The Board inherited the responsibilities of the Witham General Drainage Commissioners, who were first constituted by an act of Parliament[which?]

The Witham Third District IDB maintains seventeen pumping stations and 140 miles (230 km) of drainage channels.

[2] The Third District covered an area of 4,621 acres (1,870 ha), bounded on the south and west by the river, and including Stainfield and Tattershall,[1] with the higher ground to the north and east forming the other boundary.

[4] This body consisted of 31 Commissioners, with the remaining 26 being elected by the five other Drainage Districts created by the original Act.

The large number of directly employed men and the use of contractors for new schemes has been replaced by a small team of multi-skilled workers who maintain the watercourses using a variety of machinery.

Although work had been carried out to straighten the channel of the river, and constructing the Grand Sluice to the north of Boston, neither measure was sufficient to make the land suitable for agriculture.

The bodies created by the 1762 Act were responsible for all interior works within their area, and the maintenance of drains and pumping engines, for which they had powers to change rates.

Thus there were Drainage Levels for Greetwell; Stainfield, Barlings and Fiskerton; Bardney, Southrey and Stixwold; and Tattershall.

Because of the increased volumes of water which would be pumped into the Witham, the Commissioners had to pay £5 per year to the Great Northern Railway Company (GNR).

[8] Responsibility for the North Delph, a catchwater drain running parallel to the river for 9 miles (14 km) from Lincoln to Horsley Deeps, passed from the GNR to the Commissioners.

Both lasted until 1935, when they were replaced by two Ruston & Hornsby twin-cylinder engines, connected to 30-inch (76 cm) pumps manufactured by Gwynnes.

Although superseded by an Allen-Gwynnes 27-inch (69 cm) pump and electric motor in 1977, the diesel engines were retained as a standby system.

[10] There was also a 16 hp (12 kW) steam engine located near Barlings Lock, which pumped water into the old course of the Witham near Shorts Ferry, but this was privately financed by landowners.

Drainage rates were collected from 2,610 acres (10.6 km2), but again, water entered the district from the higher ground to the north, and so the engine drained almost twice that area.