- John Southall, Land Drainage Team Leader, NRW (Coedkernew)
John Southall (Emma Drabble)
The Levels are unique. And there’s nowhere quite like it in the rest of the country, says John Southall, Land Drainage Team Leader of the NRW’s Internal Drainage Districts.
John is a child of the Levels, raised in Coedkernew, and now working to prevent the land slipping beneath the sea: “The only reason this place isn’t under water is because of the work we do, maintaining the network of ditches and reens and ordinary water courses.”
Landowners are responsible under the 1991 Land Drainage Act for looking after Llanalan, Winter’s Sewers, Earthen Pit, Well Reen, Saltsbarn, Wallsend, Mireland Pil and the host of other waterways that cross this land. Helping to ensure the water flows freely through its 169 sluices is the job of the NRW.
“The beauty of our drainage system is it’s all done by gravity,” explains John. “It’s no easy job. In winter, the water might flow one way, in summer the other. A sluice dropped in, say Pentcarn Lane, Duffryn, might cause a reen miles away in Peterstone to dry up.”
John oversees the business of mowing, mudding, dredging, de-silting and ‘keeching’ (mowing, de-silting and dredging at once) in a seven-year cycle which has, so far, prevented the Levels flooding. That means keeping the waterways “perfectly balanced” . . . and greeting any passing heron with the traditional mimic’s cry of Frank! Frank!
