The Eau wasn't Bournes first waterway, the town sits on the Roman Car Dyke. Though some say that the Car Dyke was a drainage ditch and not used for navigation.

The Roman Morton-Bourne Canal was maybe the earliest navigation from Bourne to the Sea. The sea in the Middle ages being quite close to Bourne only at the end of Bourne North fen. It was used to carry salt mined at Morton. The course of this canal can be clearly seen on google earth. It ran in a straight line from Near Queens bridge Bourne to a long gone tidal river in Morton fen.

Thankyou Peter Sharpe - for your help in the accurate positioning of the Morton-Bourne canal on Google Earth.

The Eau, a three and a half mile navigation carried goods to the River Glen and on to Fosdyke connected to the sea via the Wash. The Glen also connects to the Welland making a navigable link with Crowland and Stamford.

The Eau had two locks, though I can't find any trace of them. Old folk of the Eastgate area, now long gone, told me that there used to be a lock where the weir is under Mays bridge.
Mr Peter Sharpe gave me some information about the lock that was near the Glen junction.. He remembers fishing from the top of it in the 1960s and describes the lock gates at the end of the Bourne Eau as being a large wooden structure. Not like a modern lock, probably more of a flood barrier. He says "I doubt if you needed a lock for boats, as there was no incline for them to get through."

TW Mays Woolstaplers and Fellmongers. Washing skins on the North bank of the Eau. Before 1908. It looks to be a boat moored just beyond the leanto. I shall try to get a clearer copy of this picture to confirm if it's a working boat or not.

The same view in 2008.

Inside the skin shed.

In 1938 there was a pageant on the Eau. This photo depicts the Monks taking the body of Hereward the Wake to Crowland Abbey for Burial.

The first legislation covering the Bourne Eau was an Act of 1781. Trustees were empowered to clean out the navigation and charge tolls.

The trustees, in whom this navigation is vested, are the lord of the manor of Bourn, with the members for the time being; the owner of Bourn South Fen Pastures; the lord of the manor of Bourn Abbots, with its members, and nine other persons, three to be chosen annually by each of the parties above-mentioned; also all other persons who shall be holders of £100 stock, to be raised for the purposes of this act The sum of £60 per annum is paid to the trustees by the owners of an estate of eight hundred and sixty acres, situate on the banks of the river, and which, at the time the act was obtained, belonged to Sir Gilbert Heathcote, Bart, in quittance of the obligation he was under of keeping in repair a considerable portion of the north-west bank of this navigation, and which, in consequence, devolved upon the trustees. The Marquis of Exeter also pays to the trustees the sum of forty shillings annually on a similar account.
The principal use to which this navigation is put, is to facilitate the conveyance of the surplus agricultural produce of the fens, to the port of Boston, (to which it has communication by the River Glen) and to supply Bourn and its environs with groceries and other articles.

From around the sixteenth century the Eau was used to carry corn, wool and skins to the Glen and Welland, also to Boston port. Coal was brought to the coal wharf in Eastgate. Until it became easier to bring in coal by train. A passenger boat was in service on market days.

The Glen often flooded with water backing up the Eau into Bourne. To control the flooding self-acting doors were installed at the Glen/Eau junction. Then in the 1860’s a sluice was installed cutting off the Eau from the Glen and ending any through navigation to and from Bourne.

Bourne