eawa - East Anglian Waterways Association

The town of Bourne grew up around the springs that make St Peters pool, which is the source of the Eau. After leaving the pool it powered three mills - Baldock’s mill, Cliffe’s mill, used for crushing bark for tanning, and Notleys flour mill. The spring water also supplied local fish farms. In the mid 1800’s it was also bottled and sold as Bourne Table Waters.
After leaving Notleys mill the Eau runs alongside Eastgate where the navigation begins.

The Eau wasn’t Bourne’s first waterway for the town sits on the Roman Car Dyke, though some say that Car Dyke was merely a drainage ditch and not used for navigation.
The Roman Bourne-Morton Canalwas maybe the earliest navigation from Bourne to the sea, which in the Middle Ages was quite close to Bourne and only at the end of Bourne North Fen. It was used to carry salt mined at Morton.

The Eau, a three-and-a-half mile navigation carried goods to the river Glen and on to Fosdyke that connected to the sea via the Wash. The Glen also connects to the Welland making a navigable link with Crowland and Stamford.

Our Member, Steve Machin, who lives in Bourne, has contributed the following article about the former navigation. (Published in full in the Easterling, June 2008)