John Revell reverses Olive Emily into and through the Salters Lode sluice gate to join the Old Bedford river.

Following on from John Revell’s previous blog about the efforts to restore the Old Bedford river to navigation.  John follows up with his latest thoughts.  Photography by Mike Daines.

In November 2016 I took my narrowboat Olive Emily, based at Fox’s Marina in March, into the Old Bedford River via the tidal river Great Ouse at Salter’s Lode. This is not as simple as it sounds. It has to be done “on the level” and the Old Bedford and the narrow tidal channel which leads to it are in poor condition. As a result few boats have been willing or able to do this in recent years.
I attempted the same journey in November 2015 and managed about a mile before being forced to turn round through lack of water and a massive amount of cott weed which completely clogged up the propeller.
This year I emailed the Environment Agency (EA) well in advance on the 7th October advising them that I proposed to navigate the Old Bedford during the period 3 November to 5 November. I further explained that I would aim to cruise all the way to Welches Dam lock and I asked for confirmation that the Welney Guillotine Gate, through which we would have to pass, would be left in the raised (navigable) position. I never received a reply from EA.
I successfully entered the Old Bedford at 7.45 am on Saturday November 5. This was not straightforward (see photos) but the Middle Level Lock keeper and an EA staff member were very helpful and together with a volunteer crew of David Venn, Chairman of IWA Peterborough branch, Chris Howes, Ivan Cane and Mike Daines, I headed off towards Welches Dam.

A view rarely seen over the last ten year!. Looking over the prow of a narrowboat navigating the Old Bedford river towards Welney and Welches Dam lock.

We made quite good progress at first and soon we managed to pass our one mile progress marker from the previous year. After another mile or so there was evidence of dredging on the west bank with the spoil piled up along the bank and the digger visible in the far distance. It was this dredging that had quite obviously enabled our progress up to and beyond our one mile limit of the previous year.
Further ahead were the overhead electrical power lines that cross the river around three miles in from Salters Lode. A previous attempt in July 2008 to reach Welches Dam in my narrowboat, accompanied by Lois and Roy Parker in their cruiser Marie 2, had failed because this section hadn’t been dredged for years.
As we approached the power lines the river took on a glazed and milky look and we became engulfed in a mass of cott weed with the water level dropping to a silted muddy depth of just one foot.

Heading towards Welney on the Old Bedford river in November 2016. NB Olive Emily is about to run into a mass of cott weed and an undredged length of the river that runs beneath the power cables three miles from Salters Lode. This is evident from the uncovered section of bank underneath the pylons and the continuation of dredging further along towards Welney and Welched Dam lock.

It immediately became obvious that we couldn’t proceed any further and once again we would reluctantly have to abandon our goal and turn around. With much prodigious poling by the crew Olive Emily was slowly extracted from the glue and turned back into deeper water to make her return to Salters Lode.
We had again been defeated by the same problems as last year, insufficient depth of water, lack of dredging and masses of cott weed.
We had failed in our objective to reach Welches Dam lock which was stanked off by the EA in 2006. This lock has remained closed and impassable for 10 years despite the efforts of the IWA locally and nationally, the East Anglian Waterways Association, Fox Boats and the Project Hereward team. The “temporary” piling which was installed by the EA in 2006 covers most of the entrance to the lock so it is very effective at stopping boats but rather less effective at stopping leaks which was claimed to be the reason for the piling in the first place.
Two developments occurred between my email to the EA on 7 October and my passage on 5 November. Firstly, I found out late on 3 November that the Welney guillotine gate was in the down (unnavigable) position. This came as a surprise as I had been assured that it would remain up (navigable) position unless there was a change in river conditions.
I live in East Anglia and I knew that the weather in East Anglia had been dry for some time so the closure of the Welney gate was puzzling.

Olive Emily’s volunteer crew man the poles to extract her from the silt.

More importantly, the water level in the Old Bedford had been dropped by a foot in the week after I had notified EA of the dates of my proposed passage. This is even more puzzling and I have been unable to find out why this was done and by whom.
EA is a multi-functional organisation so any part of it might have authorised this action. It might have been done by flood control, it might have been fishing, it might have been engineering, it might have been navigation, it might have been environment. Who knows?”
Whatever the reason, this had made the tidal passage into the Old Bedford at Salters Lode unnecessarily difficult and muddy. It meant that that the depth of water in the Old Bedford was shallow throughout. It also meant that an attempt to enter the Old Bedford the previous day (November 4) had been unsuccessful and had had to be abandoned.
The general lack of depth became an insuperable problem when I had reached the stretch of very shallow un-dredged water, deep mud and glutinous cott weed close to the overhead electrical lines. Everyone knows that special precautions must be taken when working near them but this situation arises routinely on other rivers and canals and is easily overcome. Indeed the same overhead lines cross the nearby navigable New Bedford river, Well Creek at Nordelph and the Great Ouse at Littleport.

The Salters Lode sluice pictured from the Old Bedford. The water mark on the guillotine door is clearly marked and was a good two feet lower.

The Old Bedford is not a dead end waterway leading nowhere but is part of a long established route that needs to be restored to full navigation. It would make an interesting cruising ring. It has been navigable since 1637, well before the main canal era started. It is a statutory navigation and it needs to be maintained.
Although the Old Bedford remains officially open it will remain off limits for all but the most determined boater until it is deep enough, and dredged properly.
The Canal and River Trust (CRT) has built on the long experience of British Waterways in managing rivers so that they remain navigable most of the time but are closed when flood conditions require. Just think of the Rivers Soar, Trent, Severn, Avon, Weaver or the river sections of the Trent and Mersey or the Caldon or the Calder and Hebble to name just a few.
Would the current lamentable state of affairs in this part of the Fens be tolerated elsewhere on the system? Would this have been allowed to go on for so long if CRT managed it? Would it not be better if responsibility for navigation matters on waterways that are currently managed by EA be transferred to CRT?

John Revell and Mike Daines
14 November 2016

The post Navigating the Old Bedford River appeared first on Fox Narrowboats.

sunset on the Middle Level Navigation

Before reading this article further it is worth thinking back to 1984 when John Revell first visited the Middle Level Navigations.  In those days entry by boat to the system was restricted to boats of 49 feet in length because of the short locks at Stanground, Ashline and Marmont Priory. Fortunately during the 1990’s thanks to campaigning the locks were lengthened to take full length narrowboats. Before that in the 1970’s our first holiday hire narrowboats transited the Old Bedford river to access the Great Ouse river system at Denver, the reason being Well Creek was not navigable.  Thanks to the East Anglian Waterways Association, the Inland Waterways Association (Peterborough Branch) and the Well Creek Trust along with their campaigning members the waterways have been opened up for navigation, recreation and fishing to all. Their campaigning would have been fruitless without the willingness of the Middle Level Commissioners, the fourth largest and perhaps least well know navigation authority in the country.

Although I try and visit the main canal system in spring I usually leave my boat on the Middle Level for the summer and winter months. Not everyone is a fan of the Fens but I am.

On my first visit to the Middle Level in June 1984 I moored near a bridge and saw a narrow road leading towards what looked like a pub. I was right as I had arrived at the Three Horseshoes pub in Turves which was heaving with people on a Saturday night. My long journey had started at Bunbury near Chester and I was heading for the Fish and Duck near Ely. Both the pub locals and we were amazed that my journey had led me to Turves.

Sunrise on the Middle Level Navigation

We returned to the Middle Level in August that year and visited some of the remoter parts. As we struggled along one somewhat weedy stretch a farmer came out to say hallo. He said he only ever saw weed boats there and added that he wished there were a few more boats passing as he was looking for a wife.

Away from the “Link Route” the Middle Level is little used, even in the height of summer. On a day’s journey from Holme to Floods Ferry this summer I met one moving narrow boat, passed 2 friendly fishermen when I went up to Ramsey basin for lunch and saw 5 kingfishers. If you want a good sunset or sunrise , lots of wildlife and peace and quiet this is the place to be.

Fox Narrowboats at March, Bill Fen Marina at Ramsey and Peterborough Boating Centre (just the other side of Stanground lock) provide most boating services. Whittlesey, Ramsey and March have a good range of shops and pubs, Upwell and Outwell provide a smaller choice of shops but convenient short term moorings plus 2 butchers, 2 fish and chip shops , the Globe PH, the Crown PH and the Crown Lodge Hotel and an amazing display of daffodils each year.

Sunset on the Middle Level Navigation

Away from the bright lights there are several pubs that have managed to survive, the Golden Lion at Stonea, the George at Ramsey Forty Foot, the Five Alls at Benwick, the Lion at Ramsey St Marys, the Admiral Wells at Holme and the Three Horseshoes at Turves. The shop at Three Holes next to the public landing stage (paid for by the Peterborough Branch of the Inland Waterways Association and built by the Middle Level Commissioners) has recently been renovated with a café and the Village shop at Ramsey St Marys is just before the Lion PH.

Now, if only we can restore Horseways Channel, Welches Dam lock and the Old Bedford to full navigation.

This is a guest blog by John Revell waterways campaigner and mooring customer here at Fox Narrowboats.

The post The Middle Level Navigations – one boater’s view appeared first on Fox Narrowboats.

Old Bedford river

Lois and Roy Parker in their cruiser and Alastair and Jonathan Chambers and myself in my Fox narrowboat attempted to enter the Old Bedford river at Salters Lode on Saturday 5^th September 2015.

The Parkers were successful and locked through the Old Bedford sluice into the Old Bedford river. They then proceeded along the Old Bedford for about a mile, negotiating their way through dense clumps of floating reeds before being stopped by an impassable mass of cott weed.

The Parkers on the fresh water side of the tidal doors

They then turned round and made their way back through the sluice and returned to the Middle Level via the main lock at Salters Lode. Both tidal doors and guillotine gate at the Old Bedford sluice worked well and the Middle Level Commissioners’ relief lock keeper was very helpful.

I had no problems reaching the tidal doors in my narrowboat but was unable to enter the Old Bedford “on the level” on this occasion.

While we were there a canoe was launched and set off for Manea and I was watched by a common seal as I reversed into the main tidal river.

clumps of floating reeds Old Bedford

Navigating the Old Bedford remains problematical and efforts are being made to restore it as part of the East Anglian Waterways Association (EAWA) “Project Hereward” scheme. It is worth remembering that until the derelict Well Creek was restored to navigation there were only 2 ways to get from the Nene to the Great Ouse; either a sea crossing of the Wash or the route via the Old Bedford, Welches Dam lock, Horseways Channel and Horseways lock. It is not surprising that most boats, including Fox’s Hire Fleet, chose this latter route rather than the Wash.

#ProjectHereward

Thanks to John Revell mooring customer, for this guest article with photos.

The post Mooring customer John Revell talks of the Old Bedford river. appeared first on Fox Narrowboats.