pumping station could pump 800 thousand gallons per minute (60 m3/s). Responsibility for the drain and the sluice passed to the National Rivers Authority in 1990, and to the Environment Agency in 1995. Despite all the improvements, serious flooding occurred in 1999 when the bank of the drain was breached near Pinchbeck. Staff from the Environment Agency and the Black Sluice Internal Drainage Board successfully repaired the breach before properties were flooded, and a review of the flood defences was then carried out. The report recommended improvements to some of the banks, but funding for the work was not available, and so no work was done at the time. In 2013, the pumping station flooded as a result of a tidal surge. The three engines dating from 1946 were damaged by water ingress, and were decommissioned. The other two engines were at a higher level, and remained operational, but were by that time nearly 50 years old, and nearing the end of their operational life. Refurbishment of the pumping station was estimated to cost between £15 and £20 million, and so the effectiveness of the station was reviewed. The review showed that it had been used for less than 2 days of every 100 days since it was constructed in 1946, and that the station barely affected the number of properties that might be flooded. By using the adjacent gravity sluice and the lock to discharge water from the South Forty-Foot Drain, better control of water levels could be achieved, and this had been demonstrated during a period of heavy rainfall in spring 2018. Accordingly, the remaining two pumps were decommissioned in October 2018, and the Environment Agency are looking at what to do with the building. Functions The South Forty-Foot Drain serves as a district boundary over the length where it runs roughly south to north. South of Donington High Bridge, the Drain separates South Kesteven to the west from South Holland to the east. The boundary then continues southwards along the River Glen. North of Donington, the boundary between the borough of Boston to the east and North Kesteven to the west follows the line of the Drain. As the Drain crosses the line of the Midfen Dyke, just before the Nottingham to Boston railway joins it at Great Hale pumping station, the boundary turns northwards, following its medieval course. The main job of the Drain is to