Twyford Brook is a small English river in the county of Berkshire. It drains a rural area to the east of Twyford, starting at the foot of the M4 motorway embankment, and is a tributary of the River Loddon. It was once part of a larger river system, draining the area now occupied by the new town of Bracknell. Because of issues with flooding, a new channel was cut to carry the water to the River Thames at Bray. The new channel and the river upstream from there is now known as The Cut, and the old channel became known as Twyford Brook.
Route
The river begins at the foot of the M4 motorway embankment near Pondwood Fisheries. Formerly, The Cut, which now makes a sharp turn on the other side of the embankment, flowed to the west along what is now the Twyford Brook. However, further downstream there was an area of low-lying land on Ruscombe Common, known as Ruscombe Lake, because it was always flooded, as there was no proper outlet to allow the water to reach the River Loddon. In order to rectify this, a new cut was created to carry the water to the River Thames at Bray. Further east, the river was as some time known as How Brook, although in 1813, prior to the construction of The Cut, the whole river appears to have been known as the Broadwater, and the river to the west of Ruscombe Lake was still known as the River Broadwater in 1923, rather than Twyford Brook. The construction of the cut and the draining of Ruscombe Lake took place around 1820. There was an area of swampy ground between the sharp turn and the Twyford Brook, but the connection was severed by the construction of the motorway embankment.
The start of the river is now known as Snake Water, and forms part of Pondwood Fisheries. In 1986, the present owner bought the seven plots of land at Pondwood which had been created when the motorway was built in the 1970s, and opened a fishery using two lakes to the north of the river in 1987. The course of the river here was known as West End Ditch, and maintenance by Thames Water ceased in the late 1980s. Faced with large volumes of run-off water from the motorway flooding the area, in the early 1990s the owner widened the stream to create a series of lakes, and built weirs to control the flow of flood water. These made a valuable addition to the fishery, and a fourth lake was created in 2008, which was excavated in swampy ground that had previously been used as a training ground for the Badminton horse trials.
To the west of the fishery, the river passes under Smewins Road. Just to the north is Smewins Farm, where the grade II listed Smewins Cottage, probably dating from Tudor times, sits in the middle of a large moat. The moat is filled with water and its ditches are about wide and deep. The site is a scheduled monument, around from east to west and between from north to south. The moat is open at the eastern end, and although there are about 6,000 moated sites in England, few are known to exist in Berkshire, and so the site is particularly important.
The river heads generally westwards, meandering across land which is just below the contour for most of its length. Occasional drains join it from time to time, and just before it reaches Callin's Bridge, it is joined by a drain that collects water from Beenham's Heath, and after crossing the heath, from a drain that runs along the foot of the motorway embankment. The course then meanders to the north to pass under Crockford's Bridge, and then to the east to reach Sill Bridge. This is an early 18th century humpback bridge with three semi-circular arches and is grade II listed. Next, it makes a larger deviation to the north, where it is crossed by three tracks, Mire Lane, another unnamed track and Garthing Lane at Garthinglane Bridge. It runs around the northern and western edge of a large tract of land called Ruscombe Lake, the area that used to flood and caused The Cut to be built. The lake was famous for fishing, prior to it being drained around 1820, but claims that it formerly covered an area of appear to be exaggerated, in view of the geography, and seems more likely. It was somewhat seasonal in nature, expanding to its maxiumum size in winter, and drying out to a large extent in summer. As it makes a horseshoe turn to run along the northern edge of Stanlake Park, the river is joined by another drain which carries water from an extensive area to the south and east. Nearby is another moat, this time completely enclosing an area, in the centre of which is a fishpond, believed to be contemporary with the moat. The pond retains water all year, but the moat is only filled with water seasonally. It is at the western end of Botany Bay copse.