River Wissey

To the south of the stream is Manor Farm, a Grade II listed building dating from the sixteenth century, although extended and refaced over the following 200 years. Much of the original timber frame has been replaced by brick.[3] Associated with the farm are some ancient fishponds.[4] The course continues to the west, passing the Grade I listed Huntingfield Hall farmhouse, again dating from the sixteenth century, but with nineteenth-century alterations,[5] and then flowing along the northern edge of Bradenham. The parish church is separated from the main centre of population by the river. It is a medieval building, constructed of flint, ashlar masonry and brick, much of it dating from the fourteenth century, though parts are a little earlier.[6] To the west of the village is a small sewage treatment plant, located on the south bank, after which it passes to the north of Holme Hale and to the south of Necton. It turns to the south to pass under Station Road at Erneford Bridge, close to Erneford House, which is constructed of colourwashed bricks with a pantile roof and dates from 1700.[7] It passes under a disused railway bridge, and continues to the east of North Pickenham,[4] where the parish church of St Andrew was substantially rebuilt in 1863, but retains its earlier tower and north transept.[8]

At South Pickenham, the river passes through the parkland of Pickenham Hall, which covers an area of 139 acres (56 ha). It is marked on Faden's county map of 1797, and was extended in the mid-nineteenth century. Much of it is grassland with ancient oaks. 11 acres (4.5 ha) are laid out as gardens and pleasure grounds, leading down to the river, which has been widened at this point. A rustic oak bridge dating from the early 1900s links the gardens to the park. The hall itself was built between 1902 and 1905 by the Arts and Crafts architect Robert Weir Schultz for the banker G W Taylor. The previous house, dating from around 1830, could not be preserved, as it was found to be unstable during the rebuild.[9] At Great Cressingham, the former manor house sits on the east bank. It is Grade I listed, and includes moulded brick monograms belonging to John and Elizabeth Jenny, who bought the house in 1542.[10] Turning briefly to the south-west, Home Lane crosses the river by a ford at Hilborough. To the south of the hamlet is Hilborough Mill and the miller's house, dating from 1819. Most of the machinery is still in place, although the paddles are missing from the cast iron waterwheel.[11]

Further south is Bodney Hall farmhouse, which dates from the sixteenth century, with alterations made in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.[12] There are ancient fish ponds marked on the Ordnance Survey map.[4] The river then passes through a danger area, which is used by the army for training purposes. During the Second World War, the area was the location of RAF Bodney.[13] The river passes Langford Church, a Grade I listed medieval building containing a monument to Sir Nicholas Garrard, which was designed by Christopher Horsnaile senior in baroque style in 1727. The windows are covered with corrugated iron sheets, because the building is within the Army's Stanford Training Area.[14] A tributary, which rises near Merton and flows through a large lake called Stanford Water, joins the Wissey from the east. The nearby village of Stanford was one of six evacuated to make way for the Stanford Training Area in 1942.

Beyond the junction, the river turns to the west, and passes gravel pits near Ickburgh. Near the bridge under the A1065 road is Bridge House, remodelled as a pair of semi-detached houses in the nineteenth century, but still containing parts of the original leper chapel dating from the thirteenth century.[15] Passing to the north of Mundford, the channel turns to the north-west, and passes between the lakes of Didlington Hall on the north bank and those formed by sand and gravel extraction to the south.[4] Two sluices mark the location of Northwold watermill, which was demolished some time after 1938.[16] The River Gadder, which rises to the north-east of Cockley Cley, and its distributary, the Oxborough Drain, enter the Wissey on its north bank. To the north of Whittington, there is a disused pumping station by the junction with the Stringside Drain,[4] and the river becomes navigable. It is now just 7 feet (2 m) above sea level.[4]

The sluice which controls flow from the River Wissey into the cut-off channel, with a pumping station in the background

The Stringside Drain flows into the river from the north, just upstream from the A134 bridge at Whittington. This forms the present head of navigation, as boats up to at least 60 feet (18 m) can use the junction to turn round. Below the bridge, a wharf served the maltings owned by Whitbread in the 19th century. A footpath runs along the northern bank of the river, and is in good condition from Whittington to Wissington. Stoke Ferry, with its fine windmill sits close to the northern bank of the river, protected from it by flood banks.[17] Below the village is the junction with the Cut-off Channel, a 28-mile (45 km) drain running from Barton Mills on the River Lark to Denver along the south-eastern edge of the Fens, which was constructed in the 1950s and 1960s. During times of flood it carries the head waters of the River Lark, the Little Ouse and the River Wissey to Denver Sluice on the River Great Ouse.[18] A guillotine sluice isolates the main channel of the river when flood water is diverted into the Cut-off Channel, and the river then passes over the channel in a concrete aqueduct.[19]

Close to the junction is a pumping station which pumps water from the river to the Stoke Ferry drinking water treatment works. The United Kingdom's first two-way enclosed fish pass was installed in 2012 to enable fish to negotiate the flood defenses, and reach spawning grounds further upstream. It was funded by the Environment Agency, while Anglian Water supply the energy to operate it from the treatment works. It is similar in design to many in the Netherlands, but the siphon has been modified to enable a wider variety of fish species to use it.[20]

Methwold Lode flows in from the south, and the river is then constrained by wide flood banks on both sides of the river. Wissington bridge is relatively new, as there was no road access to the sugar-beet factory below it when it was built in 1925. The road to the factory has since been bypassed, with the newer bridge providing more headroom than the old.[19] At Hilgay, the Cut-off Channel passes very close to the river, with Snowre Hall, a 15th-century building containing some of the earliest domestic brickwork in England on its northern bank.[21]

Hilgay, the largest village on the river,[2] sits on a raised isle, some 66 feet (20 m) above the surrounding fenland. Its elevation has become more pronounced as the draining of the fenland has caused the ground to shrink. It was notable in Saxon and early Norman times for the large numbers of fish and eels found there. Hilgay Old Bridge still crosses the river, but the newer A10 bypass also crosses just below it. The final landmark before the junction with the Great Ouse is the railway bridge carrying the Ely to King's Lynn line over the river.[22]

The river below Whittington passes through fenland, and is embanked to separate it from the lower-lying land on either side. Drainage of the land is managed by internal drainage boards (IDBs), and there are several pumping stations which pump water from drainage ditches into the river channel. Land to the north of the river from Stringside Drain to its mouth is managed by the Stoke Ferry Internal Drainage Board.[23] To the south, the area from Whittington to the Methwold Drain is managed by the Northwold IDB,[24] and from there to the mouth is managed by the Southery and District IDB. They control a much larger area, and the southern border of the IDB is formed by the River Little Ouse.[25]