow into Atherton Lake Brook and have no gauge of their own. Each has a page with what is known about it: the next gauge downstream, and any storm overflows or water-sampling points placed on it.

Storm overflows upstream

7 storm overflows are traced upstream of Lilford Park, Leigh, Atherton Lake Brook’s lowest gauge on the river map: on Atherton Lake Brook itself, on its gauged tributaries, and on smaller streams that join above there.

  • 0 report discharging now
  • 7 not discharging
  • 0 offline or silent: 0 monitor offline, 0 status unknown, 0 no live feed

Official figures for 2025, for the overflows traced upstream of Lilford Park, Leigh: 105 spills over 457 hours in total, across all 7.

Each overflow is listed in the stretch above the first gauge its water reaches, from the source down, as on the Gauges tab. A stretch of Atherton Lake Brook includes the smaller streams that join it there.

Between Howe Bridge and Lilford Park, Leigh7 overflows
  • York Avenue CSO Not discharging
    United Utilities · into Hindsford Brook/Shakerley Broo · 3.2 km by river above Lilford Park, Leigh · 2025: 35 spills, 167 h
  • York Avenue CSO Not discharging
    United Utilities · into Hindsford Brook/Shakerley Broo · 3.2 km by river above Lilford Park, Leigh · 2025: 17 spills, 21 h
  • Ellesmere Street CSO Not discharging
    United Utilities · into Shakerley Brook · 3.0 km by river above Lilford Park, Leigh · 2025: 13 spills, 19 h
  • Primrose Street/Ellesmere Street CSO Not discharging
    United Utilities · into Shakerley Brook · 3.0 km by river above Lilford Park, Leigh · 2025: 0 spills, 0 h
  • Shakerley Road No2 CSO Not discharging
    United Utilities · into Shakerley Brook · 2.9 km by river above Lilford Park, Leigh · 2025: 19 spills, 100 h
  • Factory St/Charles St CSO Not discharging
    United Utilities · into Hindsford Brook · 2.7 km by river above Lilford Park, Leigh · 2025: 0 spills, 0 h
  • Fulwell Avenue CSO Not discharging
    United Utilities · into Hindsford Brook · 2.2 km by river above Lilford Park, Leigh · 2025: 21 spills, 150 h

Near these gauges, connection not known

Within 3 km of one of Atherton Lake Brook’s gauges in a straight line, but the river map cannot say whether their water reaches it.

  • Lovers Lane/Leigh Road CSO (50080) Not discharging
    United Utilities · into Collier Brook · 70 m from Howe Bridge in a straight line · its recorded watercourse is not the one mapped beside it · 2025: 5 spills, 4.5 h
  • Gloucester St CSO Not discharging
    United Utilities · into Collier Brook · 1.2 km from Howe Bridge in a straight line · its recorded watercourse is not the one mapped beside it · 2025: 3 spills, 27 h
  • Westhoughton STW Not discharging
    United Utilities · into Trib Of Hall Lee Brook · 1.9 km from Howe Bridge in a straight line · no mapped watercourse close enough to be sure · 2025: 86 spills, 729 h
  • Westhoughton STW Not discharging
    United Utilities · into Trib Of Hall Lee Brook · 1.9 km from Howe Bridge in a straight line · no mapped watercourse close enough to be sure · 2025: 45 spills, 136 h
  • Warrington Road CSO Not discharging
    United Utilities · into Bowers Brook · 2.6 km from Lilford Park, Leigh in a straight line · its recorded watercourse is not the one mapped beside it · 2025: 1 spill, 20 h
  • Ashgrove/Southfield Dr CSO Not discharging
    United Utilities · into Culverted Trib Cunningham Brk · 2.7 km from Howe Bridge in a straight line · no mapped watercourse close enough to be sure · 2025: 21 spills, 44 h

22 other overflows within 3 km of these gauges are placed below Atherton Lake Brook’s lowest gauge or on another river, so not listed.

A status is the water company’s own monitor: it says whether an overflow is discharging, never how much or why, and a spill does not by itself explain a change in a river level. A status older than two hours is shown as unknown. Annual figures are the official returns: 12/24-hour spills for England and Wales, overflow events for Scotland (Scottish Water counts differently, so the two cannot be compared). “No data” means the monitor produced no usable data that year, not zero. Overflows are placed on OS Open Rivers (edition 2026-04), which leaves out many small channels: an overflow the map cannot place may still drain here. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database rights 2026. Sewage in Britain’s rivers →

Live status: © United Utilities storm overflow activity data, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Annual figures for England: Environment Agency Event Duration Monitoring return, © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right, Open Government Licence v3.0.

Water samples

Dated samples taken by the Environment Agency, not live readings. Results are published days to months after the sample is taken, and many points are sampled only a few times a year, or have not been sampled for years.

2 sampling points on the Atherton Lake Brook and the streams that join it above Lilford Park, Leigh. 0 have a sample from the last 12 months; 0 have any sample banked. Listed from the source down, grouped by the next gauge each one's water reaches.

Above Lilford Park, Leigh Atherton Lake Brook 2 points, 0 with samples
Sampling pointWatercourse (map)Above the gaugeLast sampleLatest results (river water)
Chanters Brook at SchoolChanters Brook2.2 kmLast sampled 5 Apr 2017, before the imported period
Hindsford Brook near SchoolHindsford Brook2.2 kmLast sampled 5 Apr 2017, before the imported period

Distances are along the river to the gauge named. England's samples only.

FloodRadar does not grade these results: there is no overall score, and official river classifications are a separate dataset. A sample taken downstream of an overflow does not by itself show where anything in it came from. River connections and distances are traced on OS Open Rivers (edition 2026-04), which leaves out many small channels.

Water samples: Environment Agency Water Quality Archive, © Environment Agency and/or database right 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0.

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database rights 2026.