The New Bedford River....

.... is neither new nor anywhere near Bedford. 
Whilst trying not to bore too many I shall give a brief history. 
It all starts around 1630 with a bunch of guys known as the 'Adventurers' and a project called The Great Drainage. The Adventurers were speculators headed by Francis the fourth Earl of Bedford. They had the idea of converting the Summer Lands, part of the Great Eastern Swamp, from grazing land which could only be used in the summer into year round arable fields. 
They employed a Dutch engineer by the name of Sir Cornelius Vermuyden who devised a plan so the waters could run to the sea more effectively. This involved, along with creating other cuts and sluices in the area, connecting two points on the original meandering Great Ouse to shorten the distance to the sea by 10 miles. Vermuyden and his band of navvies cut the new channel within a year and it was subsequently named the Bedford River after the Earl. 
However Vermuydens plans didn't quite work out and the land still flooded. Brief interlude here for Civil War and king getting his head chopped off etc. 
1649 and the fifth Earl of Bedford decides to have a go and, in for a penny in for a pound, gets back in touch with Vermuyden. Vermuyden and his men cut another river about 1km east of the first one and that is named the New Bedford River, the first cut (not necessarily the deepest) becomes known as The Old Bedford River. This created the Ouse Washes, an area between the Old and the New Bedford Rivers of 4700 acres of storage reservoir which could hold flood water until it was safe to release into the rivers.  
It didn't stop there, and still hasn't. Water's like that, just when you think you've got it tamed it pops up with another problem. Alterations have continued for centuries, to this day and beyond no doubt. 
If you are interested there is a wonderful book by Valerie Gerrard called The Story of the Fens. You can read about the Breedlings and the Fen Tigers, but that's another story...