Early history
The River Lea has been used for transport for over 2,000 years. The first documented evidence tells us that in 894 the Danes rowed up the Thames and the Lea and built a fortress 20 miles north of London. By the 13th and 14th Centuries, the river was one of the main routes into London carrying corn and malt for bread and beer making from the farms in Hertfordshire to the mills along the river banks.

Around this time, simple flat bottomed barges with a single sail were used. They had to be pulled by teams of people when the wind failed. The river was shallow and often blocked where mill owners had diverted the water to power water wheels or where fishermen had put nets across the river. To protect the supply of corn to London, in 1571, an Act of Parliament was passed to make navigation easier for boats by straightening and deepening the river and over the years many changes were made.

Industrial Revolution
With the Industrial Revolution, barges increasingly carried materials to and from the growing number of factories along the river. In 1832 over one-third of the cargo was coal for gas works or to power factory machinery. Agricultural products including malt, wheat and flour were still brought from farms on the upper reaches of the river and horse manure was taken from London to fertilise farms in Hertfordshire.
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Barges at Totteham Lock 1958

The Northern and Eastern Railway opened in 1840, running alongside the River Lee from London to Broxbourne and later to Cambridge. Tottenham did not develop as an industrial area until the beginning of the 20th Century, by which time the railways and improving roads were taking over from the river as the main way of transporting goods, although timber continued to be transported by boat into the 1970s.

In the 19th century, barges were pulled by horses and tow paths were built alongside the river. By the 20th century, tugs with steam engines pulled strings of barges, although horse drawn barges continued to be used until the 1950s.

The present
Now, most of the people travelling on the River Lea use it for leisure. However, there are plans to again carry rubbish from the boroughs along the river to Edmonton Incinerator, to reduce the number of lorries on the roads. The towpaths are a popular, traffic free route for commuters as well as for leisure cyclists and walkers.
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