Both have been re-dug near to their older lines to accommodate Heathrow Airport: most recently as part of the Twin Rivers Diversion Scheme for the taxiways and roads required by Terminal 5.

The rivers emerge to flow along the Airport's southern perimeter, separating at 'Two Bridges' just east of Terminal 4; the original diversion dating to the 1940s.

It then crosses over the longest cutting of the Shepperton Branch Line on a short, brick-built, single-span aqueduct and runs in multiple channels through Bushy Park.

Bye-laws such as shown by the prominent early-20th sign next to Feltham's former grand chapel of ease, made all unlawful trespass aggravated.

[3] It was not universally popular, as it was illegally stopped up in 1648 or -49, and petitions were presented to the authorities in 1653, arguing that it should not be reopened, alleging it caused flooding which damaged crops and livestock.

Despite this construction method, biodiversity was encouraged by the use of hazel hurdles and coir rolls, pre-planted with native species, to provide habitat for small mammals.

Habitat for fish was provided by creating meandering flow patterns using gravel and recycled trees, and the channels were populated with some 84,000 river plants.

To celebrate his queen, Henrietta Maria, Charles I had a statue and fountain made, by courtiers called Diana, the fountain depicts Arethusa, a water nymph, rather than the Roman goddess of hunting moved from Somerset House to Hampton Court by Oliver Cromwell, and then to the centre of its circular pond in Bushy Park by Sir Christopher Wren when he redesigned the gardens in 1713.

By the time military use had ceased in the early 1990s, much of the site was overgrown and damaged, but a group called the Friends of Bushy and Home Parks was formed, and began to research what was there.

Preliminary investigation work began in 2006, with the main part of the project starting in January 2008, which involved dredging large volumes of silt from the ponds, restoring them to their original shape, and overhauling the water engineering system, to reconnect them to the Longford River.

[7][8] At Hampton Court, the dominating feature of the grounds is the landscaping scheme constructed for the new palace by Sir Christopher Wren.

The design, radical at the time, is influenced by Versailles, and was laid out by pupils of André Le Nôtre, Louis XIV's landscape gardener.

Like most rivers in the UK, the chemical status changed from good to fail in 2019, due to the presence of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) and perfluorooctane sulphonate (PFOS), neither of which had previously been included in the assessment.