Editing Old Bedford River (section)

==Navigation==
[[File:Sluice at the end of The Old Bedford River, Salters Lode (geograph 5094093).jpg|thumb|left|The Old Bedford Sluice, through which boats must pass to access the River Great Ouse.]]
The Old Bedford River is navigable between Welches Dam Lock and the Old Bedford Sluice.{{sfn |Cumberlidge |2009 |p=235}} For a time it was part of the only route between the [[River Nene]] and the Great Ouse via the Middle Levels. Well Creek became impassable after commercial carrying ended on the Middle Levels in the 1940s, and Norfolk County Council wanted to fill it in to use part of the course for a road diversion in 1959. This was the start of campaigning to reopen it, resulting in the Well Creek Trust being formed in 1970, and Well Creek was reopened in 1975. The route along the Old River Nene and Well Creek to Salters Lode Lock then became the recommended route to transfer between the two river systems.{{sfn |Cumberlidge |2009 |pp=192-193}} The use of Welches Dam Lock and the Old Bedford River was subsequently restricted to certain weekends by the Environment Agency, who now manage the waterway.{{sfn |Cumberlidge |2009 |p=235}}

In 2006, the Environment Agency closed Welches Dam Lock, drained the channel from there to the Middle Levels' Horseway Lock, and blocked off the lock entrance with piling.{{sfn |Smedley |2018 |p=41}} Since then, the [[Inland Waterways Association]] have campaigned for it to be reopened, but with no success. In 2018, they organised a campaign cruise along the Old Bedford River, to highlight the issue. Access through the Old Bedford Sluice is only possible near low water during neap tides, and is further hampered by silting of the short channel below the sluice. Four narrow boats attempted to pass through the sluice, but only one succeeded. Once on the Old Bedford River, it was joined by a canoe, a kayak and a dinghy. After an overnight stop at Welney, the flotilla continued through Welney Sluice, and despite some problems with weed growth, reached Welches Dam by around midday, where they were greeted by a television news cameraman and crews from the other boats which had not successfully negotiated the Old Bedford Sluice. The return passage through the sluice was somewhat easier.{{sfn |Smedley |2018 |pp=40-41}}

One solution proposed by Project Hereward, an umbrella organisation for a number of local waterways groups, is to raise the water level in the Welches Dam to Horseway Lock channel, so that it is level with the Old Bedford River. This would overcome the problem of Welches Dam Lock being very small, at only {{convert|46|ft|m}} long. A small change to the upper gates at Horseway Lock would be required to accommodate the change in level. Project Hereward estimated the cost of this work to be £3 million in 2018, but the Environment Agency costed it at £9 million.{{sfn |Smedley |2018 |p=41}}

Modification to the Old Bedford River has been proposed as part of the [[Fens Waterways Link]]. In addition to an inland waterway from [[Boston, Lincolnshire|Boston]] to [[Peterborough]], the project includes a circular route which includes sections of the Middle Level Navigations and the Great Ouse from Denver to Earith. The missing link is the section from Earith back to the Middle Level Navigations, for which three options have been proposed. One was to build an aqueduct to carry boats from Welches Dam over the Old Bedford River and into the tidal New Bedford River, which joins the Great Ouse above Hermitage Lock. The second was to build a new lock between Welches Dam and the Old Bedford River. The section above Welches Dam to the sluice at Earith would be enlarged so that it became navigable, and a new lock structure would be built to bypass Earith Sluice. The third option involved making the Twenty Foot River navigable towards Chatteris. This then becomes Fenton's Lode, and the new route would follow Fenton's Lode to High Fen pumping station. A new section of canal would run from the pumping station to a drainage ditch called Cranbrook Drain, which would be enlarged and join the Old Bedford River below Earith Sluice. Upgrading of the final section of the Old Bedford River would be required, and again, a lock structure to bypass Earith Sluice would be needed. The second route was the preferred option in 2003,{{sfn |Atkins |2003 |pp=A13-A15}} although Lincolnshire County Council still showed all three routes on their 2018 Waterways Development Strategy document.{{sfn |LCC |2018 |p=6}}