ISSN 0033 8834 VOLUME 31 Pt. 10 No. 162 NOVEMBER 1995 THE RAILWAY & CANAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY Founded 1954 Incorporated 1967 PRESIDENT: Edwin Course VICE-PRESIDENTS: Prof. T. C. Barker, Dr A. L. Barnett, G. J. Biddle, Rex Christiansen, Charles Hadfield, D. H. Tew, M. P. N. Reading CHAIRMAN: (Managing Committee): Grahame Boyes HON. SECRETARY: G. H. R. Gwatkin, 17 Clumber Crescent North, The Park, Nottingham NG7 lEY HON. TREASURER: Peter R. Davis, 103 North Street, Hornchurch, Essex RM11 1ST MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY: R. J. Taylor, 16 Priory Court, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire HP4 2DP HON. EDITOR: Dr J. C. Cutler, 12 St Quentin Rise, Sheffield S17 4PR BOOK REVIEWS EDITOR: Dr N. M. L. Barnes, 322 Shakespeare Tower, Barbican, London EC27 8NJ. (To whom all items for review should be sent.) DISTRIBUTION OFFICER: J. R. Searson, 23 Bank Croft, Longton, Preston PR4 5AL (To whom notification of non-delivery or defective copies of the Journal or Bulletin should be sent.) JOURNAL OF THE RAILWAY & CANAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY VOLUME 31 Pt. 10 No. 162 NOVEMBER 1995 Contents TWO EARLY ROMAN CANALS? THE ORIGINS OF THE TURN- BRIDGEDIKE AND BYCARRSDIKE Pat Jones .. 522 WHITHER CAIRNIE JUNCTION? P. M. Braine . 532 THE WALESWOOD ACCIDENT: SPECTACULAR-* D. EMI-SE. OF- A* GOODS WAGON]. C. Cutler . 535 OVERNIGHT TRAVEL- IN. 184 .5 '0. N** TH. E.. MANCHESTER -- --- AND D.• LEEDS - RAILWAY . 541 THE RAILWAYS:- 'CH-ALE-N.6ES TO- * SS6IENCIENCE. AND*D. TEC - H*1\1* OLO- 6Y. S . Ill Brag .. .. 541 GAUGING. R .. EG IS- -RS-6RANGRAND- D. JU-NC.• TION- C -ANAL- 11 .• ug. .11 J. Compton 543 WHAT WAS PADDINGTON THINKING OF? THE HENLEY-MARLOW - SCHEME OF 1997-8 Michael Robbins .* . .. .. .. 544 RAILWAY HOOLIGANS IN THE 1840S Philip L..S .. covvcroft .. .. 545 BOOK REVIEWS 546 CORRESPONDENCE. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .• 550 BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR 1995 . .. .. •• 557 INDEX FOR VOLUME 31 COMPILEDED BY- .H. C. L.. T. fie. kett .. 597 521 Two early Roman canals? The origins of the Turnbridgedike and Bycarrsdike BY PAT JONES In medieval times the river Don split into two widely divergent branches near Thorne; the south branch (or original course) of the river wound its way into the Humber between the Trent and the Ouse, the north branch flowed into the river Aire along an artificial channel known as Tornebrigg (later Turnbridge) dike. The land between the two branches was appropriately named Marshland. The river Idle was a tributory of the Don, and meandered into the original course of that river near Sandtoft. The Isle of Axholme, which rises to 40 metres above OD in places, was bounded on the east by the river Trent, to the west by the North Idle and river Don, and to the south by the Bycar- rsdike, an artificial channel cut from the river Idle to the Trent at West Stockwith. The lower lying part of the Isle of Axholme differed little from Marshland; most of it was marsh, under water for much of the year, but it had at one time been covered with great trees. According to antiquarian tradition the Romans were to blame for burning the trees and cutting a channel through the natural bank of the Trent, in order to flood the hinterland and flush-out the Brigantes. Research has shown that tradition to have some foundation in that there is evidence of burning, but the great trees were long gone by the time of the Romans. It may well be that neglect or abandonment of sluices at the outfalls of the Turnbridgedike and Bycarrsdike during or immediately after the Roman period was partly responsible for flooding in what are now usually termed the Hum- berhead Levels. The purpose of this paper is to consider whether there is now sufficient evidence to determine why and when these artificial channels were cut. The Humberhead Levels were very different during the Roman period; evidence of the land's previous suitability for agricultural use was revealed during Vermuyden's drainage works, and first reported in a letter to the Royal Society from Abraham de la Pryme dated 19 November 1701: . and at the very bottom of a new River or Drain, that the Drainers cut (almost 100 yards wide, and 4 or 5 miles long, at the charge of above £30,000 besides the great sluice at the end thereof, which cost near £30,000 more) were found old trees squared and cut, Rails, Stoups, Bars, old Links of Chains, Horseheads, an old Ax somewhat like a battle Ax, two or three coins of the Emperor Vespasian, one of which I have seen in the hands of Mr Cornelius Lee of Hatfield, with the Emperors head on the one side, and a Spread Eagle on the other, but that which is the more observable is, that the very ground at the bottom of the River was found in some places to lye in Rigg and Fur(row) manifesting thereby that it had been plow'd and tilled in former days.I The information provided by de la Pryme can now be augmented with the reports of excavation on the site of a Romano-British settlement at Sandtoft, undertaken during the construction of the MI80 motorway: . fieldwork suggests that much of the region had been extensively farmed during the Roman period, and that many of the drainage problems were a later develop- ment. The evidence combines to imply a mixed farming economy in a wholly cleared landscape, perhaps not too dissimilar to the present one.2 522 ROMAN LINES OF COMMUNICATION IN NORTH-EAST ENGLAND. MALTON FL AMBOROUGH HEAD ALDBOROUGH R. Derwent / R. Ure R. Ouse YORK 1 I TADCASTER \ R. Wharfe , BROUGH CASTLEFORD R. Aire WINTER' R. Humber DONCASTER R. Don BAWTRY R. Idle LITTLEBOROUGH R. Trent LINCOLN R. Witham Roads — — — Navigable rivers Canals 1 Fossdike 2 Bycarrsdike 3 Turnbridgedike Figure 1. The relationship of the Turnbridgedike and the Bycarrsdike to the Fossdike suggests that each served as links in a unitary system, in a similar way to that by which the Cambridgeshire Cardike and other artificial cuts linked natural rivers to provide a navigable channel from the Cam at Waterbeach directly to the Nene at Water Newton. Roman artefacts including coins of the Emperor Vespasian have been discovered beside the Turnbridgedike, and the Bycarrsike was mentioned in the Domesday Survey. Excavation has revealed evidence indicating that the tide was originally excluded from them, presumably by means of navigable sluices. Each lies close to a line between Lincoln and York, and it would seem reasonable to conclude that they were cut to improve the 9th Legion's supply route, probably soon after 71 AD. 523 Such extensive farming suggests that some of the Roman Army's food was produced in this area, and the lack of roads suitable wheeled transport implies that deliveries in bulk were made by water (see figure 1). It also presumes that contemporaneous land-drainage was reasonably efficient, and certainly better than at any subsequent time prior to the seventeenth century. Two factors which would have contributed to land-drainage efficiency can be identified; the relative level of tidal rivers in the Humber region was lower in Roman times, and Roman engineering skill enabled rivers to be managed effec- tively. The present mean level of high-water of spring tides is 3.4 metres above OD at Immingham (the Humber's Standard Port), and approximately the same around the Wash. The excavations at Sandtoft revealed a fresh-water regime at approximately 1 metre above OD;3 at Faxfleet (north of Trent Falls) Roman occupation material has been recovered from beneath up to 2 metres of silt. 4 Research by Drs G. D. Gaunt and M. J. Tooley has shown that land adjacent to the Humber estuary has subsided in relation to land at the same latitude on the west coast, where fluctuations in mean sea level have followed a trochoidal curve with an amplitude of about 1.5 metres, and peaks about 975 years apart.5 Research by Brian Simmons around the Wash revealed evi- dence of marine regression of 1.5 metres during the 400 or so years before the Roman occupation.° All the available evidence points to the relative level of tidal rivers flowing into the Humber being between 1 and 2 metres lower at the start of the Roman occu- pation than at present, although it rose in later Roman times. In 1975 Dr Gaunt proved that Turnbridge dike was a totally artificial channel, because it had no underlying early post-glacial deeply incised, and subsequently alluvium-filled, precursor (a necessary feature of all natural original river courses flowing towards the Humber), because its course cuts across the natural course of the river Went, and because it has no wide flanking alluvial floodplain, having been confined between man-made embankments throughout its entire existence. These features are illustrated on figure 2. Dr Gaunt reviewed the literary and cartographic evidence relating to Turnbridge dike, which 'implies that the channel was already in existence by 1344', and concluded that `the only earlier periods when such an engineering feat would appear feasible are some time after the Norman conquest or during the Roman occupation'.? The same author commented in 1981 that the channel was cut 'probably as a Roman inland waterway or as a Medieval attempt to improve drainage',8 adding to this conclusion, in 1987, 'If the former by analogy with known Roman artificial waterways the reason may have been to improve inland waterway communications. If the latter, it may have been an attempt by the Crown or one of the major religious establishments to improve land drainage on and adjacent to Hatfield Chase'.° But the fact that it was cut across a gently eastward- dipping plain (i.e., at 90 or more degrees to the direction of natural drainage) and dis- charged into the Aire (which in flood conditions rises much higher than the Humber at the Don's natural outlet) shows that it could not have improved drainage in high-flow conditions, when improvement would have been most needed.