Page 195 - IT'S A RUM LIFE BOOK TWO "BOSTON 1960 TO 1970"

petrol engine and three forward gears. It was originally
marketed by Renault as a utility vehicle to go anywhere. It had
4-wheel independent torsion bar suspension, could cross
ploughed fields and went round corners on rails!
On leaving Boston and heading home to New Bolingbroke
in the direction of Horncastle, I had the choice of two routes;
the main road down the right-hand side of a large land drain or
the more minor route to the left of the drain and a little bit
shorter.

Land drains are like rivers but do not flow the same.
Lincolnshire being flat and in many areas lower than the sea
alongside, has a mechanical drainage system. The whole of the
flat part of the County is criss crossed by big drains and dykes.
Dykes run down the edges of all fields and roads and they feed
into the bigger drains. Some drains are from 50 to 100 feet
across and 30 feet deep from the side of the road.
The drains eventually end up at the nearest exit to the sea
where there are huge mechanical pumping stations capable of
ejecting water over the sea walls into the “salt” and thereby
preventing any of the flat lands becoming flooded.
Now our physical geography lesson is complete, back to the
car. My chosen route home was the minor road to the left,
down the very edge of the very large 100 foot wide land drain.
It was very dark and I wanted to get home and back to bed.
The 4L only had an eight horsepower motor but I was not
going slowly.

WHAT COULD BE BEHIND
Proceeding quickly down the switch-back drain side, in my
rear view mirror I could see lights of a vehicle on the road
behind. He was faster than me and catching quickly. It was just
after 2am!
About two miles or so down this bank side the road takes
an acute left turn following a secondary but equally large drain

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