Spital Brook is a minor tributary of the River Lea which rises in Hoddesdonpark Wood in the county of Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Spital Brook flows eastwards from Hoddesdonpark Wood, passing through Barclay Park, the former Hoddesdon Common, on its journey to the Lea, while an unnamed parallel stream to the south has been diverted to form ornamental waterbodies located within the former parkland of Broxbournebury. The stream crosses the Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 road, Ermine Street

Ermine Street

Ermine Street is the name of a major Roman road in England that ran from London to Lincoln and York . The Old English name was 'Earninga Straete' , named after a tribe called the Earningas, who inhabited a district later known as Armingford Hundred, around Arrington, Cambridgeshire and Royston,...

, before going under the A10 and Cock Lane. The original crossing place or ford of Spital Brook in Cock Lane remains and the original route it took ran parallel to the brook in a north-south direction. The brook passes through its namesake area, Spital Brook and marks the traditional boundary between the two parishes of Hoddesdon

Hoddesdon

Hoddesdon is a town in the English county of Hertfordshire, situated in the Lea Valley. The town grew up as a coaching stop on the route between Cambridge and London. It is located southeast of Hertford, north of Waltham Cross and southwest of Bishop's Stortford. At its height during the 18th...

 and Broxbourne

Broxbourne

Broxbourne is a commuter town in the Broxbourne borough of Hertfordshire in the East of England with a population of 13,298 in 2001.It is located 17.1 miles north north-east of Charing Cross in London and about a mile north of Wormley and south of Hoddesdon...

. The stream runs parallel to the Lea Valley Lines

Lea Valley Lines

The Lea Valley Lines are three commuter lines and two branches in North East London, so named because they run along the valley of the River Lea...

 by Broxbourne Station until it meets the River Lea close to Broxbourne Riverside, the former Broxbourne Lido.

Spital Brook's profile is relatively steep for a Hertfordshire water course, and loses approximately 50 metres of height over the 1 kilometre upper section. Due to the brook's small catchment area, unless it is raining heavily, only the lower reach is likely to have water in it.