(1662). People of
Market Deeping,
Deeping Gate and
Deeping St James, together with other villages along the
River Welland, presented a petition to
Elizabeth I, requesting that the fens should be drained, as the banks of the river and of the neighbouring
River Glen were in a poor state of repair. They suggested that Thomas Lovell should undertake the work, which he did, at a cost of £12,000, for which he received of the land which was reclaimed as a result of the work. Unrest in the early 1600s resulted in most of the works being destroyed, but in 1632 a group of adventurers led by the
Earl of Bedford were granted permission to drain Deeping Fen, South Fen and Croyland. The work included making the Welland deeper and wider from Deeping St James to its outfall beyond Spalding, and the construction of side drains. These included a drain running from Pode Hole to below Spalding, which is still known as Vernatt's Drain, after one of the adventurers called Sir Philibert Vernatti. Although declared completed in 1637, efficient drainage would have to wait until the construction of Pode Hole pumping station in 1827. The drainage of the fen was again addressed when the '''''' (
16 & 17 Cha. 2. c. 11) awarded the
Earl of Manchester and others of land in return for the drainage works. They were also obliged to maintain the banks of the Welland. The inadequacy of its outfall and a spate of bad weather stopped them from completing their task. They tried renting out the land they had been granted, but many tenants were unable to pay the rent, due to the poor state of the drainage which reduced crop yields. In April 1729, the Deeping Fen Adventurers received a letter from Captain John Perry, expressing the opinion that the only way to improve the drainage was to improve the river outfalls, and proposing the construction of scouring sluices on the river at Spalding, on Vernatt's drain at its outfall, and on the River Glen at Surfleet. Perry was an engineer of some repute, who had set the standard for engineering reports in 1727, when he published his recommendations for the North Level of the Fens. His plans were approved, and the Adventurers offered to give him land covering nearly in payment for the work. He sold one third of the land to finance the project, and began work in 1730. Cowbit sluice on the Welland had six wide gates which were operated by chains connected to a treadwheel. At high tide, water was penned in Cowbit Wash, between banks which were set well back from the main channel. At low tide, the sluice gates were opened, and the flow scoured out silt from the river bed for some downstream. Perry died in February 1733, before the other works were completed, and was buried in Spalding churchyard.
Scientific drainage Perry was succeeded by
John Grundy, Sr., who had arrived in the region in 1731 at the request of the
Duke of Buccleuch, who wanted his estates surveyed. Perry was building the Spalding sluice at the time, and Grundy's work allowed him to study drains, banks, sluices and outfalls. He formed the opinion that mathematical and philosophical principles should be applied to the drainage of low-lying regions. In 1733, he surveyed the parish of
Moulton, a little further downstream, to assess how drainage could be improved for the Commissioners of Sewers. He demonstrated the use of a telescopic spirit level, which enabled him to achieve accurate levels, with errors of less than 1 inch per mile (2 cm per km). Next he addressed the issue of flow in open drains. Using his mathematical principles, he calculated that water in a drain which was long, and had a fall of over its length should travel at around , taking 1 hour and 28 minutes to travel the length of the drain. Observations in the field showed him that other factors, such as fluid friction, resulted in the actual flow rate being less than half of this. He published a paper of his findings in April 1734, and insisted that accurate mapping and levels, together with physical observation of drains and rivers, were essential to deciding how fenland could best be drained. In the same month, he began working for the Adventurers of Deeping Fen, to produce a drainage scheme. He spent some time mapping of the Welland, and his chief recommendation was for a reservoir and sluice at the outfall of the River Glen, which would enable the outfall to be scoured at low tide, by releasing water from the reservoir. In July 1737 Grundy and Humphry Smith set out their plans for the fen, and a bill was put before Parliament, to allow the Adventurers to raise the £15,000 estimated cost by taxes. The act was granted in 1738, and Smith and Grundy were appointed "Surveyors and Agents of Deeping Fen." They oversaw a programme of repairs to the Deeping Bank, which ran for along the south-eastern edge of the fen, protecting it from the Welland. John Scribo did the same for the Country Bank, which ran for on the far side of the river. Grundy made the river deeper above Spalding, and also constructed a sluice and reservoir at the mouth of the Glen. The reservoir covered and provided water to scour the channel below the sluice. Two drainage mills were constructed, each with a
scoop wheel, one on Vernatt's Drain and the other on Hill's Drain. The bed of the Glen had also been regraded and its banks raised by 1742, when Smith retired and Grundy took sole charge of the works. He oversaw the job of making the Welland through Spalding deeper and wider, and suggested that the outfall of Vernatt's Drain should be moved downstream from its existing position. Although not implemented immediately, his son completed this task in 1774. Grundy died in 1748, having been a pioneer in applying scientific principles to civil engineering problems. Hogard devised a scheme to cut a new channel from the junction of the Welland and the Glen to Wyberton, on the estuary of the River Witham below Boston. At the end of the cut, there would be a huge sluice and a navigation lock. The Adventurers asked Thomas Tofield for a second opinion, who suggested a shorter cut from Spalding to Fosdyke. They requested help from Grundy, who proposed a cut to Fosdyke, and that the outfall of Vernatt's drain should be moved downstream as his father had suggested. Improvements to the drain were carried out under an act of Parliament obtained in 1774, and an act was obtained in 1794 to sanction the Wyberton cut, although the work was not carried out, and Grundy's shorter cut was built under a new act of 1801. The fen was inundated in 1798, and the civil engineers
William Jessop and
John Rennie were asked to assist the local engineers Edward Hare and George Maxwell. There was a clear understanding that the outfalls were too high to allow proper drainage by gravity, and two possible solutions were considered. The first was an outfall at a lower level, which would involve hugh expense in its construction, and the second, favoured by Jessop and Rennie, was the provision of steam pumping engines at Pode Hole. These would pump water from the internal drains of the fen to Vernatt's Drain, and the lower internal water levels would allow the existing wind-powered drainage mills to work efficiently. A report was produced, which formed the basis for the Deeping Fen Act 1801. The channel of the Welland above Spalding was made deeper, the north bank was made stronger, and the North and South Drove Drains which crossed the fen to join Vernatt's Drain at Pode Hole were made deeper. At the time there were no steam engines working in the fens, and Rennie's recommendation of a steam pumping station at Pode Hole was not implemented. Both engines were beam engines. The larger one was manufactured by Butterley, was called the Holland engine, and drove a
scoop wheel which was in diameter. The wheel had 40 scoops and lifted the water by . The smaller engine, which was called the Kesteven engine, was made by Fenton & Murrey, and drove a similar scoop wheel. They were operational by August 1825, having cost £26,673. The pumping station was the largest in the Fens at the time, and remained so for many years.
Other districts Pinchbeck South Fen is a region covering lying on the west side of Vernatt's Drain. It was originally managed as the Fourth District by the Deeping Fen trustees, but was independent in 1828, when the occupants approached the trustees with a plan to drain some of the water from the fen to the Pode Hole pumps. A tunnel already existed under Vernatt's drain, and so the trustees agreed. However, the charges levied by the trustees for this service rose dramatically, so that the South Fen residents decided to build their own pumping engine at Pode Hole in 1830. A Fenton & Murray beam engine driving a scoop wheel was installed, at a cost of £3,000, which was considerably less than the charge the trustees wanted to make. The engine was replaced by a suction gas engine and Ruston pump in 1919, which was decommissioned in 1943 when a Petter oil engine with a Gwynnes pump was installed. This only lasted for ten years, as two electric motors driving and pumps were fitted in 1953. Pinchbeck Marsh was also part of Deeping Fen, but following the failure of the work carried out under the 1801 Act to effectively drain the area, an act of Parliament was obtained in 1832 to create a separate district, called the Spalding and Pinchbeck District, or Blue Gowt, as water from the feeds into the River Glen from the Blue Gowt Drain. A Butterley beam engine driving a scoop wheel was installed in 1833. Although a new boiler was installed in 1895, the engine and wheel continued to operate until 1952, making it the last beam engine and scoop wheel combination to be used in the Fens, and also the one which ran for the longest time. Its function was replaced by the two electric pumps fitted in 1953, which also pump the Pinchbeck South Fen, but the
plant was retained, and is now open to the public, although the steam engine is now turned by an electric motor. The management of Deeping Fen by trustees, appointed under the terms of the 1801 Act, continued until they were replaced in 1939 by the Deeping Fen, Spalding and Pinchbeck Internal Drainage Board, ==See also==