Pode Hole
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__NOTOC__ Pode Hole is a small village to the west of the centre of Spalding,
Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...
, England. The village lies at the confluence of several drainage channels, where two pumping stations discharge water into Vernatt's Drain from land in
Deeping Fen Deeping Fen is a low-lying area in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England, which covers approximately . It is bounded by the River Welland and the River Glen, and is extensively drained, but the efficient drainage of the land exerc ...
to the South and West. Water from Pinchbeck South Fen to the North is also lifted into Vernatt's Drain. The village arose to service the
pumping station Pumping stations, also called pumphouses in situations such as well drilling, drilled wells and drinking water, are facilities containing pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are used for a variety of infrastru ...
s. The village is largely a
ribbon development Ribbon development refers to the building of houses along the routes of communications radiating from a human settlement. The resulting linear settlements are clearly visible on land use maps and aerial photographs, giving cities and the countrysid ...
stretching from the pumping stations and the Fishermans Arms public house along Bourne Road toward Spalding]. The village post office and small shop is now also a
bed and breakfast Bed and breakfast (typically shortened to B&B or BnB) is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast. Bed and breakfasts are often private family homes and typically have between four and eleven rooms, wit ...
, and an outside catering service. No separate population statistic is available for Pode Hole. The best available report is for the whole Pinchbeck
civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...
, which covers several settlements north and east of Spalding with a total of 5,153. At the 2011 census population details can be found under the civil parish of Pinchbeck. The name may well be a reference to a marshy location, possibly with a population of frogs and toads. Description of a field named ''Pode Hole'' in a nearby village ''Pode Hole farm'', near Thorney probably derives its name the same way. Pode Hole has one of the earliest rain gauge records of precipitation, beginning in 1726. Pode Hole falls within the drainage area of the Welland and Deepings
Internal Drainage Board An internal drainage board (IDB) is a type of operating authority which is established in areas of special drainage need in England and Wales with permissive powers to undertake work to secure clean water drainage and water level management withi ...
, successors to the original Deeping Fen commissioners.


Pumping stations

Pumping stations were installed because the cill at Vernatt's Sluice, where the drain discharges into the Welland above Spalding, was higher than the cill of the precursor sluices at Pode Hole. The fen drains could not naturally discharge into Vernatt's Drain. There was a history of windmill-driven pumps and later small steam engines across
the Fens The Fens, also known as the , in eastern England are a naturally marshy region supporting a rich ecology and numerous species. Most of the fens were drained centuries ago, resulting in a flat, dry, low-lying agricultural region supported by a ...
but the two engines at Pode Hole were the first of the large scale pumping efforts, and an encouragement to later schemes. John Rennie was consulted in 1818, and he proposed diverting the upper reaches of Vernatt's Drain from the
Welland Welland is a city in the Regional Municipality of Niagara in Southern Ontario, Canada. As of 2021, it had a population of 55,750. The city is in the centre of Niagara and located within a half-hour driving distance to Niagara Falls, Niagara-o ...
to the
Witham Witham () is a town in the county of Essex in the East of England, with a population ( 2011 census) of 25,353. It is part of the District of Braintree and is twinned with the town of Waldbröl, Germany. Witham stands between the city of Chelms ...
to improve the fall. It is unclear if this would have worked, but the funds were not available and a later proposal for
steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...
s at Pode Hole was interrupted by his death. In the end an engineer called
Benjamin Bevan Benjamin Bevan (26 December 1773 — 2 July 1833) was a British civil engineer, noted for his proof of the equivalence of the elastic moduli of ice and water. He was a principal engineer on the Grand Junction Canal. Bevan was born on Boxi ...
appointed by the commissioners placed orders for two
beam engine A beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead beam is used to apply the force from a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used by Thomas Newco ...
s from separate engineers, Fenton and Murray of Leeds, and
Butterley Butterley is a village in the English county of Derbyshire near to Ripley. It is the site of the Midland Railway – Butterley, as well as the old Butterley Brickworks. Notable residents *Sir James Outram, hero of the Indian Mutiny, was born ...
of Derby. The first was 60 hp, the second 80 hp. Butterley supplied both
scoop wheel Rim driven Scoop wheel of the Stretham Old Engine, Cambridgeshire A scoop wheel or scoopwheel is a pump, usually used for land drainage. A scoop wheel pump is similar in construction to a water wheel, but works in the opposite manner: a wate ...
s. The engines started work early in 1825, and continued in use until 1925. A third steam engine was erected on the North bank of Vernatt's drain to lift water from Pinchbeck South Fen. This operated between the early 1830s until the end of the century. This was built as much because that fen was under separate control for those years as because the capacity was required. The water from the South drain is piped under Vernatt's drain to the Pode Hole station, much as it was tunnelled before the 1830 engine was built. (The idea of a tunnel under a river is not unique. Not far away at
Bourne Bourne may refer to: Places UK * Bourne, Lincolnshire, a town ** Bourne Abbey ** Bourne railway station * Bourne (electoral division), West Sussex * Bourne SSSI, Avon, a Site of Special Scientific Interest near Burrington, North Somerset * Bourne ...
South Fen Gilbert Heathcote's tunnel was built under the River Glen, and might have been the inspiration for the system at Pode Hole.) The beam engines were maintained in storage until 1952, but then scrapped. Diesel engines were already in use across the fens when Pode Hole was modernised in 1925. The current Ruston diesel engines date from 1964 and vertical axis axial flow Foster Gwynnes pumps are driven by David Brown gear boxes. The second station alongside uses electric pumps and was built in the 1960s. The original pumping station building is a feature in the village and is in use for workshops and a small museum. The by-laws of the original commissioners are prominently posted on the outside. File:Pode Hole Historic Pumping Station.jpg, Original pumping station File:Bylaws for the drainage of Deeping Fen (geograph 3691189).jpg , Bylaws posted on the old pump station File:Pode Hole Pumping Station - geograph.org.uk - 578580.jpg, Modern pumping station File:Adventurers Pumping Station.jpg, Electric pumping station, known as the Adventurers pumping station File:Ruston Engine Inside Pode Hole Pumping Station.jpg , Ruston diesel engine


See also

*
Pinchbeck Engine The Pinchbeck Engine is a drainage engine, a rotative beam engine built in 1833 to drain Pinchbeck Marsh, to the north of Spalding, Lincolnshire, in England. Until it was shut down in 1952, the engine discharged into the ''Blue Gowt'' which ...
- an intact beam engine & scoop wheel pumping station maintained as a museum by the Welland and Deeping IDB


References


External links

* * {{authority control Villages in Lincolnshire Land drainage in the United Kingdom South Holland, Lincolnshire