Cambridgeshire Lodes
Encyclopedia
The Cambridgeshire Lodes are a series of man-made waterways, believed to be Roman
in origin, located in the county of Cambridgeshire
, England
. Bottisham, Swaffham Bulbeck, Reach, Burwell, Wicken and Monks Lodes all connect to the River Cam
, while Soham Lode connects to the River Great Ouse
. All have been navigable historically, but some are no longer officially navigable. In 2007 a strategy plan considered options for the management of the lodes which included rebuilding most of them at a lower level, but concluded that maintaining the banks at the existing level was a better long-term solution.
near Lincoln
, some 73 miles (117.5 km) away.
(a primitive lock with a single gate), of which the chamber survives. Its water supply comes from Quy Water, which flows through a mill just above the village before entering the lode near to the location of a basin and wharf. In medieval times, navigation along Quy Water was also possible, as there is evidence of moorings in the village of Quy. The Swaffham and Bottisham Drainage Commissioners were responsible for the lode from 1767, and were empowered to build staunches and collect tolls. The lode was never wide enough to take fen lighters, but smaller boats used it for most of the 19th century.
In 1875, the Drainage Commissioners spent £294 on a flash lock, which had a flagstone floor, a chamber constructed of white bricks, a timber guillotine gate, and a mechanism for raising the gate made from cast-iron, supported by a timber frame. The chamber was 11.75 feet (3.6 m) wide, and the mechanism included a winding drum with winding wheel, and cogwheels with ratchets. The timber frame was demolished in 1968 but the chamber still survives, some 1010 yards (923.5 m) upstream from the entrance gates.
Navigation on the lode ceased around 1900, and it is not currently navigable. The mill at Lode has been restored to working order by its owners, the National Trust
. There is a pumping station and a set of mitred flood doors at the entrance to the lode, which were replaced in 2001, but the gates currently carry a "No unauthorised vessels" notice.
(SSSI).
The village of Reach has been a trading port since Roman times. From the 13th century, a fair was held there, and it was at this time that the last 300 yards (274.3 m) of the Devils Dyke were levelled. Wharfs and basins were developed, and coasters brought a wide variety of products to Reach and to the fair. The coasters stopped when Denver Sluice was built on the River Great Ouse
, but smaller vessels continued to trade in agricultural produce, timber and a type of building material called clunch
, which were exported through Kings Lynn, while incoming trade included building materials, stone, salts, wines and spirits. A lock was built at the start of the lode in 1821, as a result of the passing of the Eau Brink Act, while the South Level Commissioners took over responsibility for the waterway in 1827. Trade declined rapidly after railways reached the area in the 1850s, but some carriers continued to operate, with the last load of 525 tonnes of clunch being shipped in the early 1930s, and some peat being carried for a few years after that.
Upware Lock, at 50 by, used to restrict the size of boats that could use the lode, and boats longer than 45 feet (13.7 m) could not be turned at Reach. However, the mitre gates at the downstream end have been replaced by a guillotine gate, enabling boats up to 63 feet (19.2 m) to gain access, and turning at Reach with a 58 feet (17.7 m) boat is possible. The lode is quite deep, for the surrounding land has sunk as the peat soils have dried out, and raising of the banks has resulted in the water being up to 10 feet (3 m) deep in places. In 2007 the Environment Agency considered options for lowering the level of Reach Load and possibly some of the other lodes, as a way to reduce the maintenance of the banks. The report concluded that maintaining them at their present level was still the best solution, and a policy of strengthening the embankments was adopted as the way to limit the risk of major repairs being needed in the future.
The Reach annual fair, which received a charter from King John, has been moved to the May bank holiday from its original Rogation Week date, to ensure that every Mayor of Cambridge, who by tradition opens the fair, gets to open one fair during a term of office. The movable date of Rogation Week meant that some mayors opened two fairs, and some did not open any.
Burwell became more important than Reach when T. T. Ball opened the Burwell Chemical Works, which was built between 1864 and 1865. Fertilizer was produced from coprolites, ancient fossilised dung extracted from the newly-drained fens, using a process which had been developed by a man who lived locally. The works became the Patent Manure Works in the 1890s, and following a partnership, was owned by Colchester and Ball, who ran a fleet of three steam tugs and a large number of lighters, which were carrying around 10,000 tons a year by the early 20th century, despite the fact that the works had been served by a railway siding
since 1900. Richard Ball had opened a brickworks nearby, which was served by a channel which became known as Factory Lode.
Prentice Brothers Ltd, who had built barges at Burwell until 1920, and repaired and maintained them there until 1936, took over the Manure Works in 1921. In addition to the fertilizer, the barges carried coal, stone and sugar beet, and the yellow bricks produced by the Burwell Brick Company. The toll structure was complicated, as the South Level Commissioners were responsible for both Burwell Lode and Reach Lode, but tolls of 3 pence (1.2p) per ton were payable to the Burwell Fen Drainage Commissioners, and a further 3 pence per ton for use of the connecting stretch of Reach Lode had to be paid to the Swaffham and Bottisham Drainage Commissioners.
The fertilizer company Fisons took over the factory in 1929. Prentice's lighters were bought by A. V. Jackson in 1936, and Jacksons continued to carry fertilizer until 1948. Trade in sugarbeet continued until 1963. Production of fertilizer at the site ceased in 1962, and the brickworks, which made up to 10 million bricks a year, finally closed in 1971.
The waterway is comparatively wide, at 40 to 45 ft (12.2 to 13.7 m), and the junction of the branches at Burwell provides a point at which long boats can be turned, but the modern lock at Upware restricts access to boats less than 63 feet (19.2 m) long. It is also quite deep, and the 2007 Strategy Study considered the option of reconstructing it at a lower level, but did not recommend this action.
Wicken Lode turns off Reach Lode, and crosses Wicken Sedge Fen, running for nearly 1.5 miles (2.4 km) to just short of the village of Wicken. There is a right of public navigation as far as its junction with Monk's Lode, and the stretch beyond that is only naviagable by local inhabitants. The lode is not as wide or deep as the adjacent lodes, and can only be navigated by smaller craft. The waterway continues as Monk's Lode and then the New River, although these are not navigable. Peat from Burwell Fen was brought up Wicken lode for much of the 19th century, for distribution to local farms, and the trade only stopped in the 1940s when peat cutting was restricted. Sedge
from the fen was transported by boat from the sites where it was cut to a wharf near the head of the lode.
Wicken Fen
is one of the oldest nature reserves in England, as the National Trust
bought their first part of it in 1899. Purchases have continued, and the Trust now manages 730 acres (295.4 ha) of wetland. It is not a true fen, as the area is higher than the surrounding land, but since 1956 the wetland has been maintained by a drainage windmill pump which was moved from its location at Adventurers Fen, to the south of the lode, and re-assembled to supply the Fen with water. The National Trust Warden's office includes a display which tells the history of the Fen and how it has been managed.
about 1 miles (1.6 km) below its junction with the River Cam. Its origin is less well known than the other lodes, but it probably dates from the 1790s, when it was built to reduce flooding in the Soham and Fordham area, by carrying water from the River Snail, which formerly flowed into the River Lark
, to join the Great Ouse instead. Soham is about half way along it, and was once close to a large inland lake called Soham Mere, which was drained in the late 18th century.
There is no evidence that the Lode was navigable beyond Soham. Lighters brought cargoes of corn to a water mill at Soham, and later brought coal when steam engines replaced the water wheel. Barley and timber were other important cargoes. Railways did not reach Soham until 1879, and resulted in the rapid demise of water-borne transport. Commercial traffic ceased about 1900, and the lode was described as un-navigable in a report by H. Dunn in 1906. There was a sluice at the entrance to the lode, with two sets of mitre gates, pointing in opposite directions, one to prevent flood waters from the Great Ouse entering the lode, and the other to raise the water level in the lode to make navigation easier. When the Anglian Water Authority was created by Act of Parliament
in 1977, the lode was not listed as a navigation, and their successors, the Environment Agency, have taken this to mean that there is no right of navigation.
There is now a pumping station and a set of mitred flood doors at the start of the lode, and although it is not officially navigable, two narrowboats navigated part of it in 2001, and there is increasing evidence that boats can and do use it as far as it is possible.
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
in origin, located in the county of Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Bottisham, Swaffham Bulbeck, Reach, Burwell, Wicken and Monks Lodes all connect to the River Cam
River Cam
The River Cam is a tributary of the River Great Ouse in the east of England. The two rivers join to the south of Ely at Pope's Corner. The Great Ouse connects the Cam to England's canal system and to the North Sea at King's Lynn...
, while Soham Lode connects to the River Great Ouse
River Great Ouse
The Great Ouse is a river in the east of England. At long, it is the fourth-longest river in the United Kingdom. The river has been important for navigation, and for draining the low-lying region through which it flows. Its course has been modified several times, with the first recorded being in...
. All have been navigable historically, but some are no longer officially navigable. In 2007 a strategy plan considered options for the management of the lodes which included rebuilding most of them at a lower level, but concluded that maintaining the banks at the existing level was a better long-term solution.
History
Research by the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments published in 1972 confirmed the work of Major Gordon Fowler of the Fenland Research Committee that the Cambridgeshire lodes were of Roman origin, which were excavated to provide navigation to a series of villages to the east of the River Cam, and probably also drainage of the surrounding fenland. The infrastructure was completed by the Car Dyke, which linked Waterbeach on the River Cam to the River WithamRiver Witham
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, near RSPB Frampton Marsh...
near Lincoln
Lincoln, Lincolnshire
Lincoln is a cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England.The non-metropolitan district of Lincoln has a population of 85,595; the 2001 census gave the entire area of Lincoln a population of 120,779....
, some 73 miles (117.5 km) away.
Bottisham Lode
Bottisham Lode links the village of Lode to the River Cam just below Bottisham lock, and is about 2.5 miles (4 km) long. It is almost straight, running between embankments, and included a staunchLock (water transport)
A lock is a device for raising and lowering boats between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water level can be varied; whereas in a caisson lock, a boat lift, or on a canal inclined plane, it is...
(a primitive lock with a single gate), of which the chamber survives. Its water supply comes from Quy Water, which flows through a mill just above the village before entering the lode near to the location of a basin and wharf. In medieval times, navigation along Quy Water was also possible, as there is evidence of moorings in the village of Quy. The Swaffham and Bottisham Drainage Commissioners were responsible for the lode from 1767, and were empowered to build staunches and collect tolls. The lode was never wide enough to take fen lighters, but smaller boats used it for most of the 19th century.
In 1875, the Drainage Commissioners spent £294 on a flash lock, which had a flagstone floor, a chamber constructed of white bricks, a timber guillotine gate, and a mechanism for raising the gate made from cast-iron, supported by a timber frame. The chamber was 11.75 feet (3.6 m) wide, and the mechanism included a winding drum with winding wheel, and cogwheels with ratchets. The timber frame was demolished in 1968 but the chamber still survives, some 1010 yards (923.5 m) upstream from the entrance gates.
Navigation on the lode ceased around 1900, and it is not currently navigable. The mill at Lode has been restored to working order by its owners, the National Trust
National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
. There is a pumping station and a set of mitred flood doors at the entrance to the lode, which were replaced in 2001, but the gates currently carry a "No unauthorised vessels" notice.
Swaffham Bulbeck Lode
Swaffham Bulbeck Lode joins the River Cam about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) below Bottisham Lode. It runs for 3.4 miles (5.5 km) to the hamlet of Commercial End, which was called Newnham until the early 19th century. Commercial End consists of a row of fine buildings, mainly dating from the late 17th and 18th century. The Commissioners of the Bedford Level were responsible for the drain during this period, and they cleared the channel and straightened the banks on several occasions in response to complaints. Use of the lode declined rapidly once the railways arrived in the area, and only the first 2 miles (3.2 km) to Slade Farm are currently navigable, as shallow water and low bridges prevent access beyond this point. There is a lock at the junction with the River Cam which can accommodate boats up to 96 by, with a maximum draught of 2 foot (0.6096 m). However the Environment Agency have modified the upstream lock gate, in order to improve flood control, with the result that the headroom below the guillotine gate is too low for boats to enter the lode.Reach Lode
Reach Lode joins the River Cam at Upware, a further 2.3 miles (3.7 km) below Swaffham Bulbeck Lode, and runs for 3 miles (4.8 km) to the village of Reach. From Reach, a defensive rampart and ditch, called Devil's Dyke, ran for a further 7.5 miles (12.1 km) in a straight line to Ditton Green. The ditch is around 15 feet (4.6 m) deep and the rampart some 18 feet (5.5 m) high. It was built in the Anglo-Saxon period, and is listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument, while the chalk grasslands which it contains have resulted in it being a designated Site of Special Scientific InterestSite of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...
(SSSI).
The village of Reach has been a trading port since Roman times. From the 13th century, a fair was held there, and it was at this time that the last 300 yards (274.3 m) of the Devils Dyke were levelled. Wharfs and basins were developed, and coasters brought a wide variety of products to Reach and to the fair. The coasters stopped when Denver Sluice was built on the River Great Ouse
River Great Ouse
The Great Ouse is a river in the east of England. At long, it is the fourth-longest river in the United Kingdom. The river has been important for navigation, and for draining the low-lying region through which it flows. Its course has been modified several times, with the first recorded being in...
, but smaller vessels continued to trade in agricultural produce, timber and a type of building material called clunch
Clunch
Clunch is a term for traditional building material used mainly in eastern England and Normandy. It is a term which encompasses a wide variety of materials, often locally variable....
, which were exported through Kings Lynn, while incoming trade included building materials, stone, salts, wines and spirits. A lock was built at the start of the lode in 1821, as a result of the passing of the Eau Brink Act, while the South Level Commissioners took over responsibility for the waterway in 1827. Trade declined rapidly after railways reached the area in the 1850s, but some carriers continued to operate, with the last load of 525 tonnes of clunch being shipped in the early 1930s, and some peat being carried for a few years after that.
Upware Lock, at 50 by, used to restrict the size of boats that could use the lode, and boats longer than 45 feet (13.7 m) could not be turned at Reach. However, the mitre gates at the downstream end have been replaced by a guillotine gate, enabling boats up to 63 feet (19.2 m) to gain access, and turning at Reach with a 58 feet (17.7 m) boat is possible. The lode is quite deep, for the surrounding land has sunk as the peat soils have dried out, and raising of the banks has resulted in the water being up to 10 feet (3 m) deep in places. In 2007 the Environment Agency considered options for lowering the level of Reach Load and possibly some of the other lodes, as a way to reduce the maintenance of the banks. The report concluded that maintaining them at their present level was still the best solution, and a policy of strengthening the embankments was adopted as the way to limit the risk of major repairs being needed in the future.
The Reach annual fair, which received a charter from King John, has been moved to the May bank holiday from its original Rogation Week date, to ensure that every Mayor of Cambridge, who by tradition opens the fair, gets to open one fair during a term of office. The movable date of Rogation Week meant that some mayors opened two fairs, and some did not open any.
Burwell Lode
Burwell Lode runs from the village of Burwell and joins Reach Lode about 0.75 miles (1.2 km) from the River Cam. The present course of the Lode was cut in the mid seventeenth century, replacing the previous course, which was referred to as the Old Lode. At Burwell, two branches diverge in opposite directions, both of which had wharves. 'Anchor Straits' to the south was used by coasters and 'Weirs' to the north was used by lighters.Burwell became more important than Reach when T. T. Ball opened the Burwell Chemical Works, which was built between 1864 and 1865. Fertilizer was produced from coprolites, ancient fossilised dung extracted from the newly-drained fens, using a process which had been developed by a man who lived locally. The works became the Patent Manure Works in the 1890s, and following a partnership, was owned by Colchester and Ball, who ran a fleet of three steam tugs and a large number of lighters, which were carrying around 10,000 tons a year by the early 20th century, despite the fact that the works had been served by a railway siding
Burwell Tramway
Burwell Tramway was a standard gauge industrial tramway which ran from the Ely-Newmarket line, just south of the Soham-Wicken A1123 road, to industries just north of Burwell Lode...
since 1900. Richard Ball had opened a brickworks nearby, which was served by a channel which became known as Factory Lode.
Prentice Brothers Ltd, who had built barges at Burwell until 1920, and repaired and maintained them there until 1936, took over the Manure Works in 1921. In addition to the fertilizer, the barges carried coal, stone and sugar beet, and the yellow bricks produced by the Burwell Brick Company. The toll structure was complicated, as the South Level Commissioners were responsible for both Burwell Lode and Reach Lode, but tolls of 3 pence (1.2p) per ton were payable to the Burwell Fen Drainage Commissioners, and a further 3 pence per ton for use of the connecting stretch of Reach Lode had to be paid to the Swaffham and Bottisham Drainage Commissioners.
The fertilizer company Fisons took over the factory in 1929. Prentice's lighters were bought by A. V. Jackson in 1936, and Jacksons continued to carry fertilizer until 1948. Trade in sugarbeet continued until 1963. Production of fertilizer at the site ceased in 1962, and the brickworks, which made up to 10 million bricks a year, finally closed in 1971.
The waterway is comparatively wide, at 40 to 45 ft (12.2 to 13.7 m), and the junction of the branches at Burwell provides a point at which long boats can be turned, but the modern lock at Upware restricts access to boats less than 63 feet (19.2 m) long. It is also quite deep, and the 2007 Strategy Study considered the option of reconstructing it at a lower level, but did not recommend this action.
Wicken Lode
Cyperaceae
Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses or rushes. The family is large, with some 5,500 species described in about 109 genera. These species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group...
from the fen was transported by boat from the sites where it was cut to a wharf near the head of the lode.
Wicken Fen
Wicken Fen
Wicken Fen is a wetland nature reserve situated near the village of Wicken, Cambridgeshire, England.It is one of Britain's oldest nature reserves, and was the first reserve acquired by the National Trust, in 1899. The reserve includes fenland, farmland, marsh, and reedbeds...
is one of the oldest nature reserves in England, as the National Trust
National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
bought their first part of it in 1899. Purchases have continued, and the Trust now manages 730 acres (295.4 ha) of wetland. It is not a true fen, as the area is higher than the surrounding land, but since 1956 the wetland has been maintained by a drainage windmill pump which was moved from its location at Adventurers Fen, to the south of the lode, and re-assembled to supply the Fen with water. The National Trust Warden's office includes a display which tells the history of the Fen and how it has been managed.
Soham Lode
Soham Lode runs for about 7 miles (11.3 km) from the River Great OuseRiver Great Ouse
The Great Ouse is a river in the east of England. At long, it is the fourth-longest river in the United Kingdom. The river has been important for navigation, and for draining the low-lying region through which it flows. Its course has been modified several times, with the first recorded being in...
about 1 miles (1.6 km) below its junction with the River Cam. Its origin is less well known than the other lodes, but it probably dates from the 1790s, when it was built to reduce flooding in the Soham and Fordham area, by carrying water from the River Snail, which formerly flowed into the River Lark
River Lark
The River Lark is a river in England, which crosses the border between Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. It is a tributary of the River Great Ouse, and was extended when that river was re-routed as part of drainage improvements. It is thought to have been used for navigation since Roman times, and...
, to join the Great Ouse instead. Soham is about half way along it, and was once close to a large inland lake called Soham Mere, which was drained in the late 18th century.
There is no evidence that the Lode was navigable beyond Soham. Lighters brought cargoes of corn to a water mill at Soham, and later brought coal when steam engines replaced the water wheel. Barley and timber were other important cargoes. Railways did not reach Soham until 1879, and resulted in the rapid demise of water-borne transport. Commercial traffic ceased about 1900, and the lode was described as un-navigable in a report by H. Dunn in 1906. There was a sluice at the entrance to the lode, with two sets of mitre gates, pointing in opposite directions, one to prevent flood waters from the Great Ouse entering the lode, and the other to raise the water level in the lode to make navigation easier. When the Anglian Water Authority was created by Act of Parliament
Act of Parliament
An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...
in 1977, the lode was not listed as a navigation, and their successors, the Environment Agency, have taken this to mean that there is no right of navigation.
There is now a pumping station and a set of mitred flood doors at the start of the lode, and although it is not officially navigable, two narrowboats navigated part of it in 2001, and there is increasing evidence that boats can and do use it as far as it is possible.