1927 Upgrade

v t e Adlingfleet Drain
Legend
River Trent New and old sluices Horsegroves + Fourstangs drains Hoggard Lane bridge Mains bridge, Adlingfleet Cowlane sluice + pumping station Cowland drain Cowlane bridge, Adlingfleet Fockerby Drain Willowbank bridge Cleggs Drain Fockerby Branch, Axholme Joint Rly A161 Whinsgate bridge Dodds Dyke + Eastoft Drain Eastoft railway station Railway Drain + Axholme Joint Rly

After periodic flooding in the 1920s, a survey was made, indicating that the fall on the main drain was around 2 inches per mile (30 mm per km), which was not sufficient for good drainage by gravity. Based on the premise that a pumping scheme had an annual cost for running and maintenance, whereas lowering the cill was essentially a one-time cost, the Commissioners of the Adlingfleet and Whitgift Drainage Board asked for tenders for a new sluice in December 1926. The cill would be 2.5 feet (0.76 m) lower than the existing one, and the contract was for construction of the sluice and work on the drain itself, to make it wider and deeper. Near the sluice, the channel would be 75 feet (23 m) wide at the top, 12 feet (3.7 m) wide at the bottom and 20.5 feet (6.2 m) deep. Decreasing sizes were specified for six sections over its 4-mile (6.4 km) length, with the final section being 10 feet (3.0 m) wide at the bottom and only 1.83 feet (0.56 m) deep. Various bridges would need their foundations lowered and other improvements to be made, while Gill's Close bridge was to be dismantled and not replaced.^[16]

The previous sluice was 10 feet (3.0 m) wide, built of masonry, and was in an unstable condition by this time. The new one would be 16 feet (4.9 m) wide, with wing walls making the entire structure 61 feet (19 m) wide. It would be 105 feet (32 m) long, and the cill would be 22.5 feet (6.9 m) below the highest tide level. Construction would be of reinforced concrete, and the sluice would be built slightly to the north of the existing one, so that it could be completed without interrupting the discharge from the drain. Eleven quotations were received, and the contract was awarded to H. Arnold and Son of Doncaster on 15 February 1927, whose estimate was for £13,847. Having built the sluice structure, a new channel was excavated by mechanical excavator, to connect it to the existing drain. On the river side, the new channel was dredged by the Aire and Calder Navigation Company and covered with stone. They had the necessary plant to complete this part of the work. The benefits were expounded by Simmons, the engineers for the work, in an article which appeared in The Concrete Way in 1929, where he stated that following the work, the water levels in winter were several inches below the normal summer levels.^[16] In August 1932 Simmons produced a specification for sluice doors to be installed at Willowbank bridge,^[17] but they were not installed.

Current state

A sluice with pumps was eventually built to the north of Cowlane bridge in Adlingfleet.^[18] The control building carries the date 1984 on a large stone built into the walls. Construction of a sewage treatment works next to the sluice was well advanced in 2011. The bridges at Hoggards Lane, Cowlane and Willowbank have been replaced by corrugated steel tubes, backfilled up to the level of the road surface. Mains bridge is still a single arched brick structure, while at the end of the drain, Whinsgate bridge consists of the main brick arch under the A161 road, with arches in both wing walls, which enable tracks to cross Dodds Dyke and Eastoft Drain. The southern track over Eastoft Drain was formerly the course of the Fockerby Branch of the Axholme Joint Railway until its closure in 1965.^[19] At the outfall, the pointed gates have gone, replaced by a circular opening through a massed concrete infill, with a flap gate on the outlet side, and a vertical lifting steel gate on the inland side.

Responsibility for the drain changed in 2005, when the Adlingfleet and Whitgift Drainage Commissioners amalgamated with five other Internal Drainage Boards, to become part of the Isle of Axholme Internal Drainage Board.^[20] It changed again on 1 April 2011, when the new body amalgamated with three more Internal Drainage Boards to become the Isle of Axholme and North Nottinghamshire Water Level Management Board.^[21]

Eels

The presence of barriers across waterways has been identified as one of the factors behind the decline in eel populations, and following new regulations introduced in 2009, a study was carried out to assess which catchments bordering the Humber could provide suitable habitat for eels. Those with pumps were eliminated, but eight waterways were identified as possible candidates for the fitting of eel passes to aid eel migration. On Adlingfleet drain, the entrance sluice acted as a barrier, and there was a second barrier at the sluice and pumping station by Cowlane Bridge. Although rectification was deemed to be difficult, the drain was ranked fourth in a list of tributaries that could support the migration of eels and other migratory fish.^[22] By May 2011, an innovative fish-flap had been fitted, which does not compromise the flood protection, but allows fish to pass at certain states of the tide.^[23]

Water quality

The Environment Agency measure the water quality of the river systems in England. Each is given an overall ecological status, which may be one of five levels: high, good, moderate, poor and bad. There are several components that are used to determine this, including biological status, which looks at the quantity and varieties of invertebrates, angiosperms and fish. Chemical status, which compares the concentrations of various chemicals against known safe concentrations, is rated good or fail. Adlingfleet Drain is designated as "artificial", which means that the channels have been created by human activity, and the criteria for this designation are defined by the Water Framework Directive.^[24]

The water quality of Adlingfleet Drain was as follows in 2019.

The reasons for the quality being less than good are largely to do with agriculture and land management adjacent to the watercourse. Like many rivers in the UK, the chemical status changed from good to fail in 2019, due to the presence of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) and mercury compounds, neither of which had previously been included in the assessment.