Lewes and Laughton Levels

The Commissioners for the Lewes and Laughton Levels employed the engineer John Smeaton to survey the river, in order to improve the drainage of the levels. He visited the area for four days in June 1767, during a period which was half way between spring tides and neap tides, and which followed a time when the weather had been quite wet. He found that the meadows, which were locally known as brooks, were in many cases under water, but that their condition, and therefore the remedies that would be required, were variable. In particular, the brooks of Southover, Iford, Pool Bar, and Rodmell, which he called the West Levels, were badly affected as their embankments were low and poorly maintained. At high tide, the level of the river was above that in the meadows. The same applied to Ranscombe brooks, to the north of the junction between the Ouse and the Glynde, Further down river, at White Wall and Tarring, the brooks were generally dry, which he attributed to the land surface being higher, the walls being higher and well maintainted, and the outfall sluices from the meadows being arranged at a lower level in relation to the river.[12]

He noted that the rise and fall of the tide below Broad Salts, a little below Piddinghoe, was some 8 feet (2.4 m), but this was reduced to just 6 inches (15 cm) at the mouth of the Glynde, and was barely visible at Lewes Bridge. A series of shoals, combined with the narrow and winding channel, held water back, and prevented it from draining from the levels. He also commented on the great shingle bar crossing the mouth of the river at Newhaven, which if removed would allow the water levels to be around 6.5 feet (2.0 m) lower at low tide.[13] The brooks above Lewes Bridge became gradually drier as he progressed towards Barcombe Mill, but with almost no fall on the river, its winding course and numerous shoals did little to assist the drainage of the meadows. The brooks bordering the Glynde, to the east of Ranscombe, were generally at a higher level, but were affected by stagnant water lying on the surface. There was again no gradient on the river, which followed a winding course, but he was confident that if the drainage of Ranscombe could be solved, the drainage of the Laughton Levels would also be.[14]

He proposed two methods to achieve the drainage of the levels. The first was to straighten the river, to remove all of the obstructions, and to construct an outfall sluice, to prevent the tides entering the river. The brooks on the west level and at Ranscombe would need better embankments, and adequate sluices to allow water to drain away when required. The second method involved raising the banks on all of the meadows, and constructing a separate sewer to carry surplus water from them to the sea. A sluice near the sea would prevent tides entering the sewer, but the main river would be left largely unaltered.[15] His outfall sluice would have been constructed at Tarring Tenantry, on a new channel which bypassed Piddinghoe shoal. It would contain three openings, two of 13 feet (4.0 m), each with a set of pointed doors pointing in opposite directions, to prevent the sea entering the river, and to retain water in the river during dry periods. The third opening would be 14 feet (4.3 m) wide, with double pointed doors facing in both directions, so that it could additionally be used as a navigation lock at all states of the tide and river. Once the work was completed, a dam would be constructed to close the old channel at Piddinghoe.[16]

He estimated the cost of the first scheme to be £10,800,[17] and of the second to be £13,061.[18] The Commissioners implemented some of his suggestions, improving the channels below Lewes in 1768, by dredging to remove shoals and making the channel wider in places. However, they did little to straighten the river, and Smeaton's great sluice was not constructed.[19]

The next advance took place in 1788, when William Jessop was asked to survey the river, with a view to extending navigation. His plan to canalise the river upwards from Lewes was embodied in an Act of Parliament obtained in 1790,[20] which created the Company of Proprietors of the River Ouse Navigation to manage that project.[21] He also recognised that navigation between Lewes and Newhaven was only possible when there were spring tides, and proposed making the channel wider, deeper and straighter to rectify this. The work would include 1,000 yards (910 m) of new cut, to resolve the worst of the meanders,[22] and a second Act of Parliament created the Lower Ouse Navigation Company in 1791.[19] The Trustees of the Company worked with the Commissioners of the Lewes and Laughton Levels, and the project was jointly funded by tolls for using the river and by a drainage tax on owners of land in the five districts into which the levels were split. There were provisions to ensure that the relative rates of tolls and taxes remained in step, but the taxes proved to be too onerous, and a subsequent Act was obtained in 1800 to alter the balance.[23]

A Lewes schoolmaster and civil engineer called Cater Rand was employed as the resident engineer, and managed a team of several hundred navvies, who worked on the channel from Lewes down to Southease. This work was completed by February 1795, and in October, the tides flowed up to Lewes Bridge. Unfortunately, the salt water killed fish and polluted a number of wells, but the scheme was generally successful, with the faster-moving water scouring the channel at Newhaven and draining the levels more efficiently. Work to improve Glynde Reach took place from 1786 to 1803, resulting in better drainage for Ranscombe Brooks and Laughton Levels, although there were complaints from a group of chair-bottomers, whose source of reeds to make chair seats dried up.[19]

In 1780, John Ellman inherited the tenancy of Place Farm in Glynde from his father. Of its 580 acres (230 ha), some 200 acres (81 ha) was brookland, situated on the Laughton Levels, and although he knew that his education was lacking, he understood the importance of keeping accounts, a practice which his father had also kept. Ellman is best known for his agricultural achievements, particularly the improvement of the Southdown sheep breed,[24] but he became part of the jury for the Commissioners of the Lewes and Laughton Levels in 1780, and its Expenditor in 1783. While this role traditionally involved supervising the collection of the water scot tax and its expenditure, Ellman worked tirelessly to organise and supervise work carried out on the Glynde Reach and in the valley. He produced estimates for the improvements, and while his contribution to the drainage and navigation of the Ouse is not fully understood, due to the fragmentary nature of the evidence, it appears to have been considerable.[25] He supervised further work on the main channel to Newhaven, which enabled a 120-ton ship to unload stone at Lewes Bridge in the late 1820s. He retired from farming and the Commissioners in 1828, but the benefit of the work was demonstrated in April 1829, when although severe flooding occurred on the river below Lewes, the meadows had drained within 48 hours.[19]

The Commissioners continued to manage the levels until the 1930s, when the first comprehensive legislation covering land drainage was introduced with the passing of the Land Drainage Act 1930. Under the act, the commissioners effectively became an internal drainage board, until a new structure could be set up in accordance with part 2 of the act. This occurred in 1939, when the Commissioners were abolished, to be replaced by the River Ouse Catchment Board (internal drainage).[26] Serious flooding occurred at Lewes and Malling in 1960, and a further round of raising the banks and widening the channel occurred between Newhaven and Lewes. Gravity drainage of some parts of the levels has proved ineffective, and by 1991 water from Rodmell and Ranscombe Brooks was being pumped into the river. All of the streams entering the river from the brooklands are fitted with tidal flaps, which prevent saltwater from entering the agricultural land.[27] Tidal water has been unable to enter the Laughton Level since 1973, when a dam and pumping station was constructed across the channel at Beddingham.[28] There are now land drainage pumping stations at Stoneham, Offham, Rodmell, ET Wadham, Ranscombe, Denton and Beddingham, with an eighth station at Lewes which pumps water into the Malling Drain.[29]

Because the land drainage functions of the River Ouse district were managed by a catchment board, rather than a separate internal drainage board, they passed to the East Sussex River Board, the Sussex River Authority, and the Southern Water Authority through the successive reorganisations of the water industry, and then passed to the National Rivers Authority when the water companies were privatised in 1989. The Environment Agency took over responsibility for the River Ouse Internal Drainage District (IDD) when it was created in 1995, along with five other IDDs in Sussex. In 2012, they decided that locally accountable bodies would be better at performing these functions, and consulted local authorities as to how best this could be achieved.[30] Lewes District Council, who contributed £131,000 annually for the work of the IDD, opposed the setting up of an independent internal drainage board. East Sussex County Council were initially concerned that this might result in them bearing additional costs as the Local Flood Authority, but Lewes Council stated that they would use any savings made from not supporting an internal drainage board to fund flood and coastal erosion management.[31] Subsequently, The River Ouse (Sussex) Internal Drainage District Order 2016 was passed by Parliament on 18 July 2016, which abolished the River Ouse Internal Drainage District as from 31 March 2017, without creating a formal body to replace it.[32]