The entry to Old Bedford River, in the 1970's...

"Tried - but could do better" The September 2009 Cruise onto the Old Bedford River The IWA Peterborough Branch's cruise for the Old Bedford had been planned for the weekend of Saturday 26th September 2009. The entrance to the Old Bedford is via a tidal sluice, which can only be opened briefly when the tidal Great River Ouse is at low tide. Back in 1973, when the Old Bedford was the only open route through the Middle Levels for those attending the Ely Rally, over 40 boats were able to use the sluice on the one tide. Today, the silting of the Great Ouse below Denver has meant that it is over a year since a passage had been attempted. Silted up entrance of the Old Bedford, from the opposite bank on September 18th, 2009. Same, from the opposite bank after dredging on Sept 26th, 2009. The EA, during the previous week had brought a floating Smalley excavator and a land based dredger, to open out the entrance, and the channel sides were re-profiled. To "test" the work on the Friday, a narrow boat cruiser, "Olive Emily", had locked out of Salter's Lode Lock (Well Creek) just before low tide and attempted to enter the mouth of the Old Bedford, but unfortunately not enough silt had been dredged from below the waterline for the boat to enter. Not wishing to miss the "window" of opening of the tidal doors, the boater decided to reverse in, using his propeller to carve out his own channel, and managed to reach the Old Bedford. It was then hoped that the EA dredging contractors, now realising that some further deepening work was needed, would complete this on the Friday afternoon. Unfortunately no further work was undertaken. On the Saturday morning the main contingent was due, and the first boat, "Hillpenny", locked down from Salter's Lode before low tide, but was unable to manoeuvre, despite many different attempts, through the mouth of the channel. Eventually, the boat became completely stemmed up, preventing any It was not until the incoming tide refloated the boat, that it was able to move, but by this time the "low tide window" for entry through the Old Bedford Sluice was past. Whilst the boat was stuck, checks were made on the depth available - although about 3 feet in the middle, about 1 foot on either side the "V" shaped channel was down to 2 foot, holding the boat by its "shoulders". That afternoon both crews joined the "Olive Emily" to cruise the 12 miles up to Welches Dam and the junction with the Forty Foot. However, within 100 yards the boat had twice lifted over silt bars and became completely stuck 20 yards after the new bridge. In all 10 minutes cruising!. The boat was then reversed to the turning point and moored overnight at the Sluice. The following day the "Olive Emily" left the Old Bedford sluice without problem - until it reached the junction with the tidal Great Ouse - and became firmly stuck at the same place that "Hillpenny" had been stemmed up the previous day. Only after an hour and half and with the assistance of water flushed down from Denver was the "Olive Emily" able to be refloated and return to Wells Creek via Salter's Lode Lock. So the EA had tried to enable entry into the Old Bedford - but their contractors had not dug out those last few cubic metres to give the 7 foot wide channel and 2 foot depth required. Tried - but could do better. Let's hope this will occur for the next attempted cruise in the spring of 2010.

The Tuesday Night Club on Tour, Tour 2001, part "1"   part "2"   part "3" in 2, 2 and 3 parts! The Middle Level:

The Fens Waterways Link includes - Creating a new navigation, using the Old Bedford and New Bedford rivers southwards from Welches Dam to the Great Ouse at Earith, creating a landmark structure at Denver, involving flights of locks and an aqueduct over the New Bedford River, to eliminate the current tidal crossing, and creating a new direct waterway link from Chatteris to Earith.

Navigation of The Middle Level