Editing River Glen, Lincolnshire (section)

==History==
''[[Historia Brittonum]]'', an ancient history of Britain traditionally attributed to [[Nennius]], a ninth-century Welsh monk, records that Arthur, the war leader of the [[Britons (historic)|Britons]] fought his first battle against the [[Anglo-Saxons]] at the mouth of the River Glein {{sic}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/nennius.htm |title=From: The History of the Britons by Nennius |author=The Camelot Project |publisher=University of Rochester |access-date=21 March 2011}}</ref> Thomas Green presents a case for the Glein being the Glen, based on the identification of ''Linnuis'', the district for four subsequent battles, being [[Lindsey (government district)|Lindsey]], although he acknowledges that other locations, including the [[River Glen, Northumberland]] for example, have been suggested.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.arthuriana.co.uk/notes&queries/N&Q3_ArthLincs.pdf |title=Lincolnshire and the Arthurian Legend |author=Thomas Green |pages=2–4 |access-date=21 March 2011}}</ref> This aerial photo<ref name="aerial">{{Cite web|title=Aerial photograph of Guthram Gowt |url=http://www.multimap.com/maps/?mapType=aerial&zoom=14&countryCode=GB&lat=52.7864131704851&lon=-0.259150901741578&dp=904 |publisher=[[Microsoft Bing|Bing]] Multi-Map |access-date=23 January 2010}}</ref> shows the River Glen at Guthram, halfway between Twenty and West Pinchbeck. To the south, the [[Roman road]] across the fen lies hidden, buried in Baston Fen and Pinchbeck Common.  In Arthur's time, around the year 500, the north-flowing section of the Glen entered [[tidal flats]] lying in [[Pinchbeck North Fen]], to the north-east of Guthram. The line of the river to the east of Guthram appears to have originated as a sea bank but when [[sediment]]ation and fen enclosure caused the [[sea]] no longer to reach it, the river was led away along the bank so that the sea bank became one of river's banks instead. The section of the [[A151 road]] on the 'seaward' side of the Glen was not built until 1822.

Close to the year 500, the spread of [[Angles (tribe)|Anglian settlement]] had recently reached [[Baston]], at the other end of this Roman road, on the landward side of this fen but burial at the Urns Farm cemetery alongside [[King Street (Roman road)|King Street]] then stopped abruptly.{{Citation needed|date=December 2010}}

[[Image:Surfleet Sluice geograph 1755263.jpg|thumb|right|Surfleet Sluice, built in 1879, where the Glen meets the River Welland]]
[[File:"The Map of Lindsey Level" (1662).jpg|thumb|"The Map of the Lindsey Level" from "The history of imbanking and drayning" by [[William Dugdale]] (1662).]]
Compared to its neighbour, the Welland, there are few records of the history of the Glen. Dugdale, writing his book ''The History of Imbanking and Drayning of divers Fenns and Marshes'' in 1662, which was based on personal observations he made during a trip to the Fens in May 1657, and the records of the Fens Office, most of which were destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, thought it was the least of the rivers he had seen, and recorded that it "serveth almost to none other use, but to carry away so much of its own water, with the rill descending from Burne, as can be kept between two defensible banks." The embanking of the lower river had thus already been done by the time of his account.<ref name=boyes/>

Both the Bourne Eau and the Glen were affected by flooding, causing failure of the banks, which was addressed in the [[Black Sluice Act 1765]] ([[5 Geo. 3]]. c. ''86'' {{small|Pr.}}). The history of navigation is intimately tied up with that of the Bourne Eau, since Bourne was the main centre of population above Spalding. The [[Bourne Eau Act 1781]] ([[21 Geo. 3]]. c. 22) appointed trustees, who were to scour and cleanse the river, and could charge tolls to fund the operation. Corn and wool passed down the river, bound for [[Boston, Lincolnshire|Boston]], while coal and groceries were the principal cargo in the opposite direction. In 1792, Thomas Hawkes wrote about trade in timber, which was carried from Bourne to Spalding, and there was a boat which carried passengers to the market at Spalding on Tuesdays, but he comments that the service was erratic, as there was often too little or too much water for the vessels to operate. The Black Sluice Commissioners installed flood doors between the Glen and the Bourne Eau at Tongue End, to prevent high water levels in the Glen passing up the river to Bourne.<ref name=boyes/>

Breaching of the banks by floodwater was a continual problem, with six breaches of the north bank recorded between 1821 and 1882, and eight of the south bank in the same period. Measurement showed that the river level rose by {{convert|9|or|10|in|cm}} for every {{convert|0.25|in|mm}} of rain falling on the river's catchment area. The arrival of railways in the area resulted in a rapid decline of river traffic. A railway from Boston to Spalding opened in 1848, while the line from Spalding opened to Bourne in 1866 and on to [[Sleaford]] in 1872. Although occasional boats were still reaching Bourne in 1857, the self-acting doors at Tongue End were replaced by a sluice in the 1860s, which prevented passage from the Glen to the Bourne Eau, although the right of navigation was not officially revoked until 1962,<ref name=boyes/> as part of flood defence measures which included the replacement of the sluice by a pumping station in 1966.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.blacksluiceidb.gov.uk/the-drainage-board/history.html |title=History of the Draining of the Fens in the Black Sluice Area |publisher=The Black Sluice Internal Drainage Board |access-date=29 December 2010 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110428032212/http://www.blacksluiceidb.gov.uk/the-drainage-board/history.html |archive-date=28 April 2011 }}</ref>

Once the route to Bourne was closed off, there was little trade on the river, although a short section of about {{convert|1|mi|km}} was used by barges until the 1920s. Although the present head of navigation is at Tongue End, there is evidence that lighters capable of carrying 15 tons used to navigate to Kate's Bridge, where the [[Lincoln, England|Lincoln]] to [[Peterborough]] turnpike road crossed the river, and there are the remains of moorings at Greatford Hall, although navigation to there must have ceased after Kate's Bridge was rebuilt.<ref name=boyes/>

In 1734, John Grundy, one of the pioneers in applying scientific principles to the solution of civil engineering problems, was asked by the Adventurers of [[Deeping Fen]] to consider the drainage of {{convert|47|sqmi|km2}} of fenland to the west of Spalding. His plans included the construction of a reservoir which covered {{convert|10|acre|ha}}, impounded by a sluice at Surfleet. At low tide, the water would be released, and the scouring action would deepen the channel, with a consequent improvement in drainage. Humphrey Smith directed the construction, with Grundy acting as engineer, which was completed in 1739, according to a plaque fixed to it at the time. The sluice had three openings, each {{convert|8|ft|m}} wide, with pointed doors on the downstream site, which closed as the tide rose, and lifting gates on the upstream side, which would be raised to discharge the water.<ref>{{harvnb |Skempton |2002 |p=277}}</ref> The present sluice was erected by the trustees of the [[Deeping Fen Drainage Act 1856]]. The first stone was laid by Lord Kesteven on 17th February 1879 and the sluice opened in November 1879 at a total cost of £15,000.