page_title: Bourne Eau
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Bourne Eau / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The location of the terminus of the Bourne Eau Navigation at Bourne, Lincolnshire
context_page_description: Bourne Eau is a short river which rises in the town of Bourne in Lincolnshire, England, and flows in an easterly direction to join the River Glen at Tongue End. It is an embanked river, as its normal level is higher than that of the surrounding Fens. It was navigable in the 18th and 19th century, but now forms an important part of the drainage system that enables the surrounding fen land to be used for agriculture.
context_section_description: From 1765, the north bank of the river was the responsibility of the Black Sluice Commissioners, a body which had been created by an Act of Parliament, to construct the Black Sluice where the South Forty-Foot Drain entered The Haven at Boston, and to supervise the drainage of the Fens feeding that system. The north bank was a serious problem, as it was built on a peat subsoil, and defied attempts to raise it, with the result that the Bourne Fens often flooded. Improvements to the 3.5 miles (5.6 km) of river from the River Glen junction to the town of Bourne were authorised by an act of Parliament obtained on 29 March 1781, which suggested that the river had previously been navigable, but had become choked with mud. The act created a body of 12 trustees, who were empowered to maintain a channel which was 30 feet (9.1 m) wide by 5 feet (1.5 m) deep. The navigation included two locks, one near the junction with the Glen, and the other near Bourne.
  In order to ease the problems caused by the north bank, the Black Sluice Commissioners negotiated with the Trustees to allow them to build a set of flood gates at Tongue End, where the river joined the Glen, and an overfall weir, which allowed surplus water to flow over the bank and into the Weir Dyke in Bourne Fen. The self-acting doors were replaced by a sluice in the 1860s, which effectively brought navigation to an end, and the sluice was replaced by a pumping station in 1966, which removed the need for the overfall weir.
caption: The location of the terminus of the Bourne Eau Navigation at Bourne
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