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Upware lock and fen pumping engine, c.1930 (photo L Cobbett) (Cambridgeshire Collection)

Upware lock and fen pumping station

History of lock and fen pumping station

From 1820s steam power took over the draining of the fens. Tall-chimneyed coal-fired pumping stations proliferated on the major channels. Swaffham engine at Upware , at the head of the Swaffham Fen Drain, pumped the water up to the Cam level. A new engine was installed in 1850, to replace the original 1821 engine. It was demolished in 1939. (Vanishing Cambridgeshire, p.180)

Dyke cleaning, Upware Engine Drain, July 1910 (MoC186/72)

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This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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