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Car Dyke


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The long Car Dyke that unites the Nene, Welland and Witham is often credited as a Roman canal and is essentially used for drainage. Although there is evidence of navigation, at least along part of the route, following archeological investigations along the route. The main issue is that there are changes of levels in certain spots that lead to the general queries about navigation. Yet there is a subject that has not been followed up and that is how the Romans dealt with the change of levels. A similar situation occurred on the Foss Dyke at Torksey, here a link was required with the Trent, but how DID the Romans do it? 

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I don't know but possibilities are slipways (on a non tidal waterway) and a single gate where the tide could make a level. The single gate could actually be more like stop planks.

 

The Witham was tidal to Lincoln I think, so presumably the Fossdyke was too. But the range would have  been small and the tidal cycle out of sync with the Trent 

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Early inland waterways feature in the research done by https://www.db-thueringen.de/receive/dbt_mods_00035239#, who have databases for early inland ships and Roman inland ports. I have been discussing rates of work achieved by canal navvies with them, as well as providing information about the Russian voloks, which were simple inclines or muddy roads between the head waters of Russian navigable rivers. Some were in use into the 20th century, and the basic design was improved in Holland to create overtooms. One of the main difficulties in establishing were navigation has taken place is that land levels have changed, and that will definitely be the case in the fenland area, the changes being the result of land drainage.

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Read 'The Piercebridge Formula' by Raymond Selkirk (ISBN 0-85059-621-1). This proves, certainly to me, that the Romans used pound locks  and carried out  other navigation works on rivers in this country. It is a well argued and well writtten account not least because it shows how the remains of these works,  often unrecognised , can be found. Regards, HughC.

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Selkirk's suggestion of locks was dismissed in a subsequent PhD thesis by Anderson in 1991. There is a suggestion that pound locks could have been used on the Tiber on a site close to Rome's airport, though as far as I know nothing definitive has been found or published. In ancient times, boats using inland waters tended to be small, usually carrying only a ton or two, though much larger boats could be found on large rivers, such as the Rhine. These latter were usually flat-bottomed. From my research, the true pound lock was first used on the Canal de Bereguardo, near Milan, in the 1450s. There had been earlier developments in both China and the Low Countries, but these seem to have been improvements on the flash lock, with two such locks placed close to each other. The locks on the Canal de Bereguardo had mitre gates, with paddles in the gates. Ground paddles were first used on the Brussels Canal around 1590 on the deep lock giving access to the tidal River Rupel. One of the main difficulties in researching old technical structures is that those writing about them usually had no technical education, so their descriptions can be misleading.

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