Hogsmill River near the confluence with the Bonesgate Stream

Image: © Marathon Taken: 7 Aug 2013

Maps of the 19th century show the Hogsmill Valley as a patchwork of fields, those close to the river being meadows whilst arable fields lay further away out of the reach of flooding. The Hogsmill is a chalk stream since most of its water comes from the dip-slope springs at Ewell. At the turn of the 20th century this was still a large area of farmland. It has been saved from development by virtue of being the floodplain of the Hogsmill. It now forms a wildlife corridor followed by the London LOOP on its way to Kingston Bridge. This view from a footbridge at the southern edge of Tolworth Court Farm Fields looks upriver towards Ewell. The Bonesgate Stream flows into the Hogsmill just behind. The Bonesgate Stream rises at Malden Rushett in the far south of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. In the early years of the 20th century the Bonesgate Stream was known as ‘The Rythe’ a name which is today attached to a totally different stream to the west of the Borough. The origin of the name ‘Bonesgate’ stems from the Old English Bone or Bonne which would have been a proper name, and gate meaning a gap in a wall, hence a gap in a wall belonging to Bonne. The name has nothing to do with plague pits. The London LOOP follows the left hand bank of the Hogsmill here.

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