← Back
0.05

Sandon Bridge

Sandon Brook
Essex catchment • Sandon • Essex • ID: E22897 • Level
(30m ago) • 2 readings/hr • 139 views

Set water level alerts

Get notified about Sandon Bridge — tick as many as you like, they all share the notify settings below.

Unusual rise FloodRadar+Top 1% rise rate for this gauge.
Drag the line on the chart, or type a value: m
Quick pick:

Each one is saved as its own alert — pause or remove them individually any time.

Not an emergency service — if in danger call 999. Alerts rely on EA/SEPA data and are best-efforts. Terms

Current Level
0.054 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.057 m
24h Min
0.052 m
Typical Range
0.04 - 0.75
m
Highest Recorded
1.66 m
23 Jun 2016
Since Oct 1979
Current level is 3% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Steady over 6h
23 Aug 23:00 ▬ steady 0.054 m
23 Aug 22:45 ▬ steady 0.054 m
23 Aug 21:30 ▬ steady 0.054 m
23 Aug 21:15 ▬ steady 0.054 m
23 Aug 21:00 ▬ steady 0.054 m
23 Aug 20:45 ▬ steady 0.054 m
23 Aug 20:30 ▬ steady 0.054 m
23 Aug 20:15 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.054 m
23 Aug 20:00 ▬ steady 0.053 m
23 Aug 19:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.053 m
23 Aug 19:30 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.054 m
23 Aug 19:15 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.053 m
23 Aug 19:00 ▬ steady 0.054 m
23 Aug 18:45 ▬ steady 0.054 m
23 Aug 18:30 ▬ steady 0.054 m
23 Aug 18:15 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.054 m
23 Aug 18:00 ▲ +0.2 cm 0.055 m
23 Aug 17:45 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.053 m
23 Aug 17:30 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.052 m
23 Aug 17:15 0.053 m

Rainfall & Weather

Loading rainfall and weather data...

Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2007 for the 6 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 1.2 km away).

55flood 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 3 15
2020 0 16
2019 2 4
2018 2 5
2017 0 5
2016 3 6
2015 1 4
2014 11 12
2013 3 6
2012 19 12
2011 1 3
2010 2 11
2009 5 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 Sandon flood history.

Nearby Stations

Loading nearby stations...

Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Sandon Bridge
  • Watercourse: Sandon Brook
  • Nearest Town: Sandon
  • County: Essex
  • Nearest reservoir: Hanningfield (7.4 km) · 54.9% full (as of 28 Dec 2025)
  • Coordinates: 51°43'14"N 0°32'23"E (51.720457, 0.539834)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 1 Oct 1979
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: E22897
  • EA Gauge ID: E22897-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: 0.035 – 0.750 m
  • Drainage Area: 75 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.05 m (EA at 23 Aug 22:45)
  • 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
0.28
flashy — rain runs off fast
Avg Annual Rainfall
596 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +2% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
2.6%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
8.98 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
17.20 m³/s
23 Jun 2016
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 0.3031.230.1040.0355% (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 9%Grassland 34%Arable 44%Urban 8%Other 5%
Arable 54% → 44% since 1990

Flow affected by: surface-water abstraction, reservoir influence, effluent returns.

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

Insensitive 'Essex' profile weir gauging a rural catchment with reservoirs affecting the regime.

More detail

The catchment

Catchment area includes 13.7 sq km draining to Hanningfield Reservoir 10km upstream. London Clay with sand and gravel over high ground in northeast, Boulder Clay in south. Rural, mainly arable land with some grassland.

The station

'Essex' profile (modified Flat V Crump) weir with crest tapping.

How it measures flow

Insensitive. One peak flow rating applied across period of record. Modular limit around 0.6m. All but highest flows contained. The flow is derived through the rating curve and then under non-modular conditions, a macro is applied within WISKI which applies a reduction factor. Therefore, under high flows, the stage and flow won't match through the modular rating. Subject to weed growth and siltation, particularly downstream.

Flow regime

Reservoir(s) in catchment affect runoff. Naturalised flows (1963-1976) account for reservoir compensation water (0.011 cumecs) and storm overflows. Minor additions from industrial effluent.

The flow record

No POT data are presented for this station as they have no non-modular flow correction applied. AMAX data have been corrected. Some float-run gaugings are thought to be unreliable. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in August 2021 (WINFAP Files v10).

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
Gauging structure
Operating since
1963
Station datum
19.8 mAOD
Flow record
1963–2024 · 61 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1964
Hydrometric area
37
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the Sandon Brook at Sandon Bridge flooding today?

The current level is 0.05m, which is within the typical range of 0.04 to 0.75m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Sandon Bridge?

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 Sandon Brook at Sandon Bridge?

The typical range at this station is 0.04m to 0.75m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 0.75m 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.

Embed this gauge on your website

Free live river-level widget — ideal for parish councils, angling clubs and local sites. Updates automatically.

Preview

📮 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 →