Holderness Drain facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Holderness Drain
The Great Culvert pumping station, maintained by the Environment Agency
Specifications
Status	operational
History
Original owner	Holderness Drainage
Principal engineer	John Grundy; William Jessop
Date of act	1764; 1787; 1832
Date of first use	1772
Geography
Start point	NE of Burshill
End point	Marfleet, Humber

The Holderness Drain is a major drainage system in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It helps to drain a large area of land called Holderness, which is east of the River Hull. This area used to flood a lot.

Work on the drain started in 1764. Many important engineers helped design and build it over the years. At first, the project faced problems because ship owners in Hull didn't want the drain's water to flow into the River Humber at Marfleet. They thought it would harm their port. Instead, they insisted the water go into the River Hull.

Later, in 1832, a new plan was approved. This allowed water from the lower parts of the land to flow into the Humber. This was much better because the water level in the Humber was lower, helping the land drain more effectively. Over time, new ways to manage the water, like pumping stations, were added. Today, the Environment Agency helps manage the Holderness Drain.

History of the Drain

For a long time, the land around the River Hull often flooded. Fresh water from the north and salty sea water from the south would cover the area. People tried to build banks to stop the sea water as early as the 1300s.

Early Drainage Efforts

Kings like King Edward II appointed special groups to check and fix these banks. But these groups only worked when the banks broke. There was no regular check-up. To help the fresh water drain, people dug many channels. They also built simple gates, called sluices, to let water out but stop sea water from coming in.

Monks from Meaux Abbey also dug channels in the northern marshy areas. These were mostly for boats, but they also helped drain some land. In 1532, a new law called the Stature of Sewers was passed. This law created special "Commissioners of Sewers" in marshy parts of England. They had strong powers to manage drains and banks.

Two of these groups were set up in the Hull valley. One was in Beverley, and another in Hull. At first, they only looked after existing drains. But in 1580, they built a new drain to help water flow out further south, where the River Hull's level was lower at low tide.

New Ideas for Drainage

In 1671, a man named Mr. Snow suggested a new drain to Marfleet on the Humber. He offered to dig it if he could use the drained land for 21 years. But he couldn't get permission from the landowners or Parliament.

Later, in the early 1700s, some landowners started building windmills. These windmills helped pump water from their land into the River Hull. By then, there were about a dozen such windmills in the area.

First Big Project

In 1763, landowners decided to drain the marshy land east of the River Hull. They got a special law passed by Parliament. This law created "Holderness Drainage," a group with the power to build new banks and drains.

John Grundy, Jr. was asked to plan the drainage of about 17 square miles of low land. He worked with John Smeaton on the first plans. They wanted the main drain to flow out at Marfleet. But ship owners in Hull strongly disagreed. They worried it would harm the "Old Harbour" in the River Hull.

Because of this, the plans were changed. The main outlet was moved to Stoneferry on the Hull, and the drains were made smaller. Grundy finished his report in December 1763. Smeaton reviewed it and agreed with most of it. The law for the project was passed on April 5, 1764.

Grundy became the Chief Engineer. The project included building a 17-mile long bank along the east side of the River Hull. This bank stopped floods from the river. Work on the bank started in July 1764. The main sluice, a gate to control water flow, began construction in March 1765. Joseph Page was the engineer who lived on site and oversaw the work.

Grundy visited the sites often until October 1767, when the main drains and sluice were done. The first phase of the project was finished in 1772. It cost around £24,000, which was a lot of money back then.

Even after all this work, some areas still flooded, especially in winter. The drains couldn't handle all the rain from the low-lying areas and the higher ground. So, in 1786, another engineer named William Jessop investigated the problems. He suggested keeping the water from the higher lands completely separate from the local drains. His detailed plan was agreed upon in 1787. This second part of the project was finished in 1805, costing another £16,000.

Second Big Project

Even with all the money spent, the drainage system wasn't working perfectly. This was mainly because they still couldn't build an outlet at Marfleet. Ship owners kept blocking the idea.

However, things changed. From 1815 to 1830, farming was not doing well. But the port of Hull grew, with new docks opening. By 1832, the old harbour in Hull was in bad shape, and the marshy lands were still struggling.

Holderness Drainage quickly got a new law passed in 1832. This law finally allowed them to build a drain to Marfleet. The new outlet sluice there could be built at a much lower level. This meant water could flow out more easily.

The old main drain was raised and used to carry water from higher streams to the Hull. The new lowland drain carried water from the marshy areas to Marfleet. It even passed under the upland drain through a special tunnel called the Great Culvert. Old drains were made straighter, wider, and deeper. Soon, the large ponds in the Leven and Tickton areas disappeared. By 1854, most of the marshy land was used for growing crops, not just for grazing animals.

Pumping Stations and Docks

Between 1840 and 1880, flooding actually increased in some areas. Farmers were using new "tile drains" that sent water to the main drains much faster. This caused bigger rushes of water.

The Alexandra Dock was built near the end of the drain in the 1880s. This dock had a problem: about 1.25 million tons of mud would get into it each year from the muddy Humber River. To save money on cleaning, they started pumping fresh water from the Holderness Drain into the dock. This kept the dock full and stopped the muddy river water from coming in.

Pumps could move 14.5 million cubic feet of water every day! This saved a lot of money. When the King George V Dock opened in 1913, it also needed clean water. So, even more water was pumped from the Holderness Drain. This was a great solution for Holderness Drainage because they got the benefits of pumping without having to pay for it themselves.

Who Manages the Drain?

Holderness Drainage managed the system until 1930. Then, a new law changed how land drainage worked. Large areas of England were grouped into "catchment areas," each with a "catchment board." These boards looked after the main rivers.

For Holderness, the Hull Catchment Board took over the River Hull and the main Holderness Drain. Holderness Drainage then became an "internal drainage board" (IDB). They became responsible for the smaller drains.

Over the years, responsibility changed hands many times due to new laws. It went from a catchment board to a river board, then a river authority, a water authority, the National Rivers Authority, and finally, in 1995, the Environment Agency.

The smaller internal drainage boards also joined together. The Holderness IDB merged with others to become the Beverley and North Holderness IDB in 1981. This group now looks after about 92 square miles of land and maintains 163 miles of drains. About 70% of this area relies on pumping stations to prevent flooding.

Images for kids

• Holderness Drain map