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Middle Level Navigations (Middle Level Main Drain)

 
 
Information about the waterway

The Middle Level Navigations (Middle Level Main Drain) is a broad canal and is part of the Middle Level Navigations. It runs for 2 miles from Three Holes (where it joins the Middle Level Navigations (Sixteen Foot River) and the Middle Level Navigations (Popham's Eau)) to Mullicourt Aqueduct (Middle Level Main Drain) (which is a dead end).

The maximum dimensions for a boat to be able to travel on the waterway are 72 feet long and 13 feet wide. The maximum headroom is not known. The maximum draught is not known.

The navigational authority for this waterway is Middle Level Commissioners

Relevant publications — Waterway Maps:

Three Holes
Junction of Sixteen Foot River, Popham's Eau and Middle Level Drain
Three Holes Bridge ¼ furlongs 0 locks
Three Holes Mooring ½ furlongs 0 locks
Middle Level Main Drain - Old Popham's Eau Junction
Junction of Middle Level Main Drain with Old Popham's Eau
2 furlongs 0 locks
Bardyke Bank Bridge 6¼ furlongs 0 locks
Pingle Bridge 1 mile and 3¼ furlongs 0 locks
Mullicourt Aqueduct Winding Hole 1 mile and 7½ furlongs 0 locks
Mullicourt Aqueduct (Middle Level Main Drain) 2 miles 0 locks
 
 
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Wikipedia

Wikipedia has a page about Middle Level Navigations

The Middle Level Navigations are a network of waterways in England, primarily used for land drainage, which lie in The Fens between the Rivers Nene and Great Ouse, and between the cities of Peterborough and Cambridge. Most of the area through which they run is at or below sea level, and attempts to protect it from inundation have been carried out since 1480. The Middle Level was given its name by the Dutch Engineer Cornelius Vermuyden in 1642, who subsequently constructed several drainage channels to make the area suitable for agriculture. Water levels were always managed to allow navigation, and Commissioners were established in 1754 to maintain the waterways and collect tolls from commercial traffic.

A new main drain to Wiggenhall St Germans was completed in 1848, which provided better drainage because the outfall was lower than that at Salters Lode. Whittlesey Mere, the last remaining lake, was drained soon afterwards, using one of the first applications of John Appold's centrifugal pump, following its appearance at the Great Exhibition in 1851. Traffic on the network began to diminish after the opening of the railway through March in 1846, and fell dramatically in the early twentieth century. The last regular commercial traffic was the tanker barge Shellfen, which delivered fuel oil to pumping stations until 1971.

As a result of the drainage, land levels continued to fall, and in 1934 the gravity outfall at Wiggenhall St Germans was replaced by a pumping station, with three diesel engines driving 8 ft 6 in (2.6 m) diameter pumps. Its capacity was increased in 1951, and again in 1969–70, when two of the engines were replaced by electric motors. Following over 50 hours of continuous running at maximum capacity in 1998, a new pumping station was commissioned. Work on it began in 2006, and when it was completed in 2010, it was the second largest pumping station in Europe. Much of the drainage of the Middle Levels relies on pumping, and the Commissioners manage over 100 pumping stations throughout the area.

Interest in restoration of the Middle Levels for leisure traffic began in 1949, and the first significant work by volunteers occurred in 1972, when they worked on the restoration of Well Creek, which finally reopened in 1975. Since then, locks have been lengthened, to allow access by modern narrowboats, as they were built for Fen Lighters, which were only 49 feet (15 m) long. The southern reaches became more accessible in 2006, when a low Bailey bridge was raised by soldiers from the 39 Engineer Regiment. The system is managed by Commissioners, and they are the fourth largest navigation authority in Great Britain.

Other Wikipedia pages that might relate to Middle Level Navigations
[Middle Level Commissioners] clay hills. The Middle Level river system consists of over 120 miles (190 km) of watercourses most of which are statutory navigations and has a catchment [River Nene] Nene links the Grand Union Canal to the River Great Ouse, via the Middle Level Navigations. Much of its route has been upgraded to a wide canal with locks [River Great Ouse] access to the Middle Level Navigations, but the intervening section is tidal, and deters many boaters. Access to the Middle Level Navigations is also possible [River Cam] The Great Ouse also connects to England's canal system via the Middle Level Navigations and the River Nene. In total, the Cam runs for around 69 kilometres [Stonea] along Sixteen Foot Bank, a man-made river which forms part of the Middle Level Navigations. The largest settlement is on the bank near the Golden Lion pub [Navigation authority] Company Port of Tyne Middle Level Commissioners (Middle Level Navigations) National Trust (River Wey and Godalming Navigations) Port of London Authority [Bedford Level Corporation] Ouse Catchment Board in 1930. Bedford Level experiment Internal drainage board Middle Level Navigations - Middle Level waterways Prickwillow Museum - Museum [Navigation] another. Maritime navigation using scientific instruments such as the mariner's astrolabe first occurred in the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages. Although [Canal] horse wagons. Both navigations and canals use engineered structures to improve navigation: weirs and dams to raise river water levels to usable depths;
 
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