| Laneham | |
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Laneham
Laneham shown within Nottinghamshire |
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| Population | 279 |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | SK804762 |
| Shire county | Nottinghamshire |
| Region | East Midlands |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | RETFORD |
| Postcode district | DN22 |
| Dialling code | 01777 |
| Police | Nottinghamshire |
| Fire | Nottinghamshire |
| Ambulance | East Midlands |
| EU Parliament | East Midlands |
| List of places: UK • England • Nottinghamshire | |
Laneham is a small Nottinghamshire village on the banks of the River Trent. It is 13 miles (21 km) due west of the city of Lincoln and 8 miles (13 km) east of the market town of Retford.
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The Parish of Laneham had a total population of 279 people at the 2001 census,[1] somewhat reduced from the 410 people who lived in the village in 1851. The parish covers an area of 1,589 acres (643 ha), [2] and includes the two settlements of "Town" Laneham and "Church" Laneham, separated by the village beck and a short stretch of low-lying ground. The eastern boundary is formed by the River Trent. Prior to 1884, the parish included 155 acres (63 ha) of land used for parture on the eastern bank of the Trent, but most of this was transferred to the parish of Kettlethorpe.[3] Communication to the east was once easier, as a ferry crossed the river here until 1922.[4] The ferry had a very long history, since a list of stock held by the manor in 1388 included two gangways, which were used by passengers boarding the ferry.[5] In earlier times the parish suffered some flooding from the Trent and the village beck, but the situation was improved by an Act of 1768-9 which set up drainage commissioners who were to protect Laneham and several other villages from flooding and improve the drainage of the land.
There are a number of listed buildings in the village, including Manor Farmhouse, with three bays and two storeys, built in the early nineteenth century,[6] and Binge Farmhouse, with five bays and two storeys, together with a basement and garret, built in the middle eighteenth century.[7] Willow Tree Cottage is a single-storeyed eighteenth century building with three bays and an attic,[8] while Willow Tree Farmhouse is an L-shaped building, consisting of a seventeenth century gable-ended wing and a nineteenth century wing.[9] The substantial farmhouses reflect the former prosperity of the village, based on the well ordered fields surrounding the village which in turn show the influence of the enclosure movement. Laneham was enclosed by Act of Parliament in the 12th year of George III's reign - 1772; the enclosure involved 1,073 of the parish's 1,589 acres (6.43 km2).
The village had three public houses: The Butchers Arms (demolished 2009-10), The Ferryboat, and the Ring o' Bells which stood on the site of the present senior citizens' bungalows. A village hall makes use of the former school building. The Parish Church of St. Peter remains open, and is a grade I listed building. Various parts were constructed in the 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. It was restored in 1891, and the porch was renovated in 1932. The Church is the focal point of Church Laneham, it is built on a small knoll above the river and contains a large, elaborate alabaster memorial to Ellis Markham and his son Jervase, which dates from 1636.[10]
In December 1768, a group of landowners from this part of Nottinghamshire asked the civil engineer John Grundy, Jr. to investigate the possibility of draining some 10 square miles (26 km2) of land on the west bank of the River Trent, stretching from Laneham to West Burton. He was accompanied by Samuel Goodhand, his clerk, on the initial site visit, and proposed three components to a solution. The first was a catchwater drain, which would intercept the streams flowing into the area at its western edge, and discharge into the Trent at West Burton. In order to prevent high water levels in the river flooding the land, he proposed a 7-mile (11 km) flood bank, which would run from Laneham to West Burton. Finally, rainwater would be collected by a Mother Drain and numerous side drains, which would discharge into the Trent through an outfall sluice at Sturton Cow Pasture.[11]
The landowners liked the plans, asking Grundy to produce detailed proposals, and to supervise the obtaining of an Act of Parliament to authorise the work. Assisted by the surveyor George Kelk and a colleague called David Buffery, who checked the levels, he spent six weeks producing his plans, which he presented in February 1769. He estimated that 5,900 acres (2,400 ha) would be improved by the scheme, which would cost £2,700 for the catchwater drain, £6,800 for the bank along the river from Laneham to West Burton, £2,400 for the Mother Drain, with an additional £1,200 for the side drains, and £900 for the sluice at Sturton, making a total of £14,000. He spent most of March and April in London, to ensure the bill passed through Parliament, and received £329 for his work up to this point. A detailed plan of the area at a scale of 1:21,120 was published.[12]
The Act appointed Drainage Commissioners, who met for the first time on 29 May 1769. Grundy became the engineer for the scheme, Buffery was the surveyor of works, and Kelk was the land surveyor. Grundy's plans for Sturton Sluice show a 12-foot (3.7 m) waterway. Brickwork and masonry were erected by local contractors, while the major excavations were handled by Dyson and Pinkerton. Grundy changed the plans somewhat, as he decided that a drainage mill would be needed at Sturton. This had a 15-foot (4.6 m) scoop wheel, and was completed in April 1770 by Henry Bennett from Spalding, at a cost of £458. The works were finished on time in May 1772, with the final cost amounting to around £15,000. Grundy visited the works at least seven times to ensure that his specifications were being met.[12] The only known details of the scheme are preserved in Grundy's Report Books, which he spent the last few years of his life preparing. Running to 12 volumes and 4,000 pages, they were lost, but were re-discovered in the library at the University of Leeds in 1988. The Laneham Drainage scheme is covered in volumes 10 and 11.[13]
The drainage mill which pumped water from the Mother Drain into the Trent was replaced by a 43 hp (32 kW) steam-powered beam engine in 1847. It had a larger scoop wheel, which was 26.5 feet (8.1 m) in diameter and 2.25 feet (0.69 m) wide. It was scrapped some time before 1937, and has been replaced by an Allen-Gwynnes 24-inch (61 cm) electric pump.[14] With the passing of the 1930 Land Drainage Act, most land drainage authorities were superseded by Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs), and the original scheme now forms the central section of the Laneham IDB, who are responsible for 78.5 miles (126.3 km) of drains and ditches, which help to prevent flooding of 22.9 square miles (59 km2) of low-lying land.[15] They maintain 10 pumping stations, which include those at the end of the catchwater drain and the Mother Drain.[16]
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