Syphon Carrying South Level Engine Drain Under The River Torne Approximately 200 Metres South East Of Pilfrey Farm

SE 80 NW KEADBY WITH ALTHORPE A 18 SE 8095 0990 Pilfrey 8/124 Syphon carrying South Level Engine Drain under the River Torne approximately 200 metres south-east of Pilfrey Farm

• II

Drain syphon. c1813 by Thackray. Tooled ashlar facing and parapet. Brick tunnels. Approximately 50 metres long from north to south. North and south sides have 3 segmental-headed tunnel entrances flanking a pair of rounded cutwaters, with a band and coped parapet between rectangular end piers. The tunnels slope sharply down below the waterline. Carries the combined waters of South Level Engine Drain and Folly Drain below the former course of the River Torne (now disused) and the A18 road. The River Torne was cut between 1629-39 by Cornelius Vermuyden; South Level Engine Drain [prior to 1858 known as the New Idle River] was cut as part of the improvements made by Samuel Foster 1795 or shortly after. The syphon appears to be part of further improvements made by Thackray in or after 1813, following John Rennies proposals. The upper drain (River Torne) has since been diverted and the original course now fallen into disuse. Other drain syphons survive at Sandtoft, Belton parish (qv), and south of the A18, Crowle parish (qv). G Dunston, The Rivers of Axholme, (no date), p 49; MHAD "How the Drains Came", pt 11, Appleby-Frodingham News, vol 15, No 4, 1962, pp 29-30; V Cory, Hatfield and Axholme an Historical Review, 1986, p 84.

Listing NGR: SE8095309911