The story of the River Welland wouldn’t be complete without its latest addition - a bypass, no less!.
Flooding was a regular occurrence below the Copthill rapids, especially in the fields and of local properties in the Deepings.
It came to a head when the thaw set in after the 1947 winter snows, as Tallington residents can testify when their water supply froze for weeks!
Plans were put into action after 1950 to take the main part of the river away from the populated areas to minimise potential floods. So there were effectively 3 water channels between where Lock 4 had been to below Lock 12. This section highlights how this system has worked to keep properties safe.
The Maxey Cut, as it became known, diverted the main flow into a channel from Tallington across country via Lolham to the south-east of Deeping St James and then back into the main channel of the River Welland. Effectively, a new canal BUT with weirs not locks!
The sides of the embankment were lower on the south side to allow flood water to go onto the flood plain, not towards the houses!
A sequence of weirs and sluices, like this one at Tallington, were built to ensure the original channels were kept watered to go via the mills in the villages beyond.
The green unit by the steps on the far side is to monitor the eels and fish in the special channel built on that side to bypass the weir to allow them to spawn further up river.
This is the amount of water going over the Tallington weir and NOT going via the mill-stream channels after rainfall in the Welland catchment area above Stamford.
The Tallington weir ensures the normal water needs of the mill-streams are kept sufficiently high to ensure the flows and not allow the stagnation downstream which caused the smells in the past. So it does work!
< Back Flood relief is an important part of the story
The Stamford Canal << The earliest proper canal in England? <<
