In 1996, the National Rivers Authority, now part of the Environment Agency, wanted to have more information about the impact of abstraction (pumping water out of the chalk aquifer which feeds the Beane) and so they installed 9 ground water measuring boreholes in the upper Beane Valley. They asked the RBRA to take the measurements on a monthly basis and we have been doing that continually since then. The adjoining page shows the readings which are updated every month. You can see how the levels usually rise during the winter and decline during the summer. This is normal, however, some years the river has completely dried up from just north of Aston End as far as the junction with Stevenage Brook north of Watton at Stone. Unsurprisingly it is along this stretch that the pumping stations are located at Whitehall Farm and Aston Ford (also known as Stoney Ford). These periods coincide with very low measurements recorded on the charts.
You can download a map of borehole locations and a list of boreholes since 1996.