River Welland - Course

Course

The Welland rises in the Hothorpe Hills, close to the 540-foot (160 m) contour, near Welland Rise, Sibbertoft in Northamptonshire. Within 2 miles (3.2 km), the small stream forms the border between Northamptonshire and Leicestershire. It flows westwards, before looping round, passing through the grounds of Hothorpe Hall in Theddingworth, now a conference centre, to flow generally eastwards through Lubenham to Market Harborough. The county border leaves the river on the west side of Market Harborough, as the town is wholly in Leicestershire, and picks it up again on the east side. The River Jordan joins the Welland in the centre of Market Harborough, flowing northwards to the railway station. Langton brook and another stream join from the west near Welham, after which Macmillan Way, a long distance footpath, crosses on its way from Abbotsbury in Dorset to Boston, Lincolnshire. Medbourne Brook joins from the north, after which the county border leaves the river again briefly to the north of Cottingham.

The Welland passes to the north of Corby near Rockingham, and then to the south of Caldecott, where it becomes the county border between Northamptonshire and Rutland, and the Eye Brook joins from the north. As it flows past Harringworth, the river forms two channels, with the county border following the smaller, northern channel. It is crossed here by the 1,275-yard (1,166 m) Welland Viaduct, with its 82 brick arches, which was completed in 1879, and carries the Oakham to Kettering Line over the valley. Continuing past Barrowden and Duddington, it flows northwards briefly to be joined by the River Chater at Ketton. The county border again leaves the river to the west of Stamford while below the town the river forms the border between Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire.

Just before Stamford, the Great North Road, now labelled the A1, crosses the river, and a pumping station on the north bank at Stamford Meadows has pumped large quantities of water to the Rutland Water reservoir since its construction in 1975. Stamford was the lowest point at which the river could be forded so the Roman Ermine Street crossed the Welland here. The A16 road crosses the river by a three-arched stone bridge designed by Edward Browning in 1845. Beyond Stamford, Hudd's Mill marks the point at which the Stamford Canal left the river. The present mill building dates from 1751 and 1771. The River Gwash, which the canal crossed on the level, joins from the north, and the remains of the canal follow the river on its north bank. Below Uffington, the county border follows the old course of the river, first to the south to Tallington and then to the north, while the main course now flows along the Maxey Cut to Peakirk. The old course consists of two streams, fed by sluices from the Maxey Cut, which meander to The Deepings. The eastern stream supplied power to Lolham and Maxey mills, while the western stream did the same for West Deeping mill and Molecey's mill, which still retains its 17th-century undershot waterwheel, modified in the 19th century to Poncelet's improved design, and the only surviving waterwheel of its type in Lincolnshire. At the western edge of Market Deeping the two streams join, and they are also joined by the Greatford Cut, which has carried the waters of the West Glen river since the early 1950s.

After the remains of Deeping High lock and Deeping Low lock, there is a junction where the old course, the Maxey Cut, the South Drain and the Folly River, also a drain, meet. The river is officially navigable below this point. Through Crowland and Cowbit to the edge of Spalding, the river is laid out with washlands, which were historically used as pasture, because the river was allowed to flood the land when tidal levels prevented the water discharging into the sea. The river is bounded on the north and west by a bank, while the New River, a drainage channel to the south and east of it, is bounded by another bank. The land between the channels forms Crowland High Wash, Crowland Fodder Lots and Cowbit Wash. The southern bank is variously named Corporation Bank, Wash Bank and Barrier Bank. Passing through Spalding, where most of the flow is diverted through the Coronation flood relief channel, the town is protected by Marsh Road sluice and a sea lock to the east. It is joined by the River Glen and the Risegate Eau drainage channel before reaching the final bridge at Fosdyke, after which it flows into The Wash.

Beyond the river banks, much of the fertile arable land is composed of marine silt, which suits the bulb-growing for which Spalding is famous. The commercial growing of bulbs was pioneered in the 1880s, with the first large-scale tulip fields introduced by Sam Culpin in 1907. At its peak in 1939, there were 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) of bulb fields, and 3000 tons of flowers were exported through Spalding railway station. Tulips were grown on around 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) in 1965, but this had reduced to less than 1,000 acres (400 ha) by 1999.