Sluice And Road Bridge At Outfall Of Snow Sewer/Warping Drain Into The River Trent

SK 89 NW OWSTON FERRY SOUTH STREET

15/144 Sluice and road bridge at outfall of Snow Sewer/Warping Drain into the River Trent

• II

Sluice and road bridge. Probably 1760s-70s with later repairs. Ashlar. East and west sides have three segmental-headed arches with central pair of flat-topped cutwaters and flanking revetment walls splayed-out to each side, coped parapet above between rectangular piers. The east side has vertical slots in the cutwaters and revetment walls for former sluice gates. The west side has the remains of the hinged timber sluice gates to the central channel; side channels now filled with earth. The Snow Sewer was cut, or re-cut, by Vermuyden in the 1620s-30s. The flood gates were destroyed by rebellious local inhabitants in 1642 and the sluice subsequently repaired. In 1764 John Smeaton reported on the Axholme drainage and following his recommendations the sluice was rebuilt with a lower sill. In the C19 the sluice and drain were also used for warping the adjacent land, a process whereby silt was deposited by controlled flooding. The sluice was largely superceded by mechanical pumps in the C20. G Dunston, The Rivers of Axholme, (no date), p 123; V Cory, Hatfield and Axholme, an Historical Review, 1986, pp 83-6, p 99.

Listing NGR: SK8137499448