Willow Tree Fen

Counter Drain railway station was a remote station in Lincolnshire serving the village of Tongue End. It was on the route of the Spalding and Bourne Railway (opened 1866), later part of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway which ran across East Anglia to the Norfolk Coast. The station opened with the line on 1 August 1866, closed temporarily between 9 October 1880 and 1 February 1881, and closed permanently on 2 March 1959, although the line remained open for goods until 1964. The three intermediate stations between Spalding and Bourne had unusual names, because there were few nearby settlements; "Counter Drain" was the name of a drainage ditch close to the station.

The River Glen is a river in Lincolnshire, England with a short stretch passing through Rutland near Essendine. The river's name appears to derive from a Brythonic Celtic language but there is a strong early English connection.

Guthram Gowt is a small settlement in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated 5 miles (8 km) both east from Bourne and west from Spalding, and at a bend in the River Glen.

Tongue End is a small village in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated 4 miles (6 km) east from Bourne and 6 miles (10 km) south-west from Spalding, and alongside the Counter Drain that runs between Baston and Pode Hole. Tongue End comprises Victorian red-brick farmworkers' cottages and early 20th-century former council houses. It once had a village school (built in 1876), and three public houses.The name is said to refer to the shape of the land between the rivers Glen and Bourne Eau. There is a location on the Stamford Canal which is similarly formed and has the same name.Tongue End falls within the drainage area of the Welland and Deepings Internal Drainage Board. Gilbert Heathcote's tunnel drained into the Counter Drain nearby.

Twenty railway station served the village of Twenty in Lincolnshire, England. It was on the route of the Spalding and Bourne Railway (opened 1866), later part of the Midland and Eastern Railway and then part of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway main line between the Midlands and the Norfolk Coast.

Twenty is a village in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated approximately 3 miles (5 km) east of Bourne, and 5 miles (8 km) west of Spalding.

North Drove railway station was a station serving Pode Hole in Lincolnshire, England. It was on the route of the Spalding and Bourne Railway (opened 1866), later part of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway.

Pode Hole is a village in South Holland, Lincolnshire, England. It is 2 miles (3.2 km) from Spalding and a similar distance from Bourne. The village lies at the confluence of several drainage channels, where two pumping stations discharge water into Vernatt's Drain from land in Deeping Fen to the South and West. Water from Pinchbeck South Fen to the North is also lifted into Vernatt's Drain. The village arose to service the pumping stations. The village is largely a ribbon development stretching from the pumping stations and the Fishermans Arms public house along Bourne Road toward Spalding. The village post office and small shop is now also a bed and breakfast, and an outside catering service. No separate population statistic is available for Pode Hole. The best available report is for the whole Pinchbeck civil parish, which covers several settlements north and east of Spalding with a total of 5,153. At the 2011 census population details can be found under the civil parish of Pinchbeck. The name may well be a reference to a marshy location, possibly with a population of frogs and toads. Pode Hole farm, near Thorney probably derives its name the same way. Pode Hole has one of the earliest rain gauge records of precipitation, beginning in 1726.Pode Hole falls within the drainage area of the Welland and Deepings Internal Drainage Board, successors to the original Deeping Fen commissioners.

Gilbert Heathcote's tunnel was an engineering project dating from the 1630s as one of the earliest modern attempts to drain The Fens in Lincolnshire. Rendered obsolete by the mechanical drainage improvements after World War II, it was finally removed in 1991. It carried water, under gravity, from Bourne South Fen, Thurlby Fen and Northorpe Fen to the Counter Drain and thence to Deeping Fen. A tunnel was required under the River Glen which was (and still is) artificially banked with a level some 3 metres above the surrounding lands and above the Counter Drain. The Counter Drain was pumped further downstream by wind-driven machinery, erected later. At the time of construction Deeping Fen was still inundated. In 1871 the Bourne South Fen Drainage District was formed to take over the drainage, which had been in the hands of adventurers, and from 1872 a succession of steam engines were used to assist the flow through the tunnel.The location is around 500m upstream on the Glen of the confluence with the Bourne Eau. Tongue End is the nearest settlement. The modern by-road alongside the original drain to the tunnel is still called Tunnel Bank. The Gilbert Heathcote for whom it is named appears to be the grandfather of Sir Gilbert Heathcote, 1st Baronet, and an ancestor of the first Baron Aveland. That family later inherited nearby Grimsthorpe Castle, but must have had land and associations with this area to claim the title of Aveland. The area drained falls within the area of the Welland and Deepings Internal Drainage Board.

Deeping Fen is a low-lying area in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England, which covers approximately 47 square miles (120 km2). It is bounded by the River Welland and the River Glen, and is extensively drained, but the efficient drainage of the land exercised the minds of several of the great civil engineers of the 17th and 18th centuries. Drainage schemes were first authorised during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, but from 1632, a group of adventurers took control of the drainage, in return for which they were granted land. They faced the problem that the outfalls of the River Welland and the River Glen were not sufficiently low to enable proper drainage by gravity, and most schemes included improvement to the rivers. John Perry, an engineer of some repute, who had set the standard for engineering reports in 1727, began work in 1730, and was followed by John Grundy, Sr., a pioneer in applying scientific principles to civil engineering problems. His son, John Grundy, Jr., was another capable engineer, who was retained as a consultant after he resigned as full-time Surveyor of Works. In 1800 the civil engineers William Jessop and John Rennie assisted local engineers with plans for improvements, the chief of which was for a steam pumping station. This plan was not implemented immediately, but two steam engines fitted with scoop wheels were installed at Pode Hole in 1823. The pumping station was the largest in the Fens at the time, and remained so for many years. Steam gradually gave way to diesel engines and scoop wheels were replaced by centrifugal pumps, and the diesel engines were then replaced by electric motors. However, the beam engine and scoop wheel at Pinchbeck Marsh, which ran from 1833 to 1952, was not scrapped, and can be visited by the public. From 1801 the fen was managed by trustees, appointed under the terms of an act of Parliament obtained in that year, and this remained the case until 1939 when the administrative structure was replaced by the Welland & Deepings Internal Drainage Board.

Deeping St Nicholas is a village in Lincolnshire, England, on the A1175 road between The Deepings and Spalding. Unlike Market Deeping, which is in South Kesteven district, Deeping St Nicholas is in South Holland. Deeping St Nicholas is also a South Holland civil parish which includes the small settlements of Tongue End and Hop Pole, and a number of outlying farms. Its population at the 2011 census was 1,961.