… not just a meandering stream
By David Rowell
The history of the Maxey Cut reveals its importance as a flood relief channel as well as being a great servant to nature
For most of the year it is a mere stream of water – but at certain times it becomes a raging torrent as floodwater fills it to almost the top of the riverbank.
The Cut was man-made – dug out and constructed around 1954 to take flood water away from West Deeping, Market Deeping and Deeping St James when the River Welland was in flood.
Elderly residents still tell tales of wading through flood water to get from village to village. One man recalls being knee-high in water as he made his way from his home in Maxey to visit his bride-to-be in nearby Etton.
The Maxey Cut starts at Tallington and flows downstream past Lolham and Maxey and rejoins the River Welland near Peakirk.
Its history dates back to the 1940’s when a scheme to create flood defences across the area was initiated by the River Welland Catchment Board.
In those days the board was chaired by Justice of the Peace Edward Welby-Everard. It’s members included some names which are well known even today including the Marquis of Exeter, Colonel P.E. Brassey and Colonel D.D. Trollope-Bellew.
Although the work to dig the Cut didn’t start until 1954 the planning of the overall scheme to relieve the River Welland had got underway as early as 1944.
The actual work on the overall scheme started in 1947 widening, regrading and raising flood banks in the tidal channel of the Welland from Fosdyke Bridge to Marsh Road, Spalding between 1947 and 1949.
It had come too late to stop the disastrous floods of 1947 when adverse tidal conditions caused death and destruction from flooding – the worst in living memory. As a result the Board vowed to ensure that they would create a channel that would cope with conditions as bad or worse than at that time.
The whole scheme was devised in close consultation with engineers and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. The plans were devised and supervised throughout by the Board’s chief engineer Mr R.L.G Baxter in association with bridge consulting engineers Stirling, Maynard and Partners.
The Maxey Cut work got underway in 1954. Workers using giant diggers widened and regraded the old Maxey North Drain upstream as far as Lolham Bridges and the spoil was used to build flood banks to prevent any further flooding of the Maxey meadows and the Maxey drainage area.
The bed width of the channel varied from 45 to fifty feet and involved the removal of 242,000 cubic yards of soil. The main excavation work was carried out by G. Wimpey and Co and the bank formation, shaping and trimming was done by the Welland board’s own workmen.
This part of the project also involved creating a tidal sluice at the Maxey south drain outlet (done by board workers); underpinning Peakirk Railway Bridge, the Nine Bridge Viaduct and Woodgate Lane Bridge (Derek Crouch Ltd, Peterborough); creating the Etton Road bridge (W&C French, Wisbech) and Nunton Lodge Bridge (Dowsett Engineering).
From Lolham Bridges upstream to Tallington an entirely new channel had to be surveyed and designed before being dug out. This was sited to run north alongside the main rail line and then across country to Tallington. It had a bed width of 45 feet and 92,000 cubic yards of material was removed to form the banks.
The new Cut at the upstream end joined the two channels of the Welland – one leading to West Deeping and the other to Lolham and Maxey Mill. This work was completed by the winter of 1955 with the flood channels in operation early the next year.
Project was in stages
Work of the magnitude of the Welland improvement scheme obviously had to be done in stages and was carried out before and after the Maxey section was undertaken and included:
- The Fosdyke Bridge to Spalding work in 1947-49
- Piling and dredging from Cowbit Road, Spalding to Locks Mill (1948-49)
- Construction of the Spalding Coronation Channel (1948-53)
- Installation of a new sluice at Pigeon End (1954)
- Widening the channel between Cowbit and Crowland Washes to enable them to be used as a reservoir if needed (1951-53)
- Digging out a flood relief channel from near Deeping St James via the Maxey North Drain to Lolham Bridges and a new cut from there to the old course of the Welland near Tallington Church (1954-55)
- Widening, straightening and embanking the old river from Tallington to Uffington Bridge (1954-56)
- Construction of the Greatford Cut from Market Deeping to Greatford to take the surplus flow from the River Glen (1955-57)
- Later work involved stretches from Tallington to Uffington and work through the Deeping to areas like Kate’s Bridge and Greatford involving the River Glen.