The valley7 of the Anchlome, a few miles east of Scunthorpe, in notthwest Lincholnshire, consists of a great stretch of flat, low-lying ‘Carrs’ between the Oolites of the Lincolnshire Cliff on the west and the Chalk Wolds on the east. The geological evidence suggests that in early times the river Ancholme was a tidal arm of the estuary of the Humber, being much wider than at present. Until the seventeenth century the area was flooded for several months in the year, for it was not until the sixteen-thirties that the first really serious draining operations were commenced, the main feature of this work being the construction of a ‘New Cut’, or New River Ancholme, which (together with the old river, now little more than a large drain) joins the Humber at Ferriby Sluice.