Ninety miles of river navigation from Northampton across the Fens to the Wash, worked by guillotine-gated locks
The Nene is one of the two great Fenland rivers, running about 90 miles from Northampton out to the tide near Wisbech and on into the Wash. As a navigation it is managed by the Environment Agency, and it links the main canal network — by way of the Grand Union Canal’s Northampton Arm — to the Fens and the Middle Level, so it forms part of the through-route between the Midlands and the East Anglian waterways.
Boaters know it for its locks. There are 38 of them, and most have a conventional pointed gate at the top and a heavy vertical guillotine gate at the bottom, which by custom must be left raised — hard work by hand, though many are now being converted to power. The river becomes tidal at Dog-in-a-Doublet Lock below Peterborough, beyond which it runs out through Wisbech to the sea.
The upper river, above Peterborough, is the prettier stretch: it winds through gentle Northamptonshire countryside and old stone villages, past the market town of Oundle and a string of watermeadows and gravel-pit lakes. Below Peterborough the character changes completely, the river running dead straight between high flood banks across the drained black peat of the Fens, wide open and exposed.
Much of the modern navigation dates from improvements made in the 18th century and rebuilt in the 20th, when the derelict locks were restored and the whole river reopened to through traffic. It is a quiet waterway to cruise, with long gaps between moorings on the Fenland reaches, and it is popular with anglers and, on the upper river, with walkers following the riverside paths through Northamptonshire.
