Pix Brook
Pix Brook is a chalk stream in England that flows in a northerly and westerly direction through Letchworth Garden City in Hertfordshire and Stotfold in Bedfordshire to the River Ivel north of Arlesey. It is both urban and rural in character.
Pix Brook is in length. When measured in 2022, the brook had a moderate ecological status. Its hydromorphological designation is 'heavily modified', meaning it fails to achieve good ecological status owing to significant man-made alterations to its natural physical character. Environment Agency data gives the Pix Brook a catchment area of. It is one of twenty water bodies making up the Ivel Operational Catchment. A study published in the mid-1990s described Pix Brook as a shallow stream over a bed of coarse-grained calcareous gravel and sand, noting its 'relatively steep' gradient fall of per km in comparison to the less than per km fall of the River Ivel.
The Letchworth Sewage Treatment Works operated by Anglian Water discharges treated waste water into Pix Brook.
In Letchworth the brook is culverted through Howard Park, and the roadway of Rushby Mead bordering the eastern edge of the park follows the curves of the brook. At Norton Common local nature reserve mineral-rich springs supply the brook. Pix brook is a part of the great Ouse catchment as well in the catchment it is in Hertfordshire and ends in Bedfordshire
Colloquially known as 'Dudleys Ditch' the river is the reason why local school Etonbury Academy got the prefix 'eton'. A school named Pix Brook Academy was initially based at Etonbury Academy from 2019 but a year later moved to newly constructed facilities in Stotfold.