3-008-546 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Fall of the middle level sluice on the west bank of the Ouse, about four miles from Lynn, Norfolk, 1862. '...tidal water found its way under the front apron of this sluice, and...before eleven o'clock the two arches gave way...The commissioners have been making great exertions...to make a dam across the main drain...but up to the present time, although many hundred men and horses have been employed, nothing has yet been accomplished to stop the flow of the tide...it is conjectured that from 10,000 to 20,000 acres of rich arable land will be entirely submerged...Such a calamity has not befallen this part of the fens and marsh land for centuries, and thousands of people will be ruined...It is said that the whole country around looks like a vast sea...This sluice was designed by Messrs. Walker and Burgess, engineers...and was built by Mr. Brogden...Mr. Stephen Ballard being the resident engineer. The New Drain, which is eleven miles long, was also laid out by Messrs. Walker and Burgess...The work has been looked upon as one of the great engineering works in the fens, and the expense of rebuilding the sluice, bridges, making embankment across main drain, repairing breaches, making compensation for damage done, is laid at £ 100,000.' From "Illustrated London News", 1862.