Guthram Gowt

The hamlet of Guthram Gowt is little more than a bus stop today on the road from Bourne to Spalding but in past times it became significant for the establishment of an engine or pumping station for Bourne North Fen which was built during the 18th century by the adventurers who provided the money to reclaim thousands of acres of fen for productive agriculture.

This particular location situated near Pinchbeck, five miles east of Bourne, is at a bend in the River Glen, one of the vulnerable waterways of past times that was liable to burst its banks during periods of heavy rain.

Guthram Gowt today falls within the drainage area of the Black Sluice Internal Drainage Board and is situated at the southern upstream end of the South Forty Foot Drain, the location chosen for a new lock to allow traffic into the River Glen as part of the Fens Waterways Link project.

The name Guthrum comes from the Danish chief who settled here and the word gote of gowt is peculiar to the fens and marshes being derived from the Saxon and referring to a construction or connection with drainage, notably a sluice or outflow, and has been in use ever since the first steam engine was installed around 1766, a pumping station powered by a wind driven scoop wheel pump which was replaced in the late 19th century by a steam powered drainage engine following the Acts of Parliament of 1841 and 1843.

The 1841 Act authorized the building of an engine to drain Bourne North Fen, replacing established windmills that had been erected after an act of 1776, which were described as "dilapidated, decayed and entirely removed". The act of 1843 transferred all responsibility for this engine and the drainage from the Black Sluice Commissioners to the Bourne North Fen Commissioners, a separation of responsibilities that continued until after the Second World War.

We have a description of the installation when William Wheeler published his informative A History of the Fens of South Lincolnshire (1868 & 1896) in which he wrote as follows:

"The machinery for lifting the water off the fen is situated on the side of the Forty Foot drain at Gutheram Cote (sic) and was erected by the Butterly Iron Company. It consists of a condensing beam engine of 30 NHP, the boiler pressure being originally 6 lbs. but now increased to 9 lbs. The cylinder is 45 inches in diameter and the stroke 6 ft. The engine works an iron scoop wheel, 15ft. in diameter, and 4ft. 3in. wide, having 30 scoops, their length being 3ft. 10in. The dip is regulated by a vertical shuttle placed near the wheel, and the dip allowed being about 2ft.

"The maximum lift is 4ft., the head and dip being 6ft. The engines are stopped when this lift is attained, as the water is then level with the gauge fixed under the clause in the Act. The wheel makes 4.5 revolutions a minute and the engine 19. With a full head, 2.5 tons of coal are consumed in 24 hours. This gives a coal consumption of 200.37 lbs. per horse power, per hour, of water actually lifted, which is very extravagant, modern engines and centrifugal pumps running with a consumption of 4.5lbs. per hour; whilst the maximum allowed by the Dutch authorities is 6.60lbs.

"The area of land drained is about 4,000 acres, but only 3,500 acres are liable to taxation. The level of the fen varies from 4ft. to 6ft. above the Ordnance datum, or from 12ft. to 13ft. above the sill of the Black Sluice which is 20 miles distant."

Wheeler also describes how proposals for a replacement engine were made in 1881, but were not taken up before his book was published. However in 1895, the scoop wheel was replaced: with a 20-inch (510 mm) centrifugal pump made by Easton & Anderson. Then in 1918, the steam engine was replaced by a 50 hp (37 kW) horizontal gas engine which drove the Easton and Anderson pump via belt. In 1933 a two-cylinder Ruston diesel and a Gwynnes pump were added.

There are now no pumping facilities on site, only a rainfall telemetry station for the Environment Agency (pictured below). A few buildings in agricultural use are located here with Glen Farm on the other side of the road and Willow Tree Farm on the opposite bank of the River Glen.

REVISED APRIL 2014

See also Steamer trips from Bourne