Middle Level Act 1862
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1862 c. clxxxviii |
ANNO VICESIMO QUINTO & VICESIMO SEXTO
VICTORLE REGINiE.
Cap.
clxxxviii.
An Act to separate the Middle Level from the
Bedford Level Corporation; to transfer the
Powers and Duties of the Nene Navigation Com-
missioners to the Middle Level Commissioners,
and to provide for Payment of the Debt secured
on the Navigation Tolls; to repeal the Barrier
Banks Acts; to amend the Middle Level Acts,
and to incorporate the Middle Level Commis-
sioners ; to amend and enlarge the Powers of
Commissioners acting under District Acts in the
Middle Level; and for other Purposes.
[29th July 1862.]
W
HEREAS according to a Law of Sewers made at King's
Lynn in the Sixth Year of Charles the First (1630)
Francis Earl of Bedford, in such Manner and to such
Extent as thereby appears, undertook the Drainage of the Great
Level of the Fens (since commonly called and in this Act referred to
as the
Bedford
Level) situate within the Counties of Northampton,
{Local] 30 X Norfolk,
2750 25° & 26° VICTORIA, Cajo.clxxxviii.
^Middle Level Act, 1862. "
Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincoln, Cambridge, and Huntingdon, and the Isle
of Ely, and particularly bounded and described in the Act next herein-
after recited, and he was to have for his Recompence Ninety-five
thousand Acres of Land within the Bedford Level (being about One
Third Part thereof), with convenient Highways and Passages to the
same, and the new Rivers, Cuts, and Drains to be made by the said
Earl and his Assigns, and the Banks of the same, and the Forelands
in the Inside of the said Banks, not to exceed Sixty Feet in Breadth;
and the said Earl afterwards agreed with certain other Persons to
become Participants or Adventurers with him in the said Undertaking,
and the said Earl and his Son and Heir Earl William and their re-
spective Participants or Adventurers performed the said Undertaking,
and were adjudged to be entitled to and put in possession of the said
Ninety-five thousand Acres of Land, which lie dispersed throughout
(some Portion thereof being situate within each Parish and Place
in) the Bedford Level, and the same are commonly called and known
as " Adventurers Lands," the Residue of the Fen Lands in the
Bed-
ford Level being, by way of Distinction, called or known as " Free
Bedford Lands:" And whereas by the Act of the Fifteenth Year of Charles
^^0^"
the Second (1663), Cap. 17, intituled An Act for settling the Drain-
General Act ing of the Great Level of the Fens called Bedford Level, it was,
15C.2.C.17. among other things, enacted, that the said William Earl of Bedford,
and the Adventurers and Participants of the said Earl Francis and
Earl William, or either of them, their Heirs and Assigns, should be
a Body Corporate by the Name of the Governor, Bailiffs, and Com-
monalty of the Company of Conservators of the Great Level of the
Fens (in this Act called the Corporation), with Power to sue and be
sued, and without Licence of Mortmain to purchase Lands and
Hereditaments as therein mentioned, and Goods and Chattels, and
dispose thereof in the Name and to the Use of the Corporation, and
to lay Taxes upon the Adventurers Lands only for the Support,
Maintenance, and Preservation of the Bedford Level, and do all other
Things in order to the Support, Maintenance, and Preservation of the
Bedford Level, and Works made and to be made ; and for the Main-
tenance and Preservation of the Bedford Level by convenient Outfalls
to Sea the Corporation were made and constituted Commissioners
of Sewers for and of the Bedford Level, and were empowered from
thenceforth to exercise the Powers of Commissioners of Sewers
within and of the Works made and to be made without the Bedford
Level for conveying the Waters thereof by convenient Outfalls to
Sea, and no other Commissioners of Sewers were to intermeddle
within the Bedford Level, or with any Works made within or without
the Bedford Level for the Maintenance or Preservation
thereof;
and the Corporation was empowered from Time to Time to erect
any new Works within or without the Level for convejang the
Waters of the Level by convenient Outfalls to Sea, and
was
not to be
liable
25° & 26° VICTORIA Cap.clxxxviii. 2751
Middle Level Act 1862.
liable to Damages for any Breaches of Banks, and the Works of
the Adventurers and Corporation were to be without Prejudice to
Navigation: And whereas the following Acts were afterwards passed Other Cor-
with respect to the Corporation ; (that is to say,) poration
The Act of the Twentieth Year of Charles the Second (1667),
Cap.
8, commonly called the " Corporation Tax Act;"
The Act of the First Year of James the Second (1684), Cap. 21,
commonly called the " Inclosure Prevention Act;"
The Act of the Twenty-ninth Year of George the Second (1755),
Cap.
9> commonly called the " First Bond Act;"
The Act of the Twelfth Year of George the Third (1772), Cap. 9,
commonly called the " Second Bond Act;" and
The Act of the Twenty-third Year of George the Third (1782),
Cap.
25, commonly called the " Turf Act;"
which several Acts, together with the first-recited Act, are in this
Act referred to as the " Corporation Acts:" And whereas the Act King's Lynn
(Local and Personal) of the Fourth and Fifth Years of Queen Victoria Port Act
(1841),
Cap. 47, herein-after referred to as the " King's Lynn Port
Act," contains Provisions relating to the Corporation : And whereas Division of
for the Purpose of performing the said Undertaking the Bedford *be Bedford
Level was divided into Three Levels, respectively called the North Three
Level, Middle Level, and South Level, and separate Works were made Levels.
for the Protection and Drainage of each Level, and at a Court of the
Corporation held on the Tenth Day of March One thousand six
hundred and ninety-seven the Middle Level was defined as extending Middle
from the North Side of the Old Bedford River to the South Side LeveL
of Moreton's Learn; and the Middle Level is now and for many
Years past has been protected from Inundation by the following
Barrier Banks; that is to say, towards the North or North-west by
Banks called the Great Bank, extending from Standground in the
County of Huntingdon to the Public House called The Ball in the
united Parishes of Whittlesea in the County of Cambridge; and the
Great South Bank, extending from the High Lands of Whittlesea to
Tower House near Guyhirn in the said County of Cambridge, and
respectively situate on the South Side of Moretons Learn; and
towards the South or South-east by the Upper and Lower Divisions
of the Barrier Bank, extending from Salter's Lode Sluice in the
County of Norfolk to Earith in the County of Huntingdon, the
Course of which Barrier Bank is as follows; namely, from Earith to
Welches Dam on the North or North-west Side of the Old Bedford
River, and from Welches Dam to or near the Thorntree House on
the South or South-east Side of the Old Bedford River, and thence
transversely across the Hundred Feet Washes on the Northward
Side of Wellmoor Lake to the Hundred Feet River, and thence along
the North or North-west Side of that River to the River Ouse, and
thence along the West Side of the River Ouse to Salter's Lode Sluice;
the
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