 The new, extended route of the Pymmes Brook Trail starts where the brook's headwaters rise on Hadley Green then follows its approximate course to its confluence with the River Lea at Tottenham Hale, where the trail joins the Lea Valley Walk.The brook is marked thus on the Ordnance Survey map of 1877.In c.1200 it was called, "Medeseye" that is ' meadow marsh-stream ' from Old English "mæd" and "sæge " 

During the Middle Ages, it was known as the "Medesenge", in the late 17th century as "Millicents brook" then, by the late 18th century as "Bell brook".