River Witham

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River Witham
Witham
The Grand Sluice at Boston, where the River Witham empties into The Haven, which is tidal below this point
Country	England
Region	Lincolnshire
Major cities	Lincoln, Boston
Length	132 km (82 mi)
Discharge at	The Wash, Boston (as 'The Haven')
Source
- location	Wymondham, Leicestershire
- elevation	130 m (427 ft)
Mouth	The Wash, North Sea
- location	East Midlands/East Anglia
- elevation	0 m (0 ft)
Major tributaries
- left	Grantham Canal, Foston Beck, Ease Drain, Shire Dyke, Fossdyke Navigation, Barlings Eau, Tupholme Beck, Bucknall Beck, Catchwater Drain, The Sewer
- right	Honington Beck, River Brant, Branston Delph, Middle Drain, Cathole Drain, Nocton Drain, Nocton Bankside Drain, Dunston Bankside Drain, Water Dike, Duns Dike

The River Witham is a river, almost entirely in the county of Lincolnshire, in the east of England. It rises south of Grantham close to South Witham, at SK8818, passes Lincoln at SK9771 and at Boston, TF3244, flows into The Haven, a tidal arm of The Wash. The river is navigable from Lincoln to Boston.

The name "Witham" seems to be extremely old, apparently predating Anglo-Saxon, Roman, and even Celtic influence.^[1] The meaning is not known.

[edit] History of navigation

The Witham, which was tidal up to Lincoln, has been an important navigation since Roman times. Lincoln (Lindum), the meeting point of Ermine Street, joining London to York, and Fosse Way, leading to Leicester and Bath was an important Roman fort which became one of only 4 colonia in Britain. Most important Roman cities were situated near navigable water, which enabled goods to be transported in bulk, but Lincoln did not possess this advantage, and so the Romans constructed the Fossdyke from Lincoln to Torksey on the River Trent, improved the River Witham from Lincoln to The Wash, and built the Car Dyke from Lincoln to the River Cam near Cambridge.^[2] The Witham thus gave Lincoln access to the east coast, while the Fossdyke gave access to the Trent and on to the Humber.

Throughout the medieval period, trade continued as evidenced by the importance of Torksey, which was a flourishing town, though now only a small village. However, the Fossdyke needed a lot of maintenance to keep it clear of silt. Henry I had overseen the scouring of the channel, and there were inquiries in 1335, 1365 and 1518, to consider the state of the Fossdyke and to compel the inhabitants of the region to maintain it. Lincoln was a centre for the collection of business taxes, but this came at the cost of maintaining the infrastructure, and having finally decided it was too large a cost, James I presented the Fossdyke to the City of Lincoln.^[2]

The Witham originally flowed into The Wash at Bicker Haven, where the port of Drayton was established in the Welland estuary and it was only as a result of massive flooding in 1014 that it diverted to flow into The Haven at Boston. This gave rise to the growth of Boston as a port in the 12th and 13th centuries, exporting wool and salt to the Hanseatic League, though it only received its charter in 1545.

The river was affected by silting which restricted trade despite the construction of various sluices and barriers from 1142 onwards, when the first sluice was built below Boston.^[3] Other sluices were erected at Boston in 1500, and at Langrick in 1543, but navigation was again difficult on both the river and the Fossdyke by 1660.^[2] In 1671 an Act of Parliament was obtained for the improvement of the Navigation.^[4] Little work was carried out until another act was passed in 1762 authorising the construction of the Grand Sluice, a major construction which maintained the height of water above Boston to near normal high tide level and had massive flood gates to cope with any tides above this. This was completed in 1766 by Langley Edwards of Kings Lynn,^[5] and was effective in scouring the Haven below it, but actually encouraged further silting of the river above it.

The 1762 act created the Witham Drainage General Commissioners who continued to promote drainage schemes actively^[6] creating a drainage network known as the Witham Navigable Drains transforming much of northern Lincolnshire from swamp to farming land. Today many of these channels are managed by the Witham First, Third and Fourth District Internal Drainage Boards and Upper Witham Internal Drainage Board. These four Internal Drainage Boards reduce the flood risk to the surrounding properties, land and environment.

In 1791, as part of the campaign to promote the construction of the Horncastle Canal, the Commissioners of the River Witham asked the engineer William Jessop to assess the state of the Fossdyke Navigation and the Witham, with particular reference to the problems of navigating through Lincoln, where the channel was restricted by a medieval bridge. He proposed two solutions; the first avoided the route through the city entirely, by utilising the course of the Sincil Dyke to the south, while the second involved lowering the bottom of the channel through the Glory Hole bridge, which was only 18 inches (46 cm) deep at normal water levels. The Commissioners had imposed a toll on all traffic passing under the bridge, but decided that a channel missing the city would have grave financial consequences. They opted for improving the existing channel,^[2] and the work to remove the existing wooded floor, to lower the river bed under the bridge and to underpin its foundations was completed in 1795.^[5] The Commissioners dropped the collection of tolls at the bridge, but the amount they received from traffic passing through the locks increased as the volume of traffic grew in response to the easier passage through the bridge.^[2]

[edit] The Grand Sluice

When completed in 1766, Edwards' Grand Sluice consisted of three channels each 17 feet (5.2 m) wide, fitted with pointed gates on both sides, and a lock adjacent to the north bank, which could be used as an additional flood relief channel if required.^[5] The lock was originally very small, but was lengthened to its current 41 by 12 feet (12 m × 3.7 m) ^[7] in 1881. The pointed doors on the non-tidal side of the sluice were replaced by steel guillotine gates between 1979 and 1982.^[5]

[edit] Current Navigation

River Witham

legend Fossdyke Navigation Brayford Pool River Witham A57 bridge Glory Hole (Medieval building) Sincil Dyke A15 Lindum Road bridge Stamp End Lock and sluice Railway bridge South Delph Barlings Eau Short Ferry Bridge Old River Witham Witham Bank Side Drain Bardney Lock Old River Witham Bardney Bridge Nocton Delph and flood doors Catchwater Drain and flood doors Kirkstead Bridge Timberland Delph and flood doors Gibsons Cut, Horncastle Canal Billinghay Skirth and flood doors A153 Tattershall Bridge Horncastle Canal (abandoned) and Dogdyke Marina Kyme Eau and flood doors Langrick Bridge Anton's Gowt lock Witham Navigable Drains Railway bridge Grand Sluice and sea lock A1137 bridge (tidal below here) A16 bridge Railway swing bridge Black Sluice pumping station South Forty-Foot Drain lock Boston Docks Maud Foster Drain The Haven

Today, commercial traffic, apart from trip boats, has ceased above the port of Boston (The Haven) and only pleasure craft carry on through the lock at the Grand Sluice into the Witham. Although the lock is only 41 feet (12 m) long, it is possible for longer boats to pass through it at certain states of the tide. Unlike many such sea locks, the reverse-facing gates close on every tide, as the normal high tide water level is higher than the level of the river, while at low tides there is insufficient water in the Haven to allow exit from the lock. Passage is therefore restricted to a brief period approximately two hours before or after high water.^[7] It is still possible to navigate many of the drains in small vessels and a new lock, construction of which was completed in December 2008, provides entry to the South Forty-Foot Drain from below the Grand Sluice so that vessels will be able to reach the Fens without venturing out to the Wash^[8] as part of the Fens Waterways Link.

The Witham is navigable from Brayford Wharf in Lincoln to Boston. There are two locks between Boston and Lincoln - one at Bardney and the other in Lincoln itself, the Stamp End Lock which is unusually a guillotine lock.^[9] The main obstruction to navigation is the High Bridge or Glory Hole in Lincoln, a medieval structure which is only about 15 feet (4.6 m) wide and 2.6 metres (8.5 ft) high at normal river levels. In times of flood it is unnavigable. The bridge spans the river for 87 feet (27 m), and consists of an arch built in c1160, with extensions added in 1235, 1540 to 1550 and 1762/3.^[5] It is the only British bridge which still has secular medieval buildings standing on it, and is believed to be the second oldest masonry arch bridge in the country. It is currently a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade I Listed Building.^[5]

[edit] Route

From near Claypole to Beckingham, a distance of about three miles, the river forms the boundary between Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. From North Witham to Long Bennington, the river largely follows the line of the A1, which crosses the river just north of the B6403 junction near Easton. From Dogdyke near Coningsby to Boston, the north bank of the river was used by a former railway - a section of the Great Northern Railway from Lincoln to Boston.

In Lincoln, the river flows into Brayford Pool, and exits along a narrow channel that passes under the Glory Hole medieval bridge.^[9] The bridge not only restricts navigation due to its small size, but the volume of water that can pass through the gap is limited in times of flood. This is alleviated by the Syncil Dyke, which leaves the main channel at Bargate Weir, and runs for 1.5 miles (2.4 km) through the industrial areas to the south of the main city centre. It used to rejoin the main channel at Stamp End, but was re-routed into the South Delph, a drainage ditch constructed by John Rennie in the early 19th century, which joins the main channel below Bardney lock. The origins of the Sincil Dyke are unknown, but it is known to have been used as a drainage channel in the mid 13th century, and is thought to be pre-medieval or even Roman. Parts of it were culverted in 1847, in order to allow the construction of Lincoln Central railway station.^[5]

[edit] Tributaries of the River Witham

• Foston Beck
• River Brant
• Fossdyke Navigation, a canalization of the lower River Till.
• Barlings Eau
• River Bain
• Kyme Eau, the fenland part of the River Slea

The following flow into The Haven.

• South Forty-Foot Drain
• Maud Foster Drain
• Hobhole Drain

[edit] See also

• Kirkstead Bridge
• Rivers of the United Kingdom

[edit] References

Coordinates: 52°56′N 0°03′E / 52.933°N 0.05°E / 52.933; 0.05