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River Lea

A stream near Madeley, Staffordshire. No gauge of its own: what the river map and the banked data say about it.

The River Lea is a stream on Ordnance Survey’s river map near Madeley, Staffordshire, with about 7.5 km of mapped channel. On the map it flows into Checkley Brook, which flows on into Forge Brook, then Wybunbury Brook, then Howbeck Brook, then Artle Brook, then the River Weaver; beyond that the map has a gap, so where it goes next is not known.

Next gauge downstream

Shrewbridge on the River Weaver, about 17 km along the river below where the River Lea ends on the map.

0.43 m Normal · steady 30 min ago

After that, Ashbrook, about 37 km along the river.

No gauge measures the River Lea itself. A gauge downstream shows water that has already passed it, mixed with everything else that has joined on the way, so it says nothing exact about this stream.

Storm overflows on the River Lea

2 storm overflows are placed on this stream on the river map. Each status is the water company’s own monitor.

Madley WwTW Not discharging
United Utilities · into River Lea · 2025: 16 spills, 210 h
Off Moss Lane Madeley CSO Not discharging
United Utilities · into River Lea · 2025: 43 spills, 193 h

A status says whether an overflow is discharging now, never how much or why. A monitor that is offline or has not reported is not “not discharging”. Sewage in Britain’s rivers →

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

Water-sampling points on the River Lea

3 Environment Agency sampling points are placed on this stream. These are dated samples taken by hand, not live readings, and FloodRadar does not grade them.

River Lea upstream of Madeley Etw
Last sampled 29 May 2026 · 4 months ago · 32 samples banked
River Lea downstream of Madeley Etw
No sample published 1 Oct 2023 – 30 Sep 2026
River Lea at Wrinehill Farm
No sample published 1 Oct 2023 – 30 Sep 2026

A sample is taken on a date; it says nothing about the water today. A sample below an overflow does not by itself show where anything in it came from.

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

Places along it

From its source towards its mouth, the settlements within a kilometre of it on the map: Madeley, Middle Madeley, Little Madeley, Saw Pit Yard.

On the map

The map needs JavaScript. Everything it shows is listed on this page.

The blue line is the River Lea; grey lines are other mapped watercourses. Lines from OS Open Rivers (edition 2026-04).

Checkley Brook, the stream it joins →CW3 9DB, a postcode page near where it ends on the map (about 560 m away) →All rivers with gauges →

What this page can and cannot tell you

Its line, its name and where it flows come from Ordnance Survey’s river map (OS Open Rivers, edition 2026-04), which leaves out many small streams, ditches and culverts. “Flows into” is the map’s word: a channel that is not on the map is not shown here, which does not mean it is not there.
No gauge measures the River Lea itself, so its own level is not known here.
Storm overflows are listed only where the river map places them on this stream; an overflow it could not place is not counted.
Water samples are England’s only (the Environment Agency’s archive), placed where the map can place their sampling point.
Nothing on this page says whether any place floods. For an address, see its postcode page.

This uses Environment Agency flood and river level data from the real-time data API (Beta). Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0.