‘Olive Emily’ built by Fox Narrowboats and the Old Bedford River

In 2006 the Environment Agency (EA) piled the entrance to Welches Dam Lock near Chatteris. John Revell, owner of ‘Olive Emily, (built by Fox Narrowboats and moored at Foxes Marina) describes the latest campaigning cruise to draw attention to its continuous closure 11 years later and to reinstate a historic route to the Middle Level and beyond.

In November 2017 ‘Olive Emily’ managed to navigate the Old Bedford River from the tidal sluice at Salters Lode to the current head of navigation at Welches Dam lock. Although the Old Bedford is　a statutory navigation first opened in 1637 it remains difficult to access and little used. The only way into the Old Bedford now is via a tricky tidal channel.

A successful trip along the Old Bedford took place in April involving 3 narrowboats, ‘Lily May’ (also built by Foxes and owned by Chris Howes), ‘Ever After’ (Jeff Walters) and myself in ‘Olive Emily’. EA advised us beforehand that it would have been better to make the trip in May.

A second successful trip was made in July by 2 boats (cruiser ‘Marie II’ and ‘Olive Emily’) but on this occasion　 EA strongly advised us to either cancel it or postpone it for 4 months until the scheduled weed cut had taken place in　October.　Therefore I notified EA in October that I wished to navigate the Old Bedford during November. The dates of 13 and 14 November 2017 were confirmed and Chris Howes (‘Lily May’) and Jeff Walters (‘Ever After’) offered to join me in their boats.

On 13 November all three boats locked out of the Middle Level lock at Salters Lode into the tidal Great Ouse. I then attempted to enter the narrow tidal channel leading to the Old Bedford sluice. This looked hopeless because it had not been dredged and was badly silted up. To make matters worse, there was a sand bar right at the entrance with only 3″ of water covering it. Ducks might have been able to enter the Old Bedford ‘on the level’ but I couldn’t.

I therefore turned the boat round and started to dig a channel to the Old Bedford sluice using the propellor in reverse gear. This was repetitive and time consuming but worked and I was able to enter the non tidal river still in reverse just after the tide turned. Chris and Jeff were less fortunate and were unable to follow me which was very disappointing for all concerned including the many onlookers.

Amongst those watching was David Mercer from Project Hereward

We then set off for Welney and moored overnight outside the Lamb and Flag, a short distance from the single guillotine gate which had been raised by EA for this journey. The Lamb and Flag is a great pub with local Elgoods beer, excellent food, fine old photos, large stuffed fish in glass cases, accommodation if we had needed it and a real fire.

At 8 am the next morning we headed off for Welches Dam lock 6 miles away. This is an attractive location with a fine lock-side cottage close to the extensive RSPB Ouse Washes nature reserve. It looked particularly good in the autumn light and we received a warm welcome from one of the residents.

Welches Dam lock remained completely impassable as it has been since 2006 and once again I had no alternative but to turn round and head back via Welney (but missing out the pub this time) to the Old Bedford sluice at Salters Lode. Fortunately, leaving the Old Bedford proved far easier than entering, perhaps because I had already laboriously dug a channel on the way in.

Following discussions with the Middle Level Lock keeper and a member of EA’s Navigation team I reversed ‘Olive Emily’ a short distance into the tidal channel at low water. This enabled them to shut the tidal doors behind me and for ‘Olive Emily’ to rest on soft mud just outside the sluice. Soon after the boat　lifted on the incoming tide and I then reversed into the main tidal river and then (in forwards) re-entered Salters Lode and the Middle Level.

I am pleased to have made 3 trips along the Old Bedford during 2017 and I look forward to the day when the ancient route connecting the rest of the waterways system via Welches Dam Lock (continuously closed by EA since 2006) and Horseway Channel (also EA managed and unnavigable) is fully restored. Re-opening this route would reinstate a cruising ring which includes some of the oldest waterways in the country.

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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

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Here are six secrets about Project Hereward that every Fenland boater should know.

1) This 2 ½ mile channel of 40 foot drain was navigable as recently as 1995, but is now neglected and overgrown with vegetation: Not a fish or a boat in sight.

2) Historical importance: As it was constructed around 1649 it actually pre-dates the Duke of Bridgewater’s first canal by over 100 years!

3) The Forty Foot River is midway between March and Ely and is the broken link in a chain of waterways from the Great Fen in the West to Wicken Fen in the East. When restored it would link the rest of the UK canal network through the Middle Level to the Great Ouse system.

4) It could be a key part of the future Fenland Waterways Link because it will make it possible for boats to travel from the Middle Level to the Great Ouse System without crossing the tidal river at Salter’s Lode.

5) Although there are already over 600 boats on the Middle Level Navigations this new waterway would draw more leisure craft to the waterways and holiday and day-boat hire would increase. Because this will be an easier and more convenient route from the River Nene to the Great Ouse, more boats will be expected to travel through the Middle Levels benefitting many local businesses and attractions.

6) Phases 1 and 2 are already underway! Phase 1 is to evaluate existing problems on the forty foot drain between the locks. Phase 2 is to create a detailed plan of action for a revitalised Waterway For All, and negotiate with the Environment Agency and riparian landowners.

What Next?

The Project Hereward team meets formally every month: Phase 3 is to cost the plan!

The waterways that make up the Middle Level system are a mixture of natural rivers and man-made channels that were started early in the 17th century. Our hire boat base in March is at the heart of the Middle Levels. Browse possible holiday routes here and explore the Middle Levels for yourself this summer!

You may also like: Fox Boats Mooring Customer is First Narrowboat in Old Bedford in 2015.

The post The Restored Navigation That Holiday Boaters are Going to Love 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.

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