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0.24

Beach's Mill

Can
Essex catchment • Chelmsford • Essex • ID: E22889 • Level
(32m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 127 views

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Current Level
0.240 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.248 m
24h Min
0.237 m
Typical Range
0.14 - 1.57
m
Highest Recorded
2.82 m
30 Oct 2000
Since Oct 1979
Current level is 9% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Falling · -0.4 cm over 6h
24 Aug 00:00 ▬ steady 0.240 m
23 Aug 23:45 ▬ steady 0.240 m
23 Aug 23:30 ▬ steady 0.240 m
23 Aug 23:15 ▬ steady 0.240 m
23 Aug 23:00 ▬ steady 0.240 m
23 Aug 22:45 ▬ steady 0.240 m
23 Aug 21:30 ▬ steady 0.240 m
23 Aug 21:15 ▬ steady 0.240 m
23 Aug 21:00 ▬ steady 0.240 m
23 Aug 20:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.240 m
23 Aug 20:30 ▬ steady 0.241 m
23 Aug 20:15 ▬ steady 0.241 m
23 Aug 20:00 ▬ steady 0.241 m
23 Aug 19:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.241 m
23 Aug 19:30 ▬ steady 0.242 m
23 Aug 19:15 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.242 m
23 Aug 19:00 ▬ steady 0.243 m
23 Aug 18:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.243 m
23 Aug 18:30 ▬ steady 0.244 m
23 Aug 18:15 0.244 m

Rainfall & Weather

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Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2007 for the 7 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 1.2 km away).

61flood warnings 167flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 17 Nov 2022The River Wid from Ingatestone, to and including, Writtle

Year by year
YearWarningsAlerts
2026 0 8
2025 0 4
2024 0 22
2023 0 14
2022 1 6
2021 4 15
2020 0 16
2019 3 4
2018 2 5
2017 0 5
2016 3 6
2015 1 4
2014 13 12
2013 3 6
2012 20 12
2011 1 3
2010 2 11
2009 6 6
2008 2 7
2007 0 1

Warnings apply to a whole flood area, not necessarily this exact spot. Years before 2006 aren't covered by the EA's historic record. See also the Chelmsford flood history.

Nearby Stations

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Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Beach's Mill
  • Watercourse: River Can
  • Nearest Town: Chelmsford
  • County: Essex
  • Nearest reservoir: Hanningfield (9.8 km) · 54.9% full (as of 28 Dec 2025)
  • Coordinates: 51°44'16"N 0°26'47"E (51.737776, 0.446263)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 16 Jan 2001
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: E22889
  • EA Gauge ID: E22889-level-stage-i-15_min-m
  • Parameter: Level
  • Unit: m
  • Typical rise rate: 1 cm/hr (p95 sustained over 90 days)
  • Typical data delay: ~22 min (measured reading→publication lag)
  • Tidal: No
  • Lock / structure: No
  • Catchment Area: Essex
  • Typical Range: 0.140 – 1.570 m
  • Drainage Area: 228 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.24 m (EA at 23 Aug 23:45)
  • Flow Archive: National River Flow Archive ↗

Geographic coordinates may reflect the access point for the gauge, and not the precise location in the watercourse that it is taking readings from.

Catchment Character

🌊 Flashy Rain runs off fast — levels rise and fall sharply, often within hours of heavy rain.

Your catchment is all the land that drains rainfall into the river above this gauge. Its character — how steep, wet, wooded, urban or chalky that land is — decides how fast rain here turns into a rising river. A steep, bare or clay catchment is “flashy” (rises and falls quickly, floods easily); a flat, chalk or well-wooded one is slow and steady. The tiles below put numbers to that; the flow-duration curve reads left-to-right from the river’s typical high flows (Q5) down to its low flows (Q95) — a steep curve means a flashy river.

The physical character of the land that drains to this gauge, and how it shapes its flood response — from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).

Baseflow Index
0.32
flashy — rain runs off fast
Avg Annual Rainfall
607 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +0% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
5.1%
partly urbanised
Median Annual Flood
23.45 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
47.20 m³/s
30 Oct 2000
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 1.305.180.5290.1925% (high)% of days exceeded95% (low)
Daily flow (m³/s) exceeded each % of the time — a steep curve is flashy, a flat one is steady. Q5 high · Q50 median · Q95 low.
Land Cover (2023)
Woodland 6%Grassland 28%Arable 53%Urban 11%
Arable 64% → 53% since 1990

Flow affected by: effluent returns, industrial / agricultural abstraction.

Photos

Gauging-station photographs from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).

Photos © NRFA / UKCEH & the measuring authority — shown at web resolution. Full gallery on the NRFA ↗

About this gauge

Compound flume within a mill race gauging a predominantly rural catchment with London Clay covered by Boulder Clay, and with significant artificial influences.

More detail

The catchment

London Clay overlain with Boulder Clay in N. Rural, predominantly arable land with some grassland and some built-up areas in the S of the catchment.

The station

Triple throated compound flume (built within mill race). Trapezoidal centre section for low flows.

How it measures flow

Limit of station is 35 cumecs. Spillway flow starts at around 2m - very significant part of flow, allowance for this not made in record. Two peak flow rating applied across period of record.

Flow regime

Industrial and sewage effluent discharges, adjustments needed for effluent discharges.

The flow record

Naturalised flows from 1962 to 1976. Period-of-record maximum flow in Oct 2000 may have been higher due to spillway flows. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in August 2024 (WINFAP Files v13).

Descriptions from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH). NRFA station record ↗

Gauge Details

How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).

Gauge type
Flume
Operating since
1962
Station datum
23.3 mAOD
Flow record
1962–2024 · 62 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1960
Hydrometric area
37
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Can at Beach's Mill flooding today?

The current level is 0.24m, which is within the typical range of 0.14 to 1.57m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Beach's Mill?

Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently steady. The chart above shows the last 7 days of measurements, updated roughly every 15 minutes.

What is a normal level for the River Can at Beach's Mill?

The typical range at this station is 0.14m to 1.57m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.57m are higher than usually seen and may indicate a flood risk.

How often is this river level data updated?

Readings are taken by the Environment Agency gauge roughly every 15 minutes and FloodRadar refreshes its data continuously, so the level shown is normally less than an hour old.

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📮 Flood risk by postcode near this gauge

Postcodes within 5 km with properties in the Environment Agency’s rivers-and-sea flood-risk bands:

Check any UK postcode’s flood risk →

🏠 Buying or renting around here? Get the Property Flood-Risk Report for any English postcode — official risk band, floods since 1946, warning history, river behaviour and nearby storm overflows. £19 one-off. Learn more →