Lincolnshire Forty Foot Drains

South Forty Foot Drain from Donington High Bridge

North Forty Foot Drain from Benton's Bridge

The Lincolnshire Forty Foot Drains are two drainage ditches in the fens of Holland in Lincolnshire, namely the:

• North Forty Foot Drain and
• South Forty Foot Drain

There is also a Forty Goot Drain in Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire, also known as 'Vermuden's Drain' after its engineer. In each case the name is given from the distance between the banks of the channel.

That of the Black Sluice fens is the South Forty-Foot Drain. The latter flows, with some pump assistance, from Bourne North Fen, close to the River Glen, to the Haven at Boston. The North Forty Foot joins the South Forty Foot in the western outskirts of Boston and together their waters enter the Haven through the Black Sluice.

North Forty Foot Drain

Main article: South Forty Foot Drain

The North Forty Foot Drain is the main land drain in Holland Fen; the River Witham has also been engineered to serve the purpose of drainage but carries water past the fens without being part of them).

According to Wheeler:

Also called Lodowick's Drain. A drain in Holland Fen, running parallel with the Witham, and extending from Chapel Hill to the South Forty Foot at Boston. Formerly emptied into the Witham at Lodowick's or Trinity Gowt." "Lodowick' or Lodovick's Gowt. The outfall of the North Forty-Foot Drain, situated on the west side of the old channel of the Witham, about ¼ mile above Boston Church. It had a waterway of 15 feet. Was also called Trinity Gowt.

The drain gives its name to the village of North Forty Foot Bank.

South Forty Foot Drain

Main article: South Forty Foot Drain

The South Forty-Foot Drain is the main drain in the Black Sluice District, extending from Boston Haven to Gutheram Cote (Guthram Gowt). This drain was first cut by the Adventurers who drained the Lindsey Level in the middle of the 17th century. It was afterwards opened out and improved under the Black Sluice Drainage and Navigation Act 1765.

The present sluice was erected under the Black Sluice Drainage Act 1846 and has three openings of a total waterway of sixty feet.