Reference
WW1/AC/DR1
Title
File on the drainage of the River Great Ouse undertaken by the War Agricultural Committee prior to the creation of the River Ouse Drainage Board in 1920; the file includes the following:
Date free text
1918 - 1921
Production date
From: 1918 To: 1921
Scope and Content
- general War Agricultural Committee Executive Committee support for the introduction of a Bill to make better provision for the drainage of agricultural land, with some reservations [1918];
- correspondence with Captain J.C.Blofeld, Cambridge District Commissioner of the Food Production Department regarding the work of draining and dredging the Great Ouse [1918-1919];
- the use of German prisoners-of-war to undertake cleansing the river, their accommodation (including lists of sites and suitable sites and the slowness of the Royal Engineers in providing suitable camp facilities), the numbers to be employed and their cessation of work on repatriation in October 1919 [1918-1919];
- draft report of Bedfordshire Agricultural Executive Committee regarding paragraph 5 of the Cultivation of Lands Order 1918 (No.2) on all aspects of its work, the section on the Great Ouse being left blank [1918];
- resolutions of a meeting of Cambridge District Food Production Department including, amongst other things, one calling for the formation of a Drainage District for the watershed of the Great Ouse and Cam [1918];
- Chief Executive Officer's memorandum detailing the necessary work on the Great Ouse, its likely cost, a schedule of proposed gangs and the tools needed [1919];
- a list of mills on the river and separate lists of those working (St.Neots Paper Mills; Eaton Socon Mill; Castle Mill, Goldington; Kempston Mill; Bromham Mill; Stoke Mill, Sharnbrook; Odell Mill) and not working (Cardington Mill; Priory Mill, Newnham; Milton Ernest Mill; Sharnbrook Mill; Harrold Mill) [1919];
- the proposed purchase of Simpson's Rights on the Great Ouse for drainage purposes [1919];
- Bedfordshire County Council suggestions for those to sit on the new Ouse Drainage Board [1919];
- claim by Bedfordshire County Council against Ouse Drainage Board for recompense for work the War Executive Committee had carried out prior to the formation of the Board which the Board would otherwise have had to have carried out at its own expense [1921].
Level of description
item