Gilbert Heathcote's tunnel

Gilbert Heathcote's tunnel was an engineering project dating from the 1630s as one of the earliest modern attempts to drain The Fens in Lincolnshire.

[1] Rendered obsolete by the mechanical drainage improvements after World War II, it was finally removed in 1991.

A tunnel was required under the River Glen which was (and still is) artificially banked with a level some 3 metres above the surrounding lands and above the Counter Drain.

The Counter Drain was pumped further downstream by wind-driven machinery, erected later.

That family later inherited nearby Grimsthorpe Castle, but must have had land and associations with this area to claim the title of Aveland.