Medway catchment
• Golden Green • Kent • ID: SE561 (formerly SE560) • Level
⚙ The Environment Agency registered this site as SE560 until 18 May 2026; its history is included on this page.
(36m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 317 views
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You'll be notified when this gauge is rising more than 0.10 m/hr — a sign of rapidly increasing water levels.
You'll be notified when a storm overflow starts discharging, from the water companies' near-real-time feeds. Which overflows:
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Not an emergency service — if in danger call 999. Alerts rely on
EA/SEPA/NRW data and are best-efforts. Terms
Experimental model fusing soil moisture, river flow, groundwater and catchment
character. The shaded band is its 10–90% range, widened so that about 80% of recent outcomes fall inside it.
Under evaluation — not yet promoted, so treat as a second opinion.
Storm overflows whose water reaches this gauge on the mapped river network, nearest first by distance along the river. The status is each water company's monitor: it says whether an overflow is discharging, not how much or what it contains.
38 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 2.8 km away along the river. 1 reports discharging now, 36 report not discharging, and for 1 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.
Southern Water · into A Trib Of The River Medway · 5.9 km away in a straight line · its watercourse is not on the river map
0 spills · 0 hours in 2025
No live feed for this overflow
4 other overflows within 6 km are downstream of this gauge or on another branch of the river network, so they are not listed.
These are the water companies' monitor statuses; a spill does not by itself explain a change in the gauge level. River connections and distances are traced on OS Open Rivers (edition 2026-04), which leaves out many small channels. Sewage & storm overflows →
In a typical year this gauge reaches its typical high of 1.25 m
on about 10 days.
This year so far: 8 days.
20268 days, 2 of them high · 2 highso far
20258 days, 2 of them high · 2 high
202412 days, 6 of them high · 6 high
202311 days, 3 of them high · 3 high
20228 days, 3 of them high · 3 highpatchy data
Counted from each day's highest reading. Days with missing or implausible readings are left out, so a year marked patchy may have run high more often than shown.
The darker part is days above 1.52 m, the level this gauge tops only a few days a year.
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2012 for the 15 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 0.2 km away).
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 Golden Green flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 15 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Medway at Hartlake Bridge flooding today?
The current level is 0.75m, which is within the typical range of 0.59 to 1.25m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Hartlake Bridge?
Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently rising. The chart above shows the last 12 hours of measurements by default (up to 7 days), updated roughly every 15 minutes.
Why is the level slowly falling?
When little or no rain has fallen for a while, a river level gradually drops as the water stored in the ground and soil drains away with nothing to replace it. This is called baseflow recession and is normal in dry spells. Only about 0.0mm of rain has fallen nearby in the last 7 days, so the flow is being sustained mainly by groundwater. A gentle decline like this is expected and is not a sign of a problem — downstream gauges often recede a little faster than headwaters further upstream, and levels recover once rain returns.
What is a normal level for the River Medway at Hartlake Bridge?
The typical range at this station is 0.59m to 1.25m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.25m are higher than usually seen and may indicate a flood risk.
How often is this river level data updated?
Readings are supplied by the Environment Agency gauge. FloodRadar checks for updates roughly every 15 minutes; the timestamp above shows how recent the latest available reading is.
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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:
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