South Forty-foot drain

The South Forty-foot Drain is the main channel for the land-drainage of the Black Sluice Level in the Lincolnshire Fens. It lies in eastern England between Guthram Gowt, reference TF171225 and the Black Sluice on The Haven, at Boston.⁽¹⁾ The drain is being upgraded to navigable status by the Environment Agency, as part of the Fens Waterways Link.

Origins

It is about 32 kilometres long and serves the function of parts of the Double Twelves system of drainage in the Black Sluice scheme's predecessor, the Lindsey Level. That in turn, superseded the Midfen Dyke of the medieval fens. By the year 1500, this last was regarded more as a boundary marker between the Parts of Holland and Kesteven, than as a drain for the land.

Functions

The South Forty Foot now serves this boundary function over the length where it runs roughly south to north. This is broadly, from the River Glen to the Nottingham to Boston railway. As the South Forty Foot crosses the line of the Midfen Dyke, the boundary between Boston (borough) (Holland) and North Kesteven (Kesteven) takes up its medieval course. In this mmuknr photo|520000|342000|25|Aerial photograph the boundary is shown in the map overlay. See also map 7.

The main job of the drain is to gather the waters pumped from the Kesteven and Holland Fens from the Weir Dyke⁽²⁾, a soak dike in Bourne North Fen, alongside the Bourne Eau and River Glen, northwards and eastwards to the Black Sluice at Boston, where they are discharged to the tidal waters of The Haven. In this aerial photograph of mmuknr photo|532800|342900|05|The Black Sluice, the waters of The Haven (here misnamed in the map overlay, "River Witham") are pale with silt.

In 2007 the Environment Agency of England obtained funding to make the drain navigable, as part of the Fens Waterways Link between Boston and Spalding. Work on the new Boston Lock - to connect The Haven and the South Forty Foot Drain - was formally started on February 8, 2008, [IWA Head Office Bulletin - March 2008 - Issue 134] and is expected to be completed by December 2008, while funding for phase 2 of the project, which will enable the drain to be made navigable from Donnington to the River Glen, has been secured from the East Midlands Development Agency. [Lincolnshire Waterways Partnership, "Newsletter", March 2008]

Maps

# where Bourne Eau joins the River Glen.
# At Guthram, getamap|TF167221|The Engine Drain and Weir Dike join and head north as the South Forty Foot.
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Footnotes

* Note (1): The coordinates of the Black Sluice are 54.966° N 0.025°W.
* Note (2): The Weir Dyke takes its name from a weir in the bank of the Bourne Eau at Tongue End. The river bank would be called a levee in some parts of the world. The weir allows water to escape from the Glen to be collected in an orderly manner by the Weir Dike, when the Glen's capacity is exceeded in time of flood. Miles, W.D. "A History of the Drainage of Bourne South Fen and Thurlby Fen" (1976)

ee also

*Canals of Great Britain

References

* IWA Head Office Bulletin - March 2008 - Issue 134