Boston did not exist as a settlement prior to 1086, when the Domesday Book failed to mention it. At the time, it was probably an un-named hamlet to the west of the larger settlement of Skirbeck, for which there were two churches recorded and two priests. One would have been St Nicholas's in Skirbeck itself, and the other was probably St Botolph's, by which name the early settlement at Boston became known. The settlement grew rapidly during the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries, as it lay between the city of Lincoln and the North Sea. Wool and corn were shipped down the River Witham, and Boston's location on an island of higher ground where the river joined a wide creek or haven made it an ideal site for a port.[1]
Although the area to the north and west of Boston was a huge expanse of bog and marsh, the Haven was sufficiently shallow for it to have a ford. Two ancient trackways met there, one heading northwards to the Wolds, close to the route of the modern A16 road, while the other followed the coast, parts of which have been reused by the A52 road. The Wolds trackway ran along a slightly raised causeway called the "stick", and had been used in prehistoric and Roman times.[2]
In the 12th century Boston and its Haven became busy with trade as wool was brought into the town for export, particularly to Flanders. A century later, the volume of wool exported exceeded that shipped from London. Other commodities included wheat, sea-salt, woollen cloth manufactured in Lincoln and Stamford, lead from Derbyshire and iron from Yorkshire.[3] Imports included wine and finished cloth produced in the Low Countries from the wool that had been exported.[4]
By around 1800, the lower reaches of The Haven had become of network of winding channels, increasingly plagued by deposits of sand and silt, which made the use of Boston as a port problematic. It also resulted in increased flooding within the town. Boston Corporation therefore asked John Rennie to suggest a solution for the 13.5 miles (21.7km) of waterway from the Black Sluice to the sea. He proposed two solutions, the first of which involved straightening the channel between Skirbeck Church and the outfall of Hobhole Drain, from where a new cut would be created to reach the sea. The second was for a new cut from Skirbeck Church running to the north of the existing channel. The corporation chose the first option, which would shorten the distance to the sea by 4.5 miles (7.2km). Work began in 1830 on an 800-yard (730m) section above the Hobhole outfall. This reduced the length of the channel by 1.5 miles (2.4km) and took three years to complete. Some of the channel was straightened by placing bundles of sticks known as fascines at outside bends. These resulted in silt being deposited on those bends, and the channel becoming straighter. Fascine work was carried out in 1841 and 1860. Silting of the river outfall became worse, and three Ruston steam navvies were used to create a new cut from Hobhole outfall to the Wash between 1880 and 1884.[5]
Town Bridge prevented ships with masts from passing further upsteam, but river boats heading for Lincoln used the churchyard of St Botolphs as a quay. Once construction of the Grand Sluice was completed in 1766, they used a wharf above the sluice. On The Haven, boats used Packhouse Quay, subsequently known as Custom House Quay. To improve moorings, brick and stone walls were built on both banks of the river in 1815, from Assembly Rooms to Packhouse Quay on the east bank and at Doughty Quay on the west bank. Public warehouses were also built to serve both quays. However, by the 1880s ships resting on the mud at low tide was not particularly safe, and in parallel with the new channel to the Wash, a wet dock was built. All of the Victorian warehousing that was built has since been replaced by modern industrial units, as the port handles around one million tonnes of cargo each year.[6]
The first ship to sail up the realigned channel and into the dock was the Myrtle, a 1,700-ton ship carrying cotton seed, which berthed in the dock on 20 December 1884. Development of the port had taken around 90 years, but resulted in a channel which scoured itself, needing little dredging. Land drainage in the area was also improved, as water levels on the downstream side of the Grand Sluice were reduced by around 4 feet (1.2m).[5]
The "Fehn Cartagena" unloading a cargo of stone while moored on a mudbank in The Haven, opposite the Black Sluice
Improvements to The Haven convinced a group of businessmen to set up the Boston Deep Sea Fishing and Ice Company in 1885. Initially they worked two new-build steam trawlers and seven sailing smacks, but gradually phased out the smacks, as the trawlers were more profitable. By 1890, they had 24 trawlers, and later amalgamated with the Boston Steam Fishing Company, another company which operated from The Haven. Fred Parkes, who had four boats of his own, joined the company in 1919. He wanted to replace older trawlers with new ones, but facing opposition, he waited until 1924, by which time he owned a controlling interest in the company. The new trawlers returned the company to profitability. In 1922, The Haven was blocked for three months when a coaster capsized. The company finally managed to salvage the sunken vessel, but Boston Corporation were unwilling to pay the recovery costs despite having agreed to do so. This together with a decline in the fishing industry led to the company moving its fleet to Fleetwood in Lancashire in 1923 and Boston delining as a fishing port.[7]
In 2020, Boston still has a fishing fleet of around 26 boats, but rather than deep sea trawlers, they work locally landing their catches of cockles, mussels and shrimps.[8][9] As a result of the Boston Harbour Revision Order 1989, Boston Council ceased to be the harbour authority, and this role was taken over by the Port of Boston Limited.[10] The port is operated by Victoria Group, with facilities for docking eight ships within the wet dock and six at riverside berths. Types of cargo handled include steel, paper and forest products together with containers, bulk, palletised and general goods.[11]
Course
The Haven starts at the Grand Sluice, which marks the end of the non-tidal River Witham. This consists of four channels, three of them containing sluice doors on the upstream and downstream faces, which regulate flow through the sluice, and a fourth wider one by the east bank containing a lock structure with two sets of gates. The A1137 road passes over the top of the sluice, supported by four segmental arches constructed of red brick, which now carry a modern concrete bridge deck on top of them. The sluice was built between 1764 and 1766 by John Grundy and Langley Edwards, while the alterations to include the lock were made in 1883. The bridge carries an inscription: "Lock opened by Edmund Turner Esq. on 8th December 1883. John Evelyn Williams engineer, William Rigby, contractor." The concrete deck to the road bridge dates from the 20th century.[12]
The next bridge downstream is St Botolph's Footbridge, close to St Botolph's Church. A 213-foot (65m) bowstring arch bridge was craned into position on 22 February 2014, to replace a steel structure dating from the 1970s. Access ramps were installed on the following day, and the surrounding area was enhanced subsequently. Part of the rationale for the new bridge, which was designed and installed by the civil engineers Britcon, was that it would be accessible to those with mobility scooters, wheelchairs and pushchairs.[13]
Town Bridge was the first cast-iron bridge to be built by John Rennie. It was originally designed to have a span of 72 feet (22m), but this was increased to 86 feet (26m) without increasing the rise of 5.5 feet (1.7m). Some doubts were expressed about its stability, and some of the ironwork developed fractures which needed strapping, but the structure lasted until 1912.[14] Rennie's stone bases were retained, but a new cast-iron bridge deck was installed by John Webster in 1913. Prior to 1806, the main crossing of the river was slightly further upstream.[15]
Haven Bridge carries the A16 road across The Haven. A public enquiry was held in December 1956, at which the council proposed one route for the future inner relief road, and objectors proposed an alternative route. The bridge was eventually opened in 1966, but the inner relief road, by then renamed John Adams Way, was not completed until 12 years later.[16]
The final bridge on The Haven is a single track railway swing bridge, constructed in 1882 by Handysides of Derby. It enabled the docks to be connected to the Great Northern Railway. The structure was partly assembled at Derby, and all the parts were delivered to the site in November 1882, where they were put together. The hydraulic control system is operated from an octagonal control cabin on the west bank of The Haven.[17]
Below the swing bridge is the entrance lock to the South Forty-Foot Drain, also known as the Black Sluice Navigation. This was commissioned in 2009, as part of the Fens Waterways Link, and allows boats to access 19 miles (31km) of waterway. There are plans to provide a through link to the River Glen and onwards to Peterborough.[18] The Haven than passes through the tidal barrier and the entrance to the wet dock. The volume of water is swelled by the outfall from Maud Foster Drain and Hobhole Drain, both part of the Witham Navigable Drains although there is no access by boat to either of these drains from The Haven. Finally, it joins the Welland outfall at Boston Deeps, near Black Buoy Sand.[19]
Boston Barrier
Historically, Boston has been affected by tidal flooding, caused by tidal surges passing up The Haven from the Wash. Flooding from this cause was particularly severe in 1953 and 1978.[20] Following the creation of a new tidal lock in 2008 to allow boats to enter the South Forty-Foot Drain from the Haven, phase 1b of the project to create a navigable waterway between Boston and Spalding involved the construction of the Boston Barrier. As well as being part of wider flood defence works, this would allow boats to pass through Boston town centre to access the South Forty Foot Drain at most states of the tide. At the time, it was expected that the project would be completed by 2013,[21] but work did not start, and serious flooding occurred again in 2013, when over 800 homes and 79 businesses were inundated.[20]
The floods raised public awareness of the need to protect Boston from tidal flooding, and as many of the details of implementing a water level management scheme through the town were still to be resolved, the partnership responsible for the barrier resolved to create a flood defence structure which would not preclude management of water levels at a later date.[22] The floods had also damaged three of the five pumps at the Black Sluice pumping station, and although the Environment Agency considered transferring the station to the Black Sluice Internal Drainage Board, the costs were huge for very little benefit, and they decided instead to decommission the station. If water level management within The Haven remained unchanged, they could discharge more water from the South Forty-Foot Drain through the gravity sluice and the adjacent navigation lock than they could with all five pumps running.[23]
Following a public enquiry in 2017, a £100 million project to build the barrier and associated flood defence works on both sides of the river, including widening the access to the Port of Boston wet dock, was awarded by the Environment Agency to the civil engineers BMMJV, a joint venture consisting of BAM Nuttall and Mott MacDonald.[20] The costs of the scheme were met by the government's Flood Defence Grant in Aid fund, after it was deemed to be a national priority project in 2014.[24]
The main components of the scheme were a rising sector gate, 85 feet (26m) wide by 36 feet (11m) high, which can be raised to prevent tidal surges moving further upstream, and a vertical sector gate, 59 feet (18m) wide by 38 feet (11.6m) high, to control the entrance to the wet dock. The rising sector gate weighs 362 tonnes and is moved by two 55-tonne hydraulic rams. The scheme also included a control building for the barrier, higher flood defence walls along the river, including landscaping of the right bank, and the placing of matting on the bed of the river either side of the barrier, to prevent scouring undermining the structure. The construction of the barrier was innovative, as it is quite different to the Thames Barrier in its design, and the only other similar structure, that at Ipswich on the River Orwell, is some 30 per cent smaller, and had not been commissioned at the time the Boston Barrier project began.[20] Work began on the project in 2018,[25] and the sector gate, which was manufactured in Holland, was delivered in November 2019. The gate was operational by December 2020, and the completed scheme offers better flood protection to nearly 14,000 homes and businesses. The entrance to the wet dock was widened from 52 feet (16m) to 59 feet (18m), with the existing timber V-gates being replaced by a single pair of vertical sector gates.[26]
Because the work affected navigation, it was authorised by a Transport and Works Act 1992 Order.[21] The Transport and Works Act (1992) was introduced to simplify the process of obtaining permission for the construction or alteration of railways and inland navigations, and any work which interferes with rights of navigation.[27] The completed barrier was recognised in the civil engineering world, receiving six awards, four from the Institution of Civil Engineers, one from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, and an Environment Agency Flood and Coast Award.[26] The National Audit Office noted in 2023 that delivery of parts of the project were four year overdue, and that costs had escalated from £124million to £184million. This was partly due to work starting before the project had been fully scoped, in order to meet government deadlines for flood defence targets.[28]
Historical connection
In 1607, The Haven, between Boston and the sea (TF 361 402), was the scene of the first, abortive, attempt of the ScroobyPilgrims, to leave England. Ultimately, in 1620, they became part of the original settlement of Plymouth, Massachusetts.[29]
The River Parrett flows through the counties of Dorset and Somerset in South West England, from its source in the Thorney Mills springs in the hills around Chedington in Dorset. Flowing northwest through Somerset and the Somerset Levels to its mouth at Burnham-on-Sea, into the Bridgwater Bay nature reserve on the Bristol Channel, the Parrett and its tributaries drain an area of 660 square miles (1,700 km2) – about 50 per cent of Somerset's land area, with a population of 300,000.
Boston is a market town and inland port in the borough of the same name in the county of Lincolnshire, England.
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 through the centre of Grantham, passes Lincoln at SK9771 and at Boston, TF3244, flows into The Haven, a tidal arm of The Wash, near RSPB Frampton Marsh. The name "Witham" seems to be extremely old and of unknown origin. Archaeological and documentary evidence shows the importance of the Witham as a navigable river from the Iron Age onwards. From Roman times it was navigable to Lincoln, from where the Fossdyke was constructed to link it to the River Trent. The mouth of the river moved in 1014 following severe flooding, and Boston became important as a port.
The River Welland is a lowland river in the east of England, some 65 miles (105 km) long. It drains part of the Midlands eastwards to The Wash. The river rises in the Hothorpe Hills, at Sibbertoft in Northamptonshire, then flows generally northeast to Market Harborough, Stamford and Spalding, to reach The Wash near Fosdyke. It is a major waterway across the part of the Fens called South Holland, and is one of the Fenland rivers that were laid out with washlands. There are two channels between widely spaced embankments with the intention that flood waters would have space in which to spread while the tide in the estuary prevented free egress. However, after the floods of 1947, new works such as the Coronation Channel were constructed to control flooding in Spalding, and the washlands are no longer used solely as pasture, but may be used for arable farming.
The River Hull is a navigable river in the East Riding of Yorkshire in Northern England. It rises from a series of springs to the west of Driffield, and enters the Humber Estuary at Kingston upon Hull. Following a period when the Archbishops of York charged tolls for its use, it became a free navigation. The upper reaches became part of the Driffield Navigation from 1770, after which they were again subject to tolls, and the section within the city of Hull came under the jurisdiction of the Port of Hull, with the same result.
The Foss Dyke, or Fossdyke, connects the River Trent at Torksey to Lincoln, the county town of Lincolnshire, and may be the oldest canal in England that is still in use. It is usually thought to have been built around AD 120 by the Romans, but there is no consensus among authors. It was refurbished in 1121, during the reign of King Henry I, and responsibility for its maintenance was transferred to the city of Lincoln by King James I. Improvements made in 1671 included a navigable sluice or lock at Torksey, and warehousing and wharves were built at Brayford Pool in the centre of Lincoln.
The River Nar is a river in England, a tributary of the River Great Ouse. It rises at Mileham near Litcham in Norfolk and flows 15 miles west through Castle Acre and Narborough, joining the Ouse at King's Lynn. It has had a variety of alternative names, such as the Setch, the Sandringham, and Lynn Flu, though these are rarely, if ever, used today. In 2011 the Nar was recognised by the Environment Agency as one of the top ten most improved rivers in England and Wales.
Bow Back Rivers or Stratford Back Rivers is a complex of waterways between Bow and Stratford in east London, England, which connect the River Lea to the River Thames. Starting in the twelfth century, works were carried out to drain Stratford Marshes and several of the waterways were constructed to power watermills. Bow Creek provided the final outfall to the Thames, and the other channels were called Abbey Creek, Channelsea River, City Mill River, Prescott Channel, Pudding Mill River, Saint Thomas Creek, Three Mills Back River, Three Mills Wall River and Waterworks River.
The River Lymn is a river in Lincolnshire, England. It rises in the Wolds on the eastern slope of Castcliffe Hill in Fulletby parish. It flows south-eastwards to the Lincolnshire Marsh, where it becomes known as the Steeping River on the boundary of Great Steeping parish. The main channel is supplemented by the Wainfleet Relief Channel as it passes Wainfleet All Saints, and the relief channel is joined by the old course of the Lymn. Once the two channels rejoin, there are three flood defence structures to protect the region from flooding by the North Sea.
The South Forty-Foot Drain, also known as the Black Sluice Navigation, 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 and the Black Sluice pumping station on The Haven, at Boston. The Drain has its origins in the 1630s, when the first scheme to make the Fen land available for agriculture was carried out by the Earl of Lindsey, and has been steadily improved since then. Water drained from the land entered The Haven by gravity at certain states of the tide until 1946, when the Black Sluice pumping station was commissioned.
Adlingfleet is a drained, fertile, former marshland village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Twin Rivers, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is 6.5 miles (10.5 km) east-southeast of Goole town centre. Its sea wall along the far north-east is set back from the Ouse estuary leaving the largest single reedbed in England. In 1961 the parish had a population of 137.
The Forty Foot or Forty Foot Drain is a name given to several of the principal channels in the drainage schemes of the Fens of Eastern England, the name being qualified when there is a need to distinguish between them. They are Vermuyden's Drain, South Forty Foot and North Forty Foot.
The Fens Waterways Link is a project to improve recreational boating opportunities in the counties of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire, England. By a combination of improvements to existing waterways and the construction of new links a circular route between Lincoln, Peterborough, Ely and Boston is planned. The project is being organised by the Environment Agency and financed from the Regional Development Agency and the European Union.
Three Mills Wall River Weir is a weir on the Bow Back Rivers, in Mill Meads in the London Borough of Newham, England, near to Three Mills. It was built in 2009, when the Bow Back Rivers were refurbished to make them a key feature of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, and maintains water levels through much of the park in conjunction with the Three Mills Lock and sluice on the Prescott Channel.
The Witham Navigable Drains are located in Lincolnshire, England, and are part of a much larger drainage system managed by the Witham Fourth District Internal Drainage Board. The Witham Fourth District comprises the East Fen and West Fen, to the north of Boston, which together cover an area of 97 square miles (250 km2). In total there are over 438 miles (705 km) of drainage ditches, of which under 60 miles (97 km) are navigable. Navigation is normally only possible in the summer months, as the drains are maintained at a lower level in winter, and are subject to sudden changes in level as a result of their primary drainage function, which can leave boats stranded. Access to the drains is from the River Witham at Anton's Gowt Lock.
The Black Sluice is the name given to the structure that controls the flow of the South Forty-Foot Drain into The Haven, at Boston, Lincolnshire, England.
The Sowy River is an artificial drainage channel in Somerset, England, designed to act as a flood relief channel for the River Parrett. Water from the Parrett can be diverted into it just below Langport, and is conveyed to the King's Sedgemoor Drain, which discharges back into the Parrett much nearer to its outfall into the Bristol Channel. Following extensive flooding of the surrounding land in 2014, new culverts to carry the river under the A372 road at Beer Wall were constructed, and a three-year project to raise the banks and widen the channel to increase its capacity was undertaken.
The Beverley and Barmston Drain is the main feature of a land drainage scheme authorised in 1798 to the west of the River Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The area consisted of salt marshes to the south and carrs to the north, fed with water from the higher wolds which lay to the north, and from inundation by tidal water passing up the river from the Humber. Some attempts to reduce the flooding by building embankments had been made by the fourteenth century, and windpumps appeared in the seventeenth century. The Holderness Drainage scheme, which protected the area to the east of the river, was completed in 1772, and attention was then given to resolving flooding of the carrs.
Hedon Haven is a waterway that connected the Humber Estuary with the port of Hedon, in Holderness, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The waterway allowed ships to unload at the port in Hedon, which was also known as Hedon Haven and had, at its peak, three canalised arms that stretched into the town. The port at Hedon was the main port for south Holderness between the 12th and 13th centuries, and was the busiest port in Holderness before the docks at Hull were built.
The Upper Witham IDB is an English Internal Drainage Board responsible for land drainage and the management of flood risk for an area to the west of the Lincolnshire city of Lincoln, broadly following the valleys of the upper River Witham, the River Till and the course of the Fossdyke Navigation.
Skempton, Sir Alec; etal. (2002). A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland: Vol 1: 1500 to 1830. Thomas Telford. ISBN978-0-7277-2939-2.
Woolford, Bryan (November 2008). Waterways X - Boston to Spalding Link. Lincolnshire Waterways Partnership newsletter.
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