It gained its present name in the early nineteenth century, and was dammed in 1870, in order to make a trout fishery, which was used to stock the lakes at nearby Welbeck Abbey.

A part-time ranger was employed to manage the site in 1993, and this became a permanent post in 1999, when funding was received from the owners of Clipstone Colliery, RJB Mining.

[4] The river used to start before the lake, but this area has been affected by railway construction, and a large settling pond was built as part of the mine workings, where the stream once was.

It runs northwards at this point, to reach King's Clipstone, and the remains of the hunting lodge, to pass under the B6030 Mansfield Road, and join the River Maun.

Reasons for the ecological status being less than good include discharge from sewage treatment works, and the volumes of surface water and groundwater which are abstracted from the catchment.

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 mercury compounds, neither of which had previously been included in the assessment.