Spring Brook

Spring Brook


Spring Brook, called Springs Brook in Bedford, is a brook in Bedford, in the part of old Billerica that became Bedford in 1729. It rises close to the Billerica line south of Manning Road and runs south through woods and wetland, taking in Fawn Brook from Fawn Lake, past the Veterans Administration hospital grounds and Springs Road to the Shawsheen River near the Middlesex Turnpike. The United States Geological Survey has kept a gauge on it, "Spring Brook near Bedford," with a drainage area of about 5.8 square kilometers.

The name probably comes from the Bedford Springs, which Hazen placed on the Oakes Farm of 150 acres, given to Capt. Daniel Gookin in exchange for his township lot and sold by him to Thomas Oakes; in his corrections Hazen wrote that Oakes's farm "probably included Bedford Springs." In the twentieth century the town of Bedford made the valley a park: in 1968 it bought surplus land from the Veterans Administration hospital, and the town dredged a spring-fed pond beside the brook, which opened in 1970 with a sandy beach and bathhouse as Springs Brook Park. The Springs Brook Conservation Area and the Bedford Circuit Trail follow the brook. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection found the brook impaired for swimming by fecal coliform bacteria in 2000, and in 2022 added E. coli and dewatering to its listing.





References

  1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): the Oakes Farm of 150 acres, which included the Bedford Springs
  2. Hazen (1883), Additions and Corrections: Oakes had 150 acres, which probably included Bedford Springs
  3. USGS gage 01100580, Spring Brook near Bedford, Mass. (drainage area about 5.8 square kilometers)
  4. Town of Bedford: Springs Brook Conservation Area trail map (2023)
  5. The Bedford Citizen (2022): Springs Brook Park turns 50, the VA land purchase of 1968 and the spring-fed pond opened in 1970
  6. MassDEP, Shawsheen River Watershed 2000 Water Quality Assessment Report: Spring Brook (MA83-14) impaired for primary contact by fecal coliform
  7. MassDEP 2022 Integrated List, Shawsheen basin: Spring Brook MA83-14, E. coli and dewatering added