The Curious World of the Middle Levels

 This is going to be a two part update to our blog to tell you about our crossing of the Middle Levels. As I type this first section on Friday 9th July we are moored outside Salter's Lode Lock waiting for the tide tomorrow to cross onto the River Great Ouse. Here are some delights of the Middle Levels whose waters allow boats to cross the fens from the River Nene to the Great Ouse without venturing out to sea.

Our last posting was from Ferry Meadows near Peterborough. We left there on Monday morning with only one lock to go down to reach the city of Peterborough. This was Orton Lock and this photo was taken below the lock. Large sluices feed a canoe slalom but the lock is out of shot to the right. We came out of the lock to find another boat waiting below but there are some strange currents here caused by the sluices and the boat waiting got swept to one side and, looking back, seems in the picture to be having a go at the canoe slalom course! They did correct this and we saw them going into the lock so all was well.

After mooring on the embankment, we had a look round the city and this is the west front on the Cathedral.

It is a very impressive Norman cathedral. Katherine of Aragon is buried here as was Mary Queen of Scots, though her body was later moved to Westminster Abbey.

On Tuesday morning we set off to enter the Middle Levels. Here we are turning off the Nene under a railway bridge onto Morton's Leam to reach Stanground Lock. You have to book in advance to go through Stangound lock and we were due to go through at 10 am.

Now the odd thing about Stanground Lock is that we went down about 4 feet off the river to King's Dyke below. We were then in the fens, much of which is below sea level though at this point the boat was probably marginally above sea level. The fens were drained and still are by pumping the water into mostly navigable drains which in turn are pumped out into the tidal rivers Nene and Great Ouse. The channels travelled by boats are not primarily navigations. Their main purpose in the winter is to get rid of excess water that would otherwise flood the fenland fields and in the summer to provide farmers with water to irrigate those fields. This is taken looking back as we came out of Stanground Lock.

And this is looking forward along King's Dyke which was allegedly dug by King Canute and leads in a few miles to Whittlesey.

Here we are arriving at Whittlesey where the channel narrows between high walls and then goes round a very tight right hand bend.

Here we have just come round the bend under a footbridge. It is said that a 70 foot boat is the maximum length that can get round this bend. At 57 feet Leo just touched the wall on the inside of the bend.

After lunch at Wetherspoons and a night on the town moorings at Whittlesey on Wednesday morning we came a short way to Ashline Lock shown here. This took us down a further 6 or 7 feet and then we were definitely below sea level. The Middle Level Locks are only about 11 feet wide so they can take only one narrowboat at a time. They also use special windlasses to work the paddles and a dedicated key to open the gate to access the locks and other facilities.

Coming out of Whittlesey on the Whittlesey Dyke, the channel widens and becomes very straight. We came across three little boats clearing weed from the channel. One cut the weed and the other two scooped up the cut weed as this one in the picture is doing.

This one is dumping the cut and scooped weed on the side of the channel to rot.

The route we followed through the Middle Levels this time was the main route between the two rivers but there are alternative routes and other waterways that we have cruised before. Most days we passed several junctions with other navigable waterways. The only real constraint is the low clearance at some of the bridges on these other routes. We require headroom of just short of 6 feet but some of the bridges have only 5 feet of clearance so we can't pass these. At Floods Ferry, we turned left onto the old course of the river Nene. A right turn takes you to Benwick and Ramsey. We soon crossed the Greenwich Meridian marked by this sign. So for the first time this year we are east of Greenwich.

Some 11 miles from Whittlesey we came to March, a reasonable sized town in the fens. Here you can see Leo moored on the town moorings. The flowers on the left are in a planter on a road bridge over the old course of the River Nene. These days its route to the sea straight on from Peterborough.

The flowers on the railings were wonderful.

This is leaving March on Thursday to go just a few miles to Upwell. The channel is narrow and  there are plenty of moored boats through the town.

The skies in the fens are huge and the waterways are often very straight, sometimes with no bends for a mile or more.

We cruised through a large wind farm with 25 - 30 turbines. They are widely spaced and it took us half an hour to pass them.

Upwell runs into its sister village of Outwell and both have a road running either side of the narrow navigable channel. Before we reached here we had come up Marmont Priory Lock which took us back up 6 feet or so.

Here we are approaching one of several low bridges in Upwell with St Peter's church and the Five Bells pub in the view. Unfortunately the Five Bells was closed.

This gives an idea just how low these bridges are! You might notice that we have taken the tubs of flowers down off the roof.

Walking around Upwell yesterday evening we heard the sound of horse hooves and this jaunting car came along the road surprisingly fast. We only just caught it in the photo as it passed a parked car.

On Friday we cruised just 6 miles to Salter's Lode. Coming through Outwell we passed this cottage with a most intriguing name. It is called 'Up to Date Cottage' and that may have been right in 1901.

Here we are approaching another of the very low bridges, this one in Outwell.

Some of the route today has been either shallow or very weedy or both. The 6 miles should have taken us an hour and a half, but in fact took us over 2 hours. This photo is taken from the Mullincourt Aqueduct which we crossed coming away from Outwell.  Below us is the Middle Levels Main Drain which is now the principal route for sending the water pumped out of the fields to the sea via the tidal River Great Ouse. You can bring a boat to the aqueduct along the channel below by turning right before Marmont Priory Lock but beyond the aqueduct it is not navigable.

This seems to be where our chips come from! There are huge fields of very healthy looking potato plants around here. We have been wondering how many tons of potatoes grow here and the weight added to the crop every day.

Coming through the tiny village of Nordelph where the weed was particularly bad, we passed this greedy bear with one fish in each paw. Surprising what you find on the Middle Levels!

And so to Salters Lode where the lock gives access to the tidal river. On Saturday (10th July) we are booked to go through the lock and then travel just half a mile or so on the tide to Denver Sluice where we can once more come onto non-tidal water. The tidal River Great Ouse is to the left with Well Creek, the non-tidal waterway to Upwell and Outwell through the lock to the right of the lock-keeper's house.

Friday afternoon we walked up to Denver Sluice which is shown in this photo. The lock is to the left, the rest of the structure being a series of sluices which release the water coming down the Great Ouse when the tide is low. This is a complicated set of waterways. Parallel with the Great Ouse is the non tidal Old Bedford River which was built in the 17th century by the Dutchman Cornelius Vermuyden and the tidal New Bedford River which largely replaces it. There are more waterways the other side of the Denver Sluice which I'll tell you about in an update to this blog tomorrow when we get there.

So now it is Saturday. We have crossed the tidal section and to complete the story here is an account of the crossing this morning:

Our booked time of departure this morning was 8.45 am but tides can be unpredictable and the water was much too high at that point to get under the beams to exit the lock. So we had to sit and wait for about three-quarters of an hour. Finally the lockie invited us into the lock which like most of the Middle Level Locks is only wide enough for one narrowboat at a time. We had to go up onto the river so one paddle in the guillotine you can see ahead of us was opened and slowly we went up until the guillotine itself could be lifted to let us out onto the tidal river. The lockie then told us of a change of plan because there were 5 "sea" boats coming out of Denver heading to King's Lynn downstream. They have priority because time is short for the tide to help them down there.

Here is Leo sitting on the wall below the lock waiting to go up river. In the meantime a narrowboat following us called Girl Ia (it's Cornish) was locked through.

Here is one of the sea going boats passing the lock. The wash was pretty bad even though they had slowed down to go past the lock.

In this photo you can see that the guillotine is raised and the second narrowboat can just about be seen behind us.

And finally we were given the all clear to head for Denver. The exit from Salters Lode Lock faces downstream so the advice is to give it lots of wellie and turn right as quickly as you can to face upstream. The tide was ebbing so there is a tendency for the boat to head down rather than upstream. So Ian is following the advice and leaving with the engine at about 2,000 rpm which is quite a lot for us and swinging right.

This view like the last one was taken by Helen standing on the front of the boat. Here we are having turned and now heading up river. The lock keeper's house is on the left bank and you can see Girl Ia coming out of the lock behind us and still to fully make the turn upstream. By this point Ian had dropped the revs first to 1800 and then further to 1600.

Denver Sluice is less than half a mile from Salter's Lode. The lock is to the left and the rest of the structure controls sluices that let out the excess water from the non tidal River Great Ouse to head down to King's Lynn and the Wash when the tide is low. What happens when the tide is high? Fortunately there are other channels that can take the excess water including a relief channel that takes water much further down towards King's Lynn and there is even a channel that takes water to Essex for the folk there to use.

Denver Lock is wide enough to take two narrowboats so we waited there for a few minutes for Girl Ia to join us before the guillotine behind us was brought down by the lockie and the lock filled to allow us to go up a few feet onto the non-tidal Great Ouse.

And here we are coming out of the lock onto the Great Ouse above the tide.

The passage is not difficult provided boaters listen to the advice from the lock keeper and do what he says. Obviously things could go wrong and since we crossed against the ebb tide a mistake or engine failure could push the boat out towards the Wash. But this is a very short section of tidal river, it is fairly straight and probably a good first tidal passage. Interestingly a hire boat was coming across this morning after our two narrowboats, so it can be done by inexperienced crews. Everyone has to start somewhere.

So where are we off to now? The Great Ouse has four tributaries all of which are navigable as well as the main river which can be followed as far as Bedford. Tonight we are at Hilgay on the River Wissey, one of those tributaries. Watch our next update to see where we go.