XI.—A detailed Report of the Drainage by Steam-power of a Portion of Martin Mere, Lancashire. By HENRY WHITE, Land Agent, &c., Warrington.

Introduction.-Martin Mere might with propriety be termed the Great Fen of Lancashire. It is situate about 17 or 18 miles north of Liverpool, within a mile or two of the well-known and much-frequented sea-bathing place of Southport, and is separated from the sea by a slight ridge of land, only varying from a quarter of a mile, or less, to a mile in width. The district of what is termed Martin Mere extends over several thousand acres, all much lower than the level of the sea at high-water, and belongs principally to Charles Scarisbrick, Esq., but large portions are also owned by Sir Thomas G. Hesketh, Lord Derby, and Mr. Legh Keck. The Mere comprises portions of the townships of North Meols, Scaris brick, Burscough, Rufford, and Tarleton.

Up to the end of the seventeenth century this Mere was really what its name indicates—a large pool of water (in area 3632 acres); indeed, in winter it still has too much of this appearance, notwithstanding the efforts that have been made from time to time to lay it dry. In the year 1786, Mr. Eccleston, who then resided at Scarisbrick Hall, sent an account to the Society of Arts of what had been done by others and himself up to that date with the view of draining this extensive but shallow lake. A copy of this very interesting account is given in Dr. Aikin's 'Manchester,' a topographical work published in 1795.* From this report it appears that a Mr. Fleetwood, then resident at Bank Hall (now the seat of Mr. Legh Keck, and situate a short distance north of the Mere), gained the consent of the other proprietors to his obtaining an Act of Parliament for the drainage of the Mere; and shortly afterwards, having leased the land under the powers of the Act, he made a portion of the large open drain or canal well known at present as "the Sluice." He also put down flood-gates near its outlet. In consequence of the deposit of sand which took place up to the gates on the side next the sea, he determined, in 1714, upon raising the sill of the gates 20 inches. Notwithstanding these supposed improvements, it appears that at this period "the Mere lands for many years were only made use of as a poor, fenny, watery pasture for the cattle of the neighbourhood, and that for a part of the summer months only." In the year 1717 Mr. Fleetwood died.†

*“A Description of the Country from thirty or forty miles round Manchester. The materials arranged and the work composed by J. Aikin, M.D., Stockdale, London. 1795.

This Mr. Fleetwood was buried at the parish church of North Meols, which stands between one part of the. Mere and the sea. The inscription, in Latin, on

Some time afterwards, Mr. Fleetwood's executors erected another pair of flood-gates, nearer the outfall, which proved beneficial. About the year 1750 Mr. Fleetwood's lease expired. In 1755 the flood-gates and walls were washed down by "a very uncommon high tide," but were rebuilt at the joint expense of the different proprietors, and were then made 14 feet wide. From this time the Mere remained in the hands of the proprietors, in a neglected state, until the year 1781, when Mr. Eccleston, according to his statement, obtained leases from all the proprietors (one only excepted), and immediately began the work of improvement. He erected three pairs of flood-gates, with paddles at the bottom of each for the purposes of flushing. These gates were 18 feet wide and 194 high, and the sill was 5 feet lower than that of the gates first put down. In 1783 the sluice was extended further into the Mere, and the waters thereof, which were then very high, ran off in 5 days. The sluice was now nearly 5 miles in length. In 1784 Mr. Eccleston commenced ploughing a few acres of the land thus drained, and states that it yielded a tolerable crop of spring corn; some yielded a very inferior kind of hay, and the rest was pastured." The following year he sowed 200 large acres* of corn: part of this was oats and part barley. The latter he sold at 117. 178. 6d. the large acre (the purchaser paying the expense of reaping, &c.), off land that before only let for 4s. per acre; and the oats he sold at 107. 17s. 6d. per acre, off land which hitherto had produced nothing. Before the drainage, he says, "the best meadow-lands in the most favourable seasons did not let for more than 9s. per acre;" whilst afterwards he mowed some worth 37., and let off the grass of other land at 27., reserving the after-grass for his own cattle.

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In 1789 Mr. Eccleston made a further report to the Society of Arts, informing them of the losses he had sustained by the failure of the banks of the river Douglas and of the Leeds and Liverpool canal, having caused an inundation of the Mere. After

his monument in the church, and which has reference to his labours on the Mere, has been translated as follows:

"Thomas Fleetwood, of Bank, Knight, descended from a Stafford family (and that one of the first), a truly noble, polished, and facetious man, and the delight of his circle. He wished his bones to be here laid, because he made into dry and firm land the great Martinensian Marsh, by the water having been conveyed through a fosse to the neighbouring sea,-a work which, as the ancients dared not to attempt, posterity will hardly credit. He likewise constructed, not far off, a handsome bridge over the estuary at no small cost, from a regard rather to the public good than to his own prospective advantage. These labours having been accomplished, he at length, alas! too soon, laid down and died, on the 22nd April, A.D. 1717, in the 56th year of his age."

*This, no doubt, refers to what is now more commonly termed "Cheshire measure," and which would be 423 statute acres. In Lancashire the use of customary measures still obtains: there are the Cheshire 64 square yards to the perch-the Lancashire 49 yards-the West Derby 424; besides the statute measure 304 yards.

this period he adopted the grazing system, and states that, "of all stock, horses have been found to answer best on the natural coarse grass and weeds, on the softest lands;" alluding, no doubt, to the softest portion of this Mere.

In the year 1809 Mr. Eccleston died, leaving the great work to be completed.

In 1813, it is reported, the sea-gates were again carried away. After this, it appears, four cast-iron pipes or cylinders—three of 3 feet diameter, and one of 3 feet 3 inches, with self-acting doors to each of their ends next the sea, were fixed alongside of each other at the entrance to the sluice and under the bridge near to Crossens. These cylinders remain to the present day, but are obviously insufficient to allow the speedy escape of the fresh waters, particularly during winter, and the consequence is, that that portion of the Mere which depends upon this "natural" drainage alone, is submerged for weeks together. When I last visited the spot on the 21st of February, 1852, after four or five days of fair weather, some hundreds, if not thousands, of acres were then flooded, and had been so for several weeks. I happened to be at the cylinders at the time of high-water ( past 12), and the height of the tide on that day, as indicated by a Liverpool tidetable, was 16 feet 11 inches. The height above the bottom of the cylinders at the end next the sea, where the doors, which close with the tide, are fixed, was 8 feet 8 inches. The height of the water in the sluice at the other end of the cylinders was 4 feet 6 inches; so that, supposing the cylinders to be laid horizontal, and the datum, from which the figures are given on the face of the stone-work above them, to be the same, there was here a difference in the two levels of 4 feet 2 inches; consequently no water could drain off from the Mere until the tide had ebbed to at least 4 feet 2 inches below high-water. As the tides vary from between 10 and 11 to 22 feet in height, and are subject to further increase by westerly winds, there will be a certain length of time at every tide (excepting a few of the very lowest), when drainage by these natural means is impossible. This points to the necessity of having an increased number of cylinders or other outlets which will allow the fresh waters to pass off rapidly during the period that the sea is below the level of the cylinders. Some such plan is, I presume, contemplated by Mr. Scarisbrick, as three new sluices, quite parallel and close to each other, and of different widths, are now being made at some distance to the west of the former sluice, and which apparently are to empty themselves into the sea, about 100 or 150 yards from the present cylinders.

Plan of Operation.-I now come to the more immediate subject of this Report-the drainage of 1100 acres of Sir Thomas Hesketh's portion of Martin Mere, by artificial means. The whole of

this land is situate at the north-east end of the Mere, and drains into the sluice already referred to. Before proceeding with a detailed account of the work I will give a copy of a Report (as to this drainage) made by Robert Neilson, Esq., of Halewood, to the Inclosure Commissioners.

Mr. Neilson says,

"In compliance with your instructions, I beg to submit the following official Report on the effect of the machinery erected by Sir Thomas George Hesketh, Bart., for the drainage of his portion of Martin Mere, in the townships of Rufford and Tarleton.

"The tract of land thus denominated, consists of about 5000 acres, which, for six months in the year, and occasionally for a longer period, has been hitherto entirely covered with water.

"The description of the soil is, for the most part, a peaty loam, chiefly consisting of alluvial deposit and decomposed vegetable matter, and resting on a substratum of sand, with some slight deposits of marl.

"In consequence of this periodical inundation, not only has the productive capability of the soil most materially deteriorated and its rental value diminished, from its incapability of being put into corn- cultivation, but the sanatory condition of the neighbourhood was unfavourably influenced by the exhalations which the subsidence of the stagnant waters-under the action of approaching summer-caused to pervade it. Of this tract of land there are four proprietors; 3000 acres being owned by Mr. Scarisbrick, 600 by the Earl of Derby, 400 by Mr. Keck, and 1200 by Sir Thomas Hesketh, the latter being separated from the former by a broad canal about four miles in length, to each of which, until very lately the above description equally applied.

"Impressed with an opinion of the real value of the land, of the complete practicability of such drainage, and the consequent pecuniary benefit to his employer, and the social benefit of the neighbourhood at large which such drainage would effect, Mr. Boosie, the present agent of Sir Thomas Hesketh, conceived the project of relieving that gentleman's property by means of a water-wheel driven by steam-power, which should discharge the water as fast as it accumulated.

"The project was one which involved a large and immediate outlay of capital for a hazardous and prospective benefit; but relying on the judgment and skill which his agent had already evinced on former occasions, Sir Thomas Hesketh did not hesitate, on the data and calculations submitted to his consideration by Mr. Boosie, to authorize him at once to proceed with the undertaking.

"The result proves that the confidence thus reposed has not been in the slightest degree misplaced.

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The best models in Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire have been studied with care, and at a cost of upwards of 30007., including buildings and embankments; a steam-engine of 20-horse power, and a wheel of 30 feet diameter, have been erected, and which, for judgment in plan, skill and accuracy in the workmanship, and amount of operative efficiency, are not surpassed in England.

"Nor has there been less practical discernment in the planning of the leading watercourses; and the judicious arrangement, by which the operations of the wheel have been limited to that portion of land most in need of its assistance, while the waters of the higher levels have been conveyed away by a totally separate channel to the main canal. From every chance of inundation from this canal, Sir Thomas Hesketh's land is now protected by a dam 20 feet broad at the base, and from 3 to 4 feet above the level of highwater-mark. Into this

canal the whole of the water falling on the 1200 acres is now lifted within a few hours of the heaviest rain, by the wheel to which I have alluded.

I had an excellent opportunity of witnessing this, during my inspection of that portion of the property. The weather had been for some time wet, and heavy rain had fallen during the whole of the previous day; yet on my arrival soon after ten in the morning, I found that, though the wheel had ceased working at two o'clock, there was nearly 5 feet of difference between the surface of the water inside and outside the wheel.

"I may be permitted to express the extreme satisfaction I have experienced in the above survey: it is an unusual and gratifying incident to find the liberal and enlightened views of the proprietor so ably seconded by the skill and energy of the agent; nor is it less gratifying to know, that while the pecuniary resources of the one, and the official character of the other, will equally be benefited by the result, that benefit is shared also by all the inhabitants of the neighbourhood in the improved sanatory condition of the district thus drained.

"I feel it due to Sir Thomas Hesketh, exclusive of the pleasure it affords me, to make this ample report to the Commissioners, that they may be enabled, in the event of any further application on his behalf, to know the grounds on which I beg to recommend such applications to their most favourable consideration.

"December 11, 1850."

(Signed) "ROBERT NEILSON.

To Mr. Boosie, of Rufford, near Ormskirk, who is thus so deservedly eulogised in Mr. Neilson's report, I am indebted for many of the facts, and for much of the information I have obtained with reference to this drainage. Mr. Boosie entered upon the agency at Rufford in January, 1847: in a short time afterwards he devised his plan of operation, and commenced with making his catch-water drains. The principal catch-water drain intercepts all the water flowing from the higher ground on the north side of the land drained (about 600 acres), and conveys it to the sluice: an embankment being required to pass it through the low ground as it approaches the outfall. The length of this catch-water drain is about 2 miles, and the fall about 7 feet. The object of these drains is obvious-the saving of the additional steam-power which would be required if the water from them was permitted to flow towards the engine. In July, 1849, Mr. Boosie visited the Pode-hole engines near Spalding, in Lincolnshire, for the purpose of getting information as to the working of those engines, also to assist him in determining the necessary power required for Sir Thomas's engine, and the best mode of constructing the water-wheel. Specifications for the engine and wheel were then prepared for him by a friend in Manchester,† and tenders were received from different parties for an engine of 20-horse power, and a wheel 30 feet in diameter. Messrs. Ben

* Since the above was written, 100 acres, at a short distance to the south-east of the engine, which were on a sufficiently high level, have been drained into the sluice by a catch-water drain, thus relieving the engine, in some measure, of its work.-H. W.

†The gentleman here referred to is Mr. Robert Smith, Engineer, Old Trafford Hall, Manchester, who accompanied Mr. Boosie into Lincolnshire.