CULVERTS

[Stanley]

CULVERTS

That's right! I am still exercised by the recent flooding. Let's have a look at, and learn from, history. Culverts are on my mind this week because they are the choke points in our drainage systems.
A culvert is an underground drain that carries a natural watercourse under areas where the open stream would be in the way. How many people realise that Fleet Street in London has the River Fleet running under it? Out of sight, out of mind. This applies to Gillians Beck running under Clough Park and Walmsgate. Calf Hall beck runs underneath Calf Hall shed, reappears briefly and then dive under Butts mill. It joins Gillians Beck in a culvert in the road outside Butts mill before popping up again at the other side of the road as Butts Beck. Have you ever wondered where the water from the 'waterfall' on Forty Steps goes? This was the overspill dam for the lodges that supplied Ouzledale Mill with water for the wheel that powered the saw mill. It dives into a culvert under the mill yard and comes out into what was the lodge for Clough mill through an arched opening in the base of the red brick building in the yard. If you look carefully you can see it from the lower side of the site.
I am sometimes taken to task for my 'obsession with history', I am told that it is not relevant to today. Nonsense! My culverts are a case in point, they were essential to the early industrial history of Barlick and that's why I am interested in them. All the culverts that we depend on for drainage have one thing in common. They were constructed in the 19th century or earlier. We are still riding on the backs of the Victorians! It was the failure of the culverts to cope with the flow and the amount of rubbish swept down which blocked them that caused the July 1932 flood in the town. This is the danger we face now and it becomes more pressing now as we face more frequent extreme weather events like the Boxing Day rains.
We are told by our leaders that they will have yet another inquiry into what needs to be done, in other words the can is being kicked down the road again. It may be that it is time to give some attention to our antique culverts. Do we still need them? Can any of them be opened up and made into normal watercourses which are less likely to be choke points? Should we be inspecting the ones that cannot be opened up and rebuilding them to modern standards? Yes, this will cost money but the long term savings in terms of flood protection far outweigh the first cost and will be a local and national benefit.
History is tugging our coat sleeve and giving us a warning. The time may have come to take notice and actually do something. If we simply ignore the obvious yet again we deserve all we get.



Ouzledale lodges in the days when water was managed carefully.

[Tizer]

A timely article. Out here where I live on the Somerset Levels our equivalent of your culverts are the drainage ditches along the sides of the drove roads and between fields, and often represent boundaries. Councils and landowners now often fail to keep the ditches clear and they're filling up with silt, vegetation and rubbish thrown out of passing vehicles. The drainage ditches protect many houses from flooding but unfortunately the insurance companies can't seem to grasp this logic - they raise your premium if you live within 10 metres of water, even if it's a drainage ditch!

[Stanley]

I haven't finished with this subject yet. I have been banging on about matters like this for years.... One of these days!

[David Whipp]

Stanley, it may give you some comfort for you to know that my obsession with culverts is almost as great as yours.

This goes back 35 years or so when I was a newly elected councillor. One of the issues of the day was the regular flooding of property at the bottom of Walmsgate, which didn't appear to be something that was being sorted out. Only after Silentnight gifted the site of Clough Mill to Pendle Council was I able to make some progress with the problem.

Myself and colleagues managed to get a re-employment project to convert the demolition site into a small park. As part of the scheme, the condition of the culvert was investigated. Although of spacious construction, the culvert was badly silted up, with only a small space at the top where water could flow. The re-employment team were set to to dig all the silt out. They dug out the full length and found a dustbin lodged in the culvert near the outlet. Over the years of neglect, this had caused the watercourse to silt up behind it.

After the job was finished, we put a trash screen over the inlet to prevent debris once again washing in and blocking the culvert (in the years since, this has been supplemented with a better one). A gang regularly checks the trash screen (together with others in Pendle) and removes the washed down debris. It's something I also check when flood conditions are expected. I was impressed to find during one of the recent storms that the gang had been twice to clear the screen on a Sunday. (The photo used recently to illustrate the build up of trash at culvert entrances in the LT - and on OGFB - is one of mine, which I took after Storm Desmond. The trash was cleared soon after.)

The Environment Agency check the condition of the Walmsgate culvert regularly, as it's now classed as part of a 'main river'. Culverts beneath Calf Hall and Butts are overseen by LCC who aren't as diligent though...

After Storm Eva, when several of us councillors got into Crow Nest Syke to clear a blocked culvert inlet, I took colleague Claire Teall on a tour of the locations I visit on my flood warning rounds. I daresay Claire's eyes glazed over as I described the work done over the past three decades to deal with flooding issues around the town and in Earby.

It brought home to me how many properties in Barlick were flood free on Boxing Day which would have been inundated if work hadn't been carried out.

The schemes range from the £300,000 culvert 'by-pass' along Meadow Way, which has helped keep Ghyll Meadows flood free for fourteen years, to clearing out a blockage in a culvert beneath Harper Street which threatened property on Ings Avenue with flooding. In between, there's the new culvert installed as part of the Westfield Mill development which has doubled capacity and reduced the risk of flooding in the Foster Road ('down't Syke') area, which used to flood regularly; and the culvert upgrade beneath what's now the Spar garage on Skipton Road which has kept Eastwood Street from flooding since early this century.

In Earby, the EA are fast tracking a scheme to renew Victoria Clough, which takes water from the North Holme area beneath Colne Road and Victoria Road into New Cut, and which is a critical part of Earby's drainage infrastructure.

In Barlick, we are bidding for funding for further upgrades to the culvert running beneath Ghyll Meadows. (Our chances of getting the funding are adversely affected by the heroic efforts that saved Ghyll Meadows on Boxing Day... if the houses had flooded, there'd be a better chance of getting the funding...)

Here are a couple of links which may be of interest; a debate on flooding in the House of Lords with Barlick and Earby featuring at 14.52.51 in a speech from my mate Tony Greaves; House of Lords TV

This one is to the excellent footage that Bryan Fieldhouse filmed on Boxing Day; Boxing Day film

[Tizer]

What a marvellous, informative post! David, if you ever get cloned please send a clone down here to our local council, we need you!

[Stanley]

I agree with Tiz and I'm pleased that David is as 'obsessed' as I am. Not obsessed really, just more aware of the dangers. Two more articles on this subject to come in the BET David....

[David Whipp]

A result of the cuts to local councils is the ceaseless centralisation of services, with fewer and fewer staff to run them. Most of the detailed local knowledge about watercourses and drainage is being lost. Fingers crossed, enough folk are paying attention and picking up at least the basics about the important drainage system underground.

[Tizer]

The ditch across the lane from our house used to be a small river until about 1950 when it was re-directed a few miles upstream. It still takes all the drainage from the sloping fields behind us but the water now mostly seeps away gradually with nowhere else to go. People have blocked the ditch where it crosses their properties and in other places it's silting up . It used to be the responsibility of the National Rivers Authority but they abandoned it because it's no longer classed as a river. No-one else will take responsibility for it.

[Stanley]

I think that's probably a common syndrome Tiz. As David says, these days the cuts are making those attitudes more common. I bang on about watery matters because I want more people to be aware. Perhaps the penny drops every now and then.....

[David Whipp]

Our flood meeting at Earby yesterday evening was well attended and positive.

EA representative Paul Swales, who's been a very good ally for getting work done in Earby, was able to report the accelerated start of work to renew part of the Victoria Clough culvert and that a new CCTV survey of the underground watercourse would be carried out following the Boxing Day event.

A retired Pendle Council employee came along to the meeting and passed on some of his store of knowledge about the drainage systems in the area. He also confirmed that my guess about the pumps at Lane Ends being installed during the latter part of the 1960s was a good one; the original pumps had a plate with "1968" on them.

[Stanley]

I can remember the time. Lane Ends was a flood hot spot then and was regularly flooded. I think my next BET article covers it.....

[Stanley]

Bumped and image restored. This subject is just as pertinent as it was then!

[Gloria]

Very interesting article.

[Wendyf]

Very pertinent this morning, there is an awful lot of water around with the snow melt and constant rain overnight. I've been out unblocking a couple of drains already!

[Stanley]

I shall never drop this subject! Bumped again.....

[Stanley]

We still rely on 19th century culverts!