National River Flow Archive (NRFA) and British Geological Survey (BGS) staff Gayatri Suman, Steve Turner, Chelsea Bambrick and the NRFA East Midlands Representative, Rachael Armitage carried out a two-day visit to the Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire (LN) area with the Environment Agency (EA) on Wednesday 13th and Thursday 14th November 2024. The first day began with an office meeting at the Environment Agency's Lincoln office, followed by visits to gauging stations on the Witham, Gwash, and Holywell Brook. The second day included additional visits to gauging stations on the Rase, Lud, Little Carlton Mill and boreholes at Upphall.
Hydrometry and Telemetry officers from the Environment Agency's Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire (LN) area guided us on visits to several gauging stations. On the first day, we visited the Witham at Claypole Mill (30001), a National Hydrological Monitoring Programme (NHMP) site featuring an old three-level weir that has since been converted to a gauging station. We then saw the Gwash at Church Bridge (31028), where a radar is used to measure water levels, and finally the Holywell Brook at Holywell (31024), a crump profile weir.
On the second day, we visited the Rase at Bishopbridge (29005), and the Lud at Louth (29003), another NHMP site located in an urban area but monitoring a predominantly rural catchment. During this visit we learnt more about the devastating 1920 floods which hit the area. We also visited Little Carlton Mill, a potential new addition to the NRFA, followed by some nearby observational boreholes at Uppall.
Throughout the visits, we discussed the operation of the gauging stations, potential updates to their metadata, and any recent upgrades, all aimed at enhancing the information provided by the NRFA.