Maintenance
The next 140 years were marked by an inability to take action on the part of those responsible for the maintenance of the drainage scheme. Once completed, it came under the jurisdiction of the Commissioners of Sewers, and routine maintenance did not take place. In 1811, the Commissioners pinned their hopes on the proposed Bristol to Taunton canal, which would have crossed the drain by an aqueduct, which would have included a new clyse at a lower level than the Dunball outlet, but the canal project came to nothing. The banks continued to slip, and the peak continued to rise up in the bottom of the drain. They asked Robert Anstice to produce a report on the condition of the drain in 1816, but it was 1818 before the report was produced and highlighted the poor state of repair of the system. They also asked for a report on ways to make the bridges wider, but nothing came of it. Ten years later, they commissioned another report, but the local landowners took matters into their own hands and asked Josiah Easton to inspect the drain.
Easton reported that the drain was now nearly useless, and that £10,000 would be needed to put it back into good order. In 1829, he published a proposal to improve the drain so that it would be navigable from Dunball to Yeovil. Drainage required the water levels to be lower, but navigation required them to be higher, and so the scheme came to nothing. The Commissioners scoured the drain, but no real progress was made. In 1842, another report was commissioned, from a Mr. Glyn. His two alternatives were to lower the clyse at Dunball by 4 feet (1.2 m), and to convert the lower part of the channel into a reservoir. Steam engines would be used to pump water into it, and it would empty by gravity at low tide. The Commissioners were unsure whether their powers allowed them to start such work, so they did nothing. In 1844, with the clyse doors in imminent danger of collapse, they paid for the cill to be lowered by 20 inches (51 cm) and fitted new doors, but the moors still flooded during most winters.
The Commissioners were replaced following the passing of the Land Drainage Act in 1861. A special commission, which was only responsible for King's Sedgemoor, was created, but like their predecessors, they found that their powers were limited, and their ability to raise funds by rates was inadequate. A high tide in 1876 carried the clyse gates away, and the adjacent bridge had to be demolished for safety. Tides passed up the channel and flooded the moors. Work to construct a new bridge with tidal doors cost £16,000, and the area was impoverished by the debt. The Somerset Drainage Act of 1877 was another attempt to sort out the lack of administrative power, but no work was undertaken in King's Sedgemoor. Serious breaches of the banks occurred in 1872, 1891, 1894, 1924 and 1929.
Read more about this topic: King's Sedgemoor Drain
Famous quotes containing the word maintenance:
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