The now disused lock connecting the Forty Foot Drain with the Old Bedford River at Welche's Dam near Manea, Cambridgeshire Fens, England, UK.
The Old Bedford River was dug in the 1630s in the early part of the overall drainage scheme in the southern Fens headed by the Duke of Bedford. It failed in its original purpose which was to give a more direct seaward route to the River Great Ouse but became part of the rearrangement of the project which resumed after the Civil War. The project included a new drain - the Forty Foot - connecting with it, but that water was found to be heading upstream in the Old Bedford as much as down. So the engineer Edmund Welche working for Cornelius Vermuyden who by then was head engineer, built a dam (long since removed) just upstream of this point. This lock fell out of use in the early part of this century and this end of the Forty Foot - also known as Vermuyden's Drain - is now choked with reeds and rushes.
Size: 4288px × 2848px
Photo credit: © John Worrall / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: bedford, cambridgeshire, dam, disused, drain, england, fenland, fens, foot, forty, frost, lock, manea, navigation, sunny, uk, vermuydens, welches, winter
