The Haven, Boston

The Grand Sluice at Boston, where the River Witham empties into The Haven. The lock is on the far right.

The Haven is the tidal river of the port of Boston, Lincolnshire in England. It provides access for shipping between Boston Deeps in The Wash and the town, particularly, the dock. It also serves as the outfall into the sea, of the River Witham and of several major land drains of the northern Fens of eastern England, which are known collectively as the Witham Navigable Drains. (TF 337 426).

Physical and economic development

The Haven, Boston
River Witham Railway bridge Grand Sluice and sea lock  A1137  bridge (tidal below here) St Botolph's Footbridge Town bridge  A16  John Adams Way bridge Railway swing bridge Black Sluice pumping station South Forty-Foot Drain Boston Barrier Boston Docks Maud Foster Drain Hobhole Drain and sluice Hobhole pumping station The Wash

The English settlers who arrived in The Wash, found tidal creeks which gave them entry to the habitable belt of land, inland from the salt-marshes. These creeks, they called "havens". There was a route inland from The Haven, with which this article deals, on which Boston later developed, to the upland of Lindsey. However, the port of Boston did not develop until after natural events had diverted the River Witham into The Haven during the eleventh century.

Simultaneously, this took the river away from Drayton, which had become the successor port of Swineshead as its estuary accumulated silt. The Swin had been to Swineshead what the Zwin was to Bruges but after the loss of the Witham, Bicker became more important than Drayton so its estuary became known as Bicker Haven.

At the time of the Domesday Book (1086), the accounting for Boston was still done under the heading of the manors of Drayton but the wealth of Drayton's holdings, as recorded in the Domesday Book, in Skirbeck makes the presence of a working port at Boston, which then lay in Skirbeck, near certain.

Before The Witham broke into it, The Haven's head was in the area which subsequently became the Market Place. The likely date for the switch of the Witham from Drayton to The Haven is 1014, the date recorded by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as one of unprecedented sea floods. There was another serious flood, later in the century but that came after 1086.

Subsequently, Boston and its Haven became busy with trade as wool was brought into the town for export, particularly to Flanders.

Course

The Haven starts at the Grand Sluice, which marks the end of the non-tidal River Witham. This consists of four channels, three of them containing sluice doors on the upstream and downstream faces, which regulate flow through the sluice, and a fourth wider one by the east bank containing a lock structure with two sets of gates. The A1137 road passes over the top of the sluice, supported by four segmental arches constructed of red brick, which now carry a modern concrete bridge deck on top of them. The sluice was built between 1764 and 1766 by John Grundy and Langley Edwards, while the alterations to include the lock were made in 1883. The bridge carries an inscription: "Lock opened by Edmund Turner Esq. on 8th December 1883. John Evelyn Williams engineer, William Rigby, contractor." The concrete deck to the road bridge dates from the 20th century.

The next bridge downstream is St Botolph's Footbridge, close to St Botolph's Church. A 213-foot (65 m) bowstring arch bridge was craned into position on 22 February 2014, to replace a steel structure dating from the 1970s. Access ramps were installed on the following day, and the surrounding area was enhanced subsequently. Part of the rationale for the new bridge, which was designed and installed by the civil engineers Britcon, was that it would be accessible to those with mobility scooters, wheelchairs and pushchairs.

Town Bridge was the first cast-iron bridge to be built by John Rennie. It was originally designed to have a span of 72 feet (22 m), but this was increased to 86 feet (26 m) without increasing the rise of 5.5 feet (1.7 m). Some doubts were expressed about its stability, and some of the ironwork developed fractures which needed strapping, but the structure lasted until 1912. Rennie's stone bases were retained, but a new cast-iron bridge deck was installed by John Webster in 1913. Prior to 1806, the main crossing of the river was slightly further upstream.

Haven Bridge carries the A16 road across The Haven. A public enquiry was held in December 1956, at which the council proposed one route for the future inner relief road, and objectors proposed an alternative route. The bridge was eventually opened in 1966, but the inner relief road, by then renamed John Adams Way, was not completed until 12 years later.

By around 1800, the lower reaches of The Haven had become of network of winding channels, increasingly plagued by deposits of sand and silt, which made the use of Boston as a port problematic. It also resulted in increased flooding within the town. Boston Corporation therefore asked John Rennie to suggest a solution for the 13.5 miles (21.7 km) of waterway from the Black Sluice to the sea. He proposed two solutions, the first of which involved straightening the channel between Skirbeck Church and the outfall of Hobhole Drain, from where a new cut would be created to reach the sea. The second was for a new cut from Skirbeck Church running to the north of the existing channel. The corporation chose the first option, which would shorten the distance to the sea by 4.5 miles (7.2 km). Work began in 1830 on an 800-yard (730 m) section above the Hobhole outfall. This reduced the length of the channel by 1.5 miles (2.4 km) and took three years to complete. Some of the channel was straightened by placing bundles of sticks known as fascines at outside bends. These resulted in silt being deposited on those bends, and the channel becoming straighter. Fascine work was carried out in 1841 and 1860. Silting of the river outfall became worse, and three Ruston steam navvies were used to create a new cut from Hobhole outfall to the Wash between 1880 and 1884.

Modern port

The "Fehn Cartagena" unloading a cargo of stone while moored on a mudbank in The Haven, opposite the Black Sluice

Nowadays, the activity has moved below the old centre of the town. The fishing fleet moors below the railway bridge and trading vessels lie either in tidal berths beside the dock where there are facilities for handling scrap steel or in the dock itself where there are facilities for handling paper, steel coil and grain as well as timber and general cargo, including containers.

Boston Barrier

Historically, Boston has been affected by tidal flooding, caused by tidal surges passing up The Haven from the Wash. Flooding from this cause was particularly severe in 1953 and 1978. Following the creation of a new tidal lock in 2008 to allow boats to enter the South Forty-Foot Drain from the Haven, phase 1b of the project to create a navigable waterway between Boston and Spalding involved the construction of the Boston Barrier. As well as being part of wider flood defence works, this would allow boats to pass through Boston town centre to access the South Forty Foot Drain at most states of the tide. At the time, it was expected that work would be completed by 2013, but work did not start, and serious flooding occurred again in 2013, when over 800 homes and 79 businesses were inundated. Following a public enquiry in 2017, a £100 million project to build the barrier and associated flood defence works on both sides of the river, including widening the access to the Port of Boston wet dock, was awarded by the Environment Agency to the civil engineers BMMJV, a joint venture consisting of BAM Nuttall and Mott MacDonald.

The main components of the scheme were a rising sector gate, 85 feet (26 m) wide by 36 feet (11 m) high, which can be raised to prevent tidal surges moving further upstream, and a vertical sector gate, 59 feet (18 m) wide by 38 feet (11.6 m) high, to control the entrance to the wet dock. The rising sector gate weighs 362 tonnes and is moved by two 55-tonne hydraulic rams. The scheme also included a control building for the barrier, higher flood defence walls along the river, including landscaping of the right bank, and the placing of matting on the bed of the river either side of the barrier, to prevent scouring undermining the structure. The construction of the barrier was innovative, as it is quite different to the Thames Barrier in its design, and the only other similar structure, that at Ipswich on the River Orwell, is some 30 per cent smaller, and had not been commissioned at the time the Boston Barrier project began. Work began on the project in 2018, and the sector gate, which was manufactured in Holland, was delivered in November 2019. The gate was operational by December 2020, and the completed scheme offers better flood protection to over 13,000 homes and businesses. The entrance to the wet dock was widened from 52 feet (16 m) to 59 feet (18 m), with the existing timber V-gates being replaced by a single pair of vertical sector gates.

Because the work affected navigation, it was authorised by a Transport and Works Act 1992 Order. The Transport and Works Act (1992) was introduced to simplify the process of obtaining permission for the construction or alteration of railways and inland navigations, and any work which interferes with rights of navigation. The completed barrier was recognised in the civil engineering world, receiving six awards, four from the Institution of Civil Engineers, one from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, and an Environment Agency Flood and Coast Award.

Historical connection

In 1607, The Haven, between Boston and the sea (TF 361 402), was the scene of the first, abortive, attempt of the Scrooby Pilgrims, to leave England. Ultimately, in 1620, they became part of the original settlement of Plymouth, Massachusetts.

See also

• Canals of the United Kingdom
• History of the British canal system

References

Bibliography

• Bell, Charlie; Gelder, Jim; Zalmay, Shafiq (11 November 2019). "Boston Barrier Tidal Flood Defence Scheme (2019)". Water Projects online. Archived from the original on 27 November 2020.
• Bell, Charlie; Pollard, Kaye; Macgill, Tom; Robinson, Adam (23 August 2021). "Boston Barrier Tidal Flood Defence Scheme (2021)". Water Projects online. Archived from the original on 25 August 2021.
• Skempton, Sir Alec; et al. (2002). A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland: Vol 1: 1500 to 1830. Thomas Telford. ISBN 978-0-7277-2939-2.
• Woolford, Bryan (November 2008). Waterways X - Boston to Spalding Link. Lincolnshire Waterways Partnership newsletter.