Some of the older trees fall into the water and this may divert the main current of the stream to one side. There is a gentle meander here as well which tends to make the fastest current move to the left side of the photo.

Where large amounts of natural debris accumulate, the main current is diverted more strongly and the water is very slow moving behind the debris - this causes the finest material to be deposited on the stream bed..

Beyond the village of Horton Kirby, the vegetation begins to take over, growing thickly and making the channel much narrower. Deposition builds up mud around the vegetation which in turn encourages more plants to grow. In time, these areas become marshy and dry out. The stream is then confined to a much smaller space and velocity increases in the main part of the channel.

In some places deposition in the centre of the stream has allowed small islands to develop. Plants have colonised these islands even though they may be underwater when the stream level is higher in winter. The island acts as an obstacle encouraging deposition and so the island grows in size. The water has to divide into two smaller channels and velocity again increases in these narrower channels.

In many places, the human influence on the stream is very strong. Here, the River Darent has been dammed to create a small reservoir which in the industrial past powered a waterwheel (to the left of the weir). Although now disused, this section of the stream is still almost 100% artificial. Both banks and the bed of the stream are made of man-made materials. The stream is very wide and very shallow.

Much of the Darent Valley is accessible to the public and public footpaths run alongside the stream for many miles. One consequence of this is that the natural river banks become eroded and in some cases are replaced by wooden or concrete materials. In this photo the river bank has become very flattened and the material moved into the stream, making it very shallow on the left-hand side.