278 BURTON: THE STORY OF THE LINCOLN GAP. 
The Spaldford bank, which is from 12 to 15 feet high on the 
road from Girton to South Clifton, is a mile and a half long and 
stands now a mile to the east of the river ; and Mr. Padley gives us 
a very graphic account of a flood which occurred in 1795 when this 
bank gave way, and a great part of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire 
was flooded. To the west of Lincoln nearly 20,000 acres were covered 
to the height of 10 feet above the present level of the land and 
remained so covered for three weeks, during which time the only 
Lincoln market, was by boat. The people at Saxilby had to get on 
to the higher ground in the village, the lower part being under water, 
and many lived in the church. The frightened cattle had to be 
rescued by boats from the knolls on which they had gathered. The 
water ran over the High Street at Lincoln; and on the far side of 
the gap, the land was converted intoasea. Such a flood as this, one 
would have thought, would have roused up the people to look after 
their interests, but, Mr. Padley tells us, from the time the Romans 
first made the Banks referred to up to 1852, when one of these great 
floods occurred, beyond a temporary patching up as occasion required, 
they were entirely neglected ; a sign both of the apathy, and of the 
contented state of the people in those days. 
This great flood of 1795 occurred at Candlemas; and it is 
curious to note that, at Candlemas of the present year, just a century 
later, and owing to the same cause—the melting of the snow after 
a long and severe frost, when the frozen ground was unable to absorb 
the moisture—the Trent bank a little above Gainsborough gave way, 
and this, notwithstanding the resources, and experiences, of another 
100 years. 
Since the year 1852, the attempts to keep out the floods from 
the Trent and the fens have been carried out on a more systematic 
scale. Up to that time the low land in Boultham, North and South 
Carlton, and Broxholme, were mere swamps covered with water the 
greater part of the year, while the fens to the east of the Gap, were 
in a permanent state of flood. 
The reclaimed land, at first, was of little value for ordinary 
agricultural purposes, 2,500 acres at Blankney being let by auction, 
Mr. Padley tells us, for £10 per annum. Now, in many of these 
reclaimed areas, we have the richest pasture land in Lincolnshire. 
Many amongst us can well remember the great changes which 
have taken place in the fens by drainage. In the early part of this 
century, and far later, you might look down over the fen country, 
winter after winter, and see nothing but water for miles. Skating to 
Boston was a common event ; long lines of water-fowl flitted across 
‘Naturalist, 
+ : 
