2015

TL2389 : The River Nene (Old course) east of Old Decoy Farm

taken 9 years ago, near to Ramsey st Mary's, Cambridgeshire, England

The River Nene (Old course) east of Old Decoy Farm
The River Nene (Old course) east of Old Decoy Farm
Looking east towards Ramsey St Mary's
The River Nene from Peterborough to The Wash © Richard Humphrey

One of the earliest mapped courses of the River Nene, from Peterborough to The Wash, was around Whittlesey Mere, through Benwick, March and Upwell, eventually joining The Well Stream at Outwell which flowed to the then coastal town of Wisbech. Over the centuries a straight channel was dug through the marshes north of Wisbech to the current outfall north of Sutton Bridge and the land on either side reclaimed. There are numerous visible sections of the old coastal banks on both sides of the River Nene north of Wisbech, see Link.
One of the earliest attempts to improve the flow of water from Peterborough to the coast and reduce flooding in the Fens was made by Bishop Morton who had a straight channel dug in the late 15th century from Peterborough to Wisbech known as Morton’s Leam, see Link In the early 1700s a new and much larger straight channel was dug from Peterborough to Wisbech called Smith's Leam, parallel to and just north of Morton’s Leam, to improve the flow of water from Peterborough to the sea. Morton’s Leam from Guyhirn to Wisbech was incorporated into Smith’s Leam and the remainder of Morton’s Leam from Peterborough to Guyhirn became the main artery into and out of the Nene Washes which were created between Guyhirn and Peterborough.
Smith’s Leam is now known as the River Nene and the original meandering river from Peterborough to Marmont Priory Lock in Upwell is now known as The River Nene (Old course), see Link.


Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright Richard Humphrey and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Geographical Context: Rivers, Streams, Drainage River: Nene (Old Course) Nene Primary Subject: River other tags: Fenland Farmland River Bank River Nene Fens Drainage Click a tag, to view other nearby images.
This photo is linked from: Galleries: · Tweeted from @geograph_bi in September 2015 Automatic Clusters: · Farm [6] · River Nene Old Course [5] ·
1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
+
+
1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
TIP: Click the map for more Large scale mapping
Grid Square
TL2389, 7 images   (more nearby 🔍)
Photographer
Richard Humphrey   (more nearby)
Date Taken
Saturday, 22 August, 2015   (more nearby)
Submitted
Monday, 24 August, 2015
Subject Location
OSGB36: geotagged! TL 2395 8907 [10m precision]
WGS84: 52:29.1287N 0:10.5642W
Camera Location
OSGB36: geotagged! TL 2386 8911
View Direction
East-southeast (about 112 degrees)
Clickable map
+
NW N NE
W Go E
SW S SE
Image classification(about): Geograph
This page has been viewed about 920 times
You are not logged in login | register