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63-445: The low-lying land of East Central England, known as the Fens , consisted traditionally of semi-continuous marshland and peat bog interspersed with isolated patches of higher ground. Agriculture has only been made possible by a co-ordinated system of drainage ditches. During medieval times this was controlled by the great monasteries in the area but fell into disrepair after the dissolution of

126-517: A number of Christians sought the isolation that could be found in the wilderness of the Fens. Later classified as saints, often with close royal links, they include Guthlac , Etheldreda , Pega , and Wendreda . Hermitages on the islands became centres of communities which later developed as monasteries with massive estates. In the Life of Saint Guthlac , a biography of the East Anglian hermit who lived in

189-463: A number of sluices (locks) to prevent flooding at high tide or to control the flow of water within the system. These required constant maintenance and repair. Other ongoing problems concerned silting and navigation issues such as towpaths and access. In 1843 the corporation's headquarters were moved to Bedford House, Ely . The three original divisions became self-governing: The corporation's powers and responsibilities gradually reduced until in 1920 it

252-488: A road across the Fens to link what later became East Anglia with what later became central England; it runs between Denver and Peterborough . They also linked Cambridge and Ely . Generally, their road system avoided the Fens, except for minor roads designed for exporting the products of the region, especially salt, beef and leather. Sheep were probably raised on the higher ground of the Townlands and fen islands, then as in

315-555: A severe shock attended by a rumbling noise in Bourn after midday. This was felt in Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire. Houses tottered, slates, tiles and some chimneys fell. As it was a Sunday, some people ran out of the churches "in great consternation". In 1792 another shock was also felt in Bourne and neighbouring towns. There is evidence of human settlement near the Fens from

378-406: A system of drainage channels and man-made rivers ( dykes and drains) and automated pumping stations . There have been unintended consequences to this reclamation, as the land level has continued to sink and the dykes have been built higher to protect it from flooding. Fen is the local term for an individual area of marshland or former marshland. It also designates the type of marsh typical of

441-568: Is a project in place aiming at building an indoor stadium for ice sports. If successful, it will have the largest sheet of ice in the country with both a bandy pitch and a speed skating oval . Many historic cities, towns and villages have grown up in the fens, sited chiefly on the few areas of raised ground. These include: Ancient sites include: Some authors have featured the Fens repeatedly in their work. For example: Wriothesley Russell, 2nd Duke of Bedford Wriothesley Russell, 2nd Duke of Bedford KG (1 November 1680 – 26 May 1711)

504-457: Is little agreement as to the exact dates of the establishment and demise of the forest, but it seems likely that the deforestation was connected with the Magna Carta or one of its early 13th-century restatements, though it may have been as late as 1240. The forest would have affected the economies of the townships around it and it appears that the present Bourne Eau was constructed at the time of

567-577: The Black Sluice . Also this area includes the market town of Spalding and the ancient village of Sempringham . The above were all redrained at one time or another after the Civil War (1642–1649). These areas cover the northern most part of the Fens from Boston right up as far north west as Washingborough near Lincoln along the course of the River Witham and to the north east it extends up as far as

630-685: The Duke of Bedford , was created Baron Howland of Streatham to commemorate the marriage. The couple had six children: On 13 May 1696, Tavistock, as he then was, matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford . Around 1698, he began the construction of the Howland Great Wet Dock on the Thames , on some of his wife's dowry lands in Rotherhithe . Russell held the offices of Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire , Bedfordshire and Middlesex between 1701 and 1711. He

693-565: The Mesolithic on. The evidence suggests that Mesolithic settlement in Cambridgeshire was particularly along the fen edges and on the low islands within the fens, to take advantage of the hunting and fishing opportunities of the wetlands. Internationally important sites include Flag Fen and Must Farm quarry Bronze Age settlement and Stonea Camp . The Romans constructed the Fen Causeway ,

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756-663: The Old Bedford River ) was made in the Cambridgeshire Fens to join the River Great Ouse to the sea at King's Lynn. Many of these works had been sought by the Commissioners of Sewers for generations but lack of power and resources had prevented their implementation. As time went by and construction costs rose it became clear that the adventurers company organisation was unsuitable for such a longterm project, beset as it

819-536: The Townlands . It is clear that there was some prosperity there, particularly where rivers permitted access to the upland beyond the fen. Such places were Wisbech , Spalding , Swineshead and Boston. All the Townlands parishes were laid out as elongated strips, to provide access to the products of fen, marsh and sea. On the fen edge, parishes are similarly elongated to provide access to both upland and fen. The townships are therefore often nearer to each other than they are to

882-580: The deforestation , as the town seems to have joined in the general prosperity by about 1280. Though the forest was about half in Holland (Lincolnshire) and half in Kesteven , it is known as Kesteven Forest. Though some signs of Roman hydraulics survive, and there were also some medieval drainage works, land drainage was begun in earnest during the 1630s by the various investors who had contracts with King Charles I to do so. The leader of one of these syndicates

945-630: The fen violet will be seeded. The Fens Waterways Link is a scheme to restore navigation to some of the drainage works. It is planned to bring the South Forty-Foot Drain and parts of the Car Dyke into use as part of a route between Boston and Cambridge. The Fens is the origin of English bandy and Fen skating . It is the base of Great Britain Bandy Association and in Littleport there

1008-582: The 17th century described the Fenland as entirely above sea level (in contrast to the Netherlands), the area now includes the lowest land in the United Kingdom. Holme Fen in Cambridgeshire, is around 2.75 metres (9 ft 0 in) below sea level. Within the Fens are a few hills, which have historically been called "islands", as they remained dry when the low-lying fens around them were flooded. The largest of

1071-425: The 2nd Duke's death in 1711 the post devolved to his young son Wriothesley Russell, 3rd Duke of Bedford , a child of only 3 years of age, who nevertheless served as governor for 21 years, dying in 1732. He was followed by his younger brother, John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford and on the 4th Duke's death in 1771 by the latter's 5 year old grandson Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford , who then served for 31 years. He

1134-617: The 6th century but was revived in the mid-10th-century monastic revival. In the 11th century, the whole area was incorporated into a united Anglo-Saxon England . The Fens remained a place of refuge and intrigue. It was here that Alfred Aetheling was brought to be murdered and here where Hereward the Wake based his insurgency against Norman England . Fenland monastic houses include the so-called Fen Five ( Ely Cathedral Priory , Thorney Abbey , Croyland Abbey , Ramsey Abbey and Peterborough Abbey ) as well as Spalding Priory . As major landowners,

1197-583: The County Record Office in Cambridge. The major part of the draining of the Fens was effected in the late 18th and early 19th century, again involving fierce local rioting and sabotage of the works. The final success came in the 1820s when windpumps were replaced with powerful coal-powered steam engines , such as Stretham Old Engine , which were themselves replaced with diesel-powered pumps, such as those at Prickwillow Museum and, following World War II ,

1260-687: The Fen Tigers tried to sabotage the drainage efforts. Two cuts were made in the Cambridgeshire Fens to join the River Great Ouse to the sea at King's Lynn – the Old Bedford River and the New Bedford River , the latter being known also as the Hundred Foot Drain . Both cuts were named after the Fourth Earl of Bedford who, along with some gentlemen adventurers ( venture capitalists ), funded

1323-520: The Fenland has become a major arable agricultural region for grains and vegetables. The Fens are particularly fertile, containing around half of the grade 1 agricultural land in England. The Fens have been referred to as the "Holy Land of the English" because of the former monasteries, now churches and cathedrals , of Crowland , Ely , Peterborough , Ramsey and Thorney . Other significant settlements in

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1386-464: The Fens during the early 8th century, Saint Guthlac was described as attacked on several occasions by people he believed were Britons , who were then living in the Fens. However, Bertram Colgrave, in the introduction to one edition, doubts this account, because of the lack of evidence of British survival in the region. British place names in the area are "very few". Monastic life was disrupted by Danish (Anglo-Saxon) raids and centuries of settlement from

1449-436: The Fens include Boston , Downham Market , King’s Lynn , Mildenhall , March , Spalding , and Wisbech . The Fens are very low-lying compared with the chalk and limestone uplands that surround them – in most places no more than 10 metres (33 ft) above sea level. As a result of drainage and the subsequent shrinkage of the peat fens, many parts of the Fens now lie below mean sea level . Although one writer in

1512-462: The Fens is involved in environmental stewardship schemes, under which 270 miles (430 km) of hedgerow and 1,780 miles (2,860 km) of ditches are managed, providing large wildlife corridors and habitat for endangered animals such as the water vole . In 2003, the Great Fen Project was initiated to return parts of the Fens to their original pre-agricultural state. The periodic flooding by

1575-447: The Fens were once permanently flooded, creating lakes or meres , while others were flooded only during periods of high water. In the pre-modern period, arable farming was limited to the higher areas of the surrounding uplands, the fen islands, and the so-called "Townlands", an arch of silt ground around the Wash , where the towns had their arable fields. Though these lands were lower than

1638-739: The Lindsey Level inhabited by farmers by 1638, but the onset of the Civil War permitted the destruction of the works until the act of Parliament that led to the formation of the Black Sluice Commissioners, the Black Sluice Drainage Act 1765 ( 5 Geo. 3 . c. 86 ). Many original records of the Bedford Level Corporation, including maps of the Levels, are now held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies Service at

1701-543: The North Sea, which renewed the character of the Fenlands, was characterised conventionally by the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica as "ravaged by serious inundations of the sea". The modern approach is to allow a little farmland to be flooded again and turned into nature reserves . By introducing fresh water, the organisers of the project hope to encourage species such as the snipe , lapwing and bittern . Endangered species such as

1764-535: The Roman period, water levels fell once again. Settlements developed on the new silt soils deposited near the coast. Though water levels rose once again in the early medieval period, by this time artificial banks protected the coastal settlements and the interior from further deposits of marine silts. Peats continued to develop in the freshwater wetlands of the interior fens. The wetlands of the fens have historically included: Major areas for settlement were: In general, of

1827-454: The area, which has neutral or alkaline water and relatively large quantities of dissolved minerals , but few other plant nutrients . The Fens are a National Character Area , based on their landscape, biodiversity, geodiversity and economic activity. The Fens lie inland of the Wash , and are an area of nearly 1,500 sq mi (3,900 km ) in the south east of Lincolnshire , most of Cambridgeshire (which also includes parts of

1890-547: The combined capacity to pump 16,500 Olympic-size swimming pools in a 24-hour period or to empty Rutland Water in 3 days. As of 2008, there are estimated to be 4,000 farms in the Fens involved in agriculture and horticulture, including arable, livestock, poultry, dairy, orchards, vegetables and ornamental plants and flowers. They employ about 27,000 people in full-time and seasonal jobs. In turn, they support around 250 businesses involved in food and drink manufacturing and distribution, employing around 17,500 people. Over 70% of

1953-543: The construction and were rewarded with large grants of the resulting farmland. The work was directed by engineers from the Low Countries . Following this initial drainage, the Fens were still extremely susceptible to flooding, so windpumps were used to pump water away from affected areas. The Company of Adventurers were more formally incorporated in 1663 as the Bedford Level Corporation . However, their success

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2016-544: The distant farms in their own parishes. After the end of Roman Britain, there is a break in written records. It is thought that some Iceni may have moved west into the Fens to avoid the Angles , who were migrating across the North Sea from Angeln (modern Schleswig ) and settling what would become East Anglia . Surrounded by water and marshes, the Fens provided a safe area that was easily defended and not particularly desirable to invading Anglo-Saxons . It has been proposed that

2079-467: The early 19th century. There may have been some drainage efforts during the Roman period, including the Car Dyke along the western edge of the Fenland between Peterborough and Lincolnshire, but most canals were constructed for transportation. How far seaward the Roman settlement extended is unclear owing to the deposits laid down above them during later floods. The early post-Roman settlements were made on

2142-615: The edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds to the seaside town of Skegness . These were drained in the 18th and 19th centuries. At the end of the most recent glacial period , known in Britain as the Devensian , ten thousand years ago, Britain and continental Europe were joined by the ridge between Friesland and Norfolk . The topography of the bed of the North Sea indicates that the rivers of

2205-417: The fen-islands was the 23-square-mile (60 km ) Kimmeridge Clay island, on which the cathedral city of Ely was built: its highest point is 39 metres (128 ft) above mean sea level. Without artificial drainage and flood protection, the Fens would be liable to periodic flooding, particularly in winter due to the heavy load of water flowing down from the uplands and overflowing the rivers. Some areas of

2268-536: The highest parts of the drained fen are now only a few metres above mean sea level, only sizeable embankments of the rivers, and general flood defences, stop the land from being inundated. Nonetheless, these works are now much more effective than they were. The Fens today are protected by 60 miles (97 km) of embankments defending against the sea and 96 miles (154 km) of river embankments. Eleven internal drainage board (IDB) groups maintain 286 pumping stations and 3,800 miles (6,100 km) of watercourses, with

2331-682: The king's former authority and was deemed necessary and desirable to reincorporate the company via an Act of Parliament in order to satisfactorily manage the completion and maintenance of the scheme. Following the restoration of Charles II in 1660, a series of local acts were passed to enable the project to advance. The Bedford Level Corporation was created by the General Drainage Act 1663 ( 15 Cha. 2 . c. 17) which received royal assent on 27 July 1663. The corporation's general objectives remained unchanged but its powers in respect of navigation rights and taxation were much improved. The organisation

2394-592: The land between the rivers. The internal drainage was organised by levels or districts, each of which includes the fen parts of one or several parishes . The details of the organisation vary with the history of their development, but the areas generally include: Bourne Fen and Deeping Fen lie in the southern most parts of Lincolnshire, between the Rivers Welland and the Bourne Eau with the River Glen running between

2457-474: The less stable peat. Since the 19th century, all of the acid peat in the Fens has disappeared. Drying and wastage of peats has greatly reduced the depth of the alkaline peat soils and reduced the overall elevation of large areas of the peat fens. It is also recorded that peat was dug out of the East and West Lincolnshire fens in the 14th century and used to fire the salterns of Wrangle and Friskney. In later centuries it

2520-425: The list of shareholders changed and grew. Charges on the land reclaimed would fund maintenance and future development. The constitution and the rights to levy charges was confirmed by royal charter in the name of Charles I. The original adventurers were: Work got underway to dig several major new ditches and install sluices at the mouths of river to hold back the high tides. In particular a straight cut (now known as

2583-704: The monasteries . By the 1600s the general drainage situation was so bad that King James I invited Cornelius Vermuyden , the Dutch engineer, to devise a scheme to drain the Great Fen . The Great Fen , lying between the Wash and Cambridge, is more popularly known as the Bedford Level after Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford , who owned a large part of it. It covers some 300,000 acres in the historical counties of Northamptonshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire and much of it lies below sea level. It

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2646-517: The monasteries played a significant part in the early efforts at drainage of the Fens. During most of the 12th century and the early 13th century, the south Lincolnshire fens were afforested . The area was enclosed by a line from Spalding, along the River Welland to Market Deeping , then along the Car Dyke to Dowsby and across the fens to the Welland. It was deforested in the early 13th century. There

2709-532: The names of West Walton , Walsoken and Walpole suggest the native British population, with the Wal- coming from the Old English walh , meaning "foreigner". However, the villages are in close proximity to the old Roman sea wall, so the wal- element is more probably from wal or weal , meaning "wall". Walton is generally believed to mean "wall-town", Walsoken to mean "the district under particular jurisdiction by

2772-533: The next few thousand years both saltwater and freshwater wetlands developed as a result. Silt and clay soils were deposited by marine floods in the saltwater areas and along the beds of tidal rivers, while organic soils, or peats, developed in the freshwater marshes. Fenland water levels peaked in the Iron Age; earlier Bronze and Neolithic settlements were covered by peat deposits, and have only recently been found after periods of extensive droughts revealed them. During

2835-478: The old historic county of Huntingdonshire ), and western most parts of Norfolk and Suffolk . Most of the Fens lie within a few metres of sea level . As with similar areas in the Netherlands , much of the Fenland originally consisted of fresh- or salt-water wetlands. These have been artificially drained and continue to be protected from floods by drainage banks and pumps. With the support of this drainage system,

2898-419: The peat fens before the peat shrinkage began, the more stable silt soils were reclaimed by medieval farmers and embanked against any floods coming down from the peat areas or from the sea. The rest of the Fenland was dedicated to pastoral farming , fishing, fowling , and the harvesting of reeds or sedge for thatch. In this way, the medieval and early modern Fens stood in contrast to the rest of England, which

2961-594: The project came to a halt until Vermuyden was able to resume work under parliamentary control in 1649 under the terms and conditions of what came to be called the "Pretended Act". He created the New Bedford River , also known as the Hundred Foot Drain (from its width), which ran parallel to the Old Bedford River with a flood plain (the Ouse Washes ) between the two. By this time Parliament had taken over much of

3024-427: The small electric stations that are still used today. The dead vegetation of the peat remained undecayed because it was deprived of air (the peat being anaerobic). When it was drained, the oxygen of the air reached it, since then the peat has been slowly oxidizing. This, together with the shrinkage on its initial drying and the removal of soil by the wind, has meant that much of the Fens lies below high tide level . As

3087-511: The southern part of eastern England flowed into the Rhine , thence through the English Channel . From the Fens northward along the modern coast, the drainage flowed into the northern North Sea basin . As the ice melted, the rising sea level drowned the lower lands, leading ultimately to the present coastline. These rising sea levels flooded the previously inland woodland of the Fenland basin; over

3150-469: The three principal soil types found in the Fenland today, the mineral-based silt resulted from the energetic marine environment of the creeks, the clay was deposited in tidal mud-flats and salt-marsh, while the peat grew in the fen and bog. The peat produces black soils, which are directly comparable to the American muck soils . A roddon , the dried raised bed of a watercourse, is more suitable for building than

3213-491: The town of King's Lynn where it was drawn up. The earl and his 12 associates, known as adventurers (i.e. venture capitalists), contracted to drain the southern part of the fens within six years in return for 95,000 acres of the reclaimed land. 12,000 acres would go to the king and 80,000 would be allocated amongst the adventurers in proportion to their financial investment. The latter would be in terms of £500 shares, 20 in all. The shares were wholly and partly transferable and thus

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3276-575: The two Fens and the area covers both the town of Bourne as well as The Deepings including the villages of Langtoft and Baston . The Lindsey Level, also known as the Black Sluice District, was first drained in 1639 and extends from the Glen and Bourne Eau to Swineshead and then across to Kirton . Its waters is carried mostly though the South Forty-Foot Drain through to the Haven at Boston though

3339-608: The wall", and Walpole to mean simply "wall-pole" (Old English wal and pal ). When written records resume in Anglo-Saxon England, the names of a number of peoples of the Fens are recorded in the Tribal Hidage and Christian histories. They include North Gyrwe (Peterborough and Crowland), South Gyrwe (Ely), the Spalda (Spalding), and Bilmingas (part of south Lincolnshire). In the early Christian period of Anglo-Saxon England,

3402-411: Was an English nobleman and politician. He was the son of William Russell, Lord Russell , and his wife Lady Rachel Wriothesley . From 1683 until 1694, he was styled Lord Russell , and from 1695 until his accession in 1700, Marquess of Tavistock . Russell married the rich heiress Elizabeth Howland, daughter of John Howland of Streatham, on 23 May 1695. Shortly thereafter (13 June 1695), his grandfather,

3465-458: Was divided under Vermuyden's plan into three areas, North, Middle and South Level. Following the king's initiative The Duke of Bedford was asked to undertake to free the Bedford Level from flooding as an alternative to giving the project to Vermuyden. In 1630 he agreed a contract with the Commissioners of Sewers (who were responsible for fenland drainage) which was known as the "Lynn Law" after

3528-576: Was finally wound up when its powers and responsibilities were transferred to the Ouse Drainage Board . This in turn became part of the River Great Ouse Catchment Board in 1930. The Fens The Fens or Fenlands in eastern England are a naturally marshy region supporting a rich ecology and numerous species. Most of the fens were drained centuries ago, resulting in a flat, dry, low-lying agricultural region supported by

3591-453: Was primarily an arable agricultural region. Since the advent of modern drainage in the 19th and 20th centuries, the Fens have been radically transformed. Today arable farming has almost entirely replaced pastoral. The economy of the Fens is heavily invested in the production of crops such as grains, vegetables, and some cash crops such as rapeseed and canola . Drainage in the Fenland consists of both river drainage and internal drainage of

3654-445: Was short-lived. Once drained of water, the peat shrank, and the fields lowered further. The more effectively they were drained, the worse the problem became, and soon the fields were lower than the surrounding rivers. By the end of the 17th century, the land was under water once again. Though the three Bedford Levels together formed the biggest scheme, they were not the only ones. Lord Lindsey and his partner Sir William Killigrew had

3717-519: Was succeeded in 1802 by his brother John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford . Some of the notable bailiffs were: As the drainage succeeded in its general purpose, albeit with many technical difficulties, the level of the land sank as it dried out, negating the achievement. It was then decided to introduce several hundred windpumps to lift the water from the fields into the drainage ditches and rivers. The windpumps were replaced with first steam-powered and later diesel-powered pumps. The system also depended on

3780-526: Was the Earl of Bedford, who employed Cornelius Vermuyden as engineer. Contrary to popular belief, Vermuyden was not involved with the draining of the Great Fen in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk in the 1630s, but only became involved with the second phase of construction in the 1650s. The scheme was imposed despite huge opposition from locals who were losing their livelihoods based on fishing and wildfowling. Fenmen known as

3843-547: Was to comprise a governor, six bailiffs, 20 conservators and the commonalty. The first meeting took place at the Fen Office in the Inner Temple, London on 1 August 1663, where the various official were elected. The first governor was William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford , son of the original Undertaker, who held the position until his death in 1700, when he was replaced by his grandson Wriothesley Russell, 2nd Duke of Bedford . On

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3906-560: Was used locally for winter fuel and its digging controlled by the Duchy of Lancaster . Written records of earthquakes in the Fen area appear as early as 1048. According to Historia Ingulfi, p. 64, (1684) this took place in Lincolnshire. In 1117 one affected Holland, Lincs, "endangering and injuring Crowland Abbey ". In 1185 Lincoln was damaged. In 1448 a shock was recorded in south Lincolnshire ( Ingulfi, p. 526). In 1750 John Moore records

3969-492: Was with issues of collecting charges and navigation interests. The fact that its legality only stemmed from a royal charter was another major problem. In 1638 the king revoked the contract, allocating 40,000 acres to the Company of Adventurers and taking over as undertaker of the project himself. In 1640 Vermuyden was asked to take on the management of the work but by 1642 the political landscape had changed. The Civil War intervened and

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