Aerial Investigation and Mapping Report - English Heritage

Improved navigationPerhaps some of the most ambitious work undertaken along the course of the Ouse wasthe straightening of the channel, by-passing many of the meanders. This is evident incomparison of Yeakell & Gardiner’s late 18th century map with the early 19th centuryOrdnance Survey map. Straightening of the Ouse was proposed by John Smeaton in hisreport of the 1760s and also in William Jessop’s report which followed in the 1780s; anact to carry out these improvements was passed in 1791 (Farrant 1972, 50). Evidence of aformer course of the Ouse is identifiable at a number of points and some are prominentand still water-filled features such as the double loop south-west of Tarring Neville.Figure 21 Embankments flanking a former meander in the River Ouse. The line of the river once markedthe boundary between Piddinghoe and Tarring Neville. Detail of RAF 541/219 4043 29-DEC-1948English Heritage RAF Photography.Aerial photographs taken in the 1940s show the arrangement of river embankments thatflank this part of the river and which on the Tarring Neville side consist of a series ofconjoined curving earthworks (Fig 21). While this could suggest that it was built insections by different gangs of workers, the earthworks also seem to be subdividing theland between the bank and the river, though it is not known for what purpose.© ENGLISH HERITAGE 35 22 - 2013