Bow Back Rivers - Name

Name

It is unclear when the individually named rivers became known collectively as Bow Back Rivers. Charles Tween, writing on behalf of the Lee Conservancy, referred to them as both the Stratford Back Rivers and the Stratford Back Streams in 1905. The section to the west of the more recent City Mills Lock was labelled Bow Back River on a map of 1895, but had previously been part of Pudding Mill River. Powell, writing in 1973, still referred to them as the Stratford Back Rivers.

The 1939 edition of "Inland Waterways of Great Britain", an early attempt to provide a guide for the leisure use of canals, noted that the River Lee had "several subsidiary canalised waterways", and listed Bow Creek, Old River Lee, City Mills River and Waterworks River, but did not describe them collectively. Boyes and Russell writing in 1977 referred to them as the Bow Back Rivers or Stratford Back Rivers, and by the sixth edition of "Inland Waterways of Great Britain", published in 1985, they were referred to as Bow Back Rivers.

The river which supplies the Bow Back Rivers has been known as the River Lee or River Lea, but modern usage tends to use "Lea" when referring to the natural river, and "Lee" when referring to the navigation, so that the Lee Navigation is a canalisation of the River Lea. The name Bow may derive from either an arched bridge over the River Lea in the 12th century or a bend in the road east of Bow Road station.