The Fens

For other uses, see Fen (disambiguation).
The Fens
Natural region

The Fens from Sheepwash Crossing

Map of eastern England, showing position of the Fens.[2]
Countries Eastern England

The Fens, also known as the Fenland(s), is a naturally marshy region in eastern England. Most of the fens were drained several centuries ago, resulting in a flat, damp, low-lying agricultural region.

A fen is the local name for an individual area of marshland or former marshland and also designates the type of marsh typical of the area, which has neutral or alkaline water chemistry and relatively large quantities of dissolved minerals, but few other plant nutrients.

Fenland primarily lies around the coast of the Wash; it reaches into four ceremonial counties: Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and a small area of Suffolk, as well as the historic county of Huntingdonshire. In whole it occupies an area of nearly 1,500 sq mi (3,900 km2).[3]

Most of the Fenland lies 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, which have been artificially drained and continue to be protected from floods by drainage banks and pumps. With the support of this drainage system, the Fenland has become a major arable agricultural region in Britain 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 churches and cathedrals of Ely, Ramsey, Crowland, Thorney and Peterborough.[4][5] Other significant settlements in the Fens include Boston, Spalding, Wisbech and King's Lynn.

Background: historical flooding and drainage

A windpump at Wicken Fen

The Fens are very low-lying compared with the chalk and limestone uplands that surround them – in most places no more than 10 m above sea level. Indeed, 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 the 17th century described the Fenland as entirely above sea level (in contrast to the Netherlands),[6] the area now includes the lowest land in the United Kingdom, Holme Fen in Cambridgeshire, at around 2.75 metres below sea level.[7] Within the Fens there 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 the fen-islands is the Isle of Ely, on which the cathedral city of Ely was built: its highest point is 39 m above mean sea level.[8]

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 the Fens were once permanently flooded, creating small lakes or meres, while others were only flooded 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 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 southern England, which was primarily an arable agricultural region.

Since the advent of modern drainage in the 19th and 20th centuries, the Fens have been radically transformed, so that today arable farming has almost entirely replaced pastoral, and 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 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 include:

The above were all redrained at one time or another after the Civil War (1642-1649).

These were drained in the 18th and 19th centuries.[10]

Formation and geography

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 the southern part of eastern England flowed into the Rhine, hence 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.[11]

These rising sea levels flooded the previously inland woodland of the Fenland basin, and over the next few thousand years led to extensive development of both saltwater and freshwater wetlands. 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.[11] During the Roman period, water levels fell once again, and settlements were possible 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, though peats continued to develop in the freshwater wetlands of the interior fens.[11]

The wetlands of the fens have historically included:

Major areas for settlement were:

In general, of 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 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.

History

Drainage Mills in the Fens, Croyland, Lincolnshire. John Sell Cotman

Pre-Roman settlement

There is evidence of human settlement near the Fens from 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.[12]

Roman farming and engineering

The Romans constructed the Fen Causeway, 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, but 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 the early 19th century. The Roman period also possibly saw some drainage efforts, including the Car Dyke along the western edge of the Fenland between Peterborough and Lincolnshire, but most canals were constructed for transportation.[13]

How far seaward the Roman settlement extended is unclear owing to the deposits laid down above them during later floods.

Early post-Roman settlements

The early post-Roman settlements were made on 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 the distant farms in their own parishes.

The Dark Ages and Middle Ages

After the end of Roman Britain, there is a break in written records. It is thought some of the 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.

Some believe that the names of West Walton, Walsoken and Walpole hint at the native British population, the Wal- coming from the Old English walh, meaning "foreigner".[14] 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",[15] Walsoken to mean "the district under particular jurisdiction by the wall"[15] and Walpole to mean simply "wall-pole" (Old English wal and pal)[16][17] or perhaps "well pool" (Old English welle and pol).[18]

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, a number of Christians sought the isolation that could be found in the wilderness that the Fens had become. These saints, often with close royal links, include Guthlac, Etheldreda, Pega, and Wendreda. Hermitages on the islands became centres of communities which later became monasteries with massive estates. In the Life of Saint Guthlac – a biography of the East Anglian hermit who lived in the Fens during the early 8th century – it is stated that Saint Guthlac was attacked on several occasions by people he believed were Britons living in the Fens at that time. However, Bertram Colgrave, in the introduction to one edition, doubts it because of the lack of evidence of British survival in the region and the fact that British place names in the area are "very few".[19]

Monastic life was disrupted by Danish raids and settlement, 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. It 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)[20] as well as Spalding Priory. As major landowners, the monasteries played a significant part in the early efforts at drainage of the Fens.

The Royal Forest

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 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 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.[21]

Draining the Fens

Southern Lincolnshire from a mid-17th century atlas, showing unsettled areas within undrained fens

Early modern attempts to drain the Fens

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 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.[22] The scheme was imposed despite huge opposition from locals who were losing their livelihoods based on fishing and wildfowling. Fenmen known as 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 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.

However, their success 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 the Lindsey Level inhabited by farmers by 1638, but the onset of the Civil War permitted the destruction of the works until the 1765 Act of Parliament that led to the formation of the Black Sluice Commissioners.[23]

Stretham Old Engine,
alongside the River Great Ouse

Many original records of the Bedford Level Corporation, including maps of the Levels, are now held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies Service at the County Record Office in Cambridge.

Modern drainage

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, the small electric stations that are still used today.

Prickwillow Museum, the changing face of the Fens and the story of drainage

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 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 the combined capacity to pump 16,500 Olympic-size swimming pools in a 24-hour period or to empty Rutland Water in 3 days.[24]

Modern farming and food manufacturing in the Fens

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.[24]

Over 70% of 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.[24]

Restoring the Fens

In 2003, the Great Fen Project was initiated to return parts of the Fens to their original pre-agricultural state. The periodic flooding by the North Sea, which renewed the character of the Fenlands, was characterized 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 organizers of the project hope to encourage species such as the snipe, lapwing and bittern. Endangered species such as 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.

Fen settlements

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:

Setting in fiction

Some authors have featured the Fens repeatedly in their work. For example:

The following novels, or substantial portions of them, are set in the Fens:

Some films have large portions set in the Fenlands:

The 1974 Look and Read series 'Cloud Burst' was set and filmed in the Fens.

At least one video game has also been set in the Fens:

See also

References

  1. ↑ After Lindley, Keith (1982). Fenland riots and the English revolution. Heinemann Educational Books. ISBN 978-0-435-32535-0.
  2. ↑ After Lindley, Keith (1982). Fenland riots and the English revolution. Heinemann Educational Books. ISBN 978-0-435-32535-0.
  3. ↑ It is debated whether this area includes the fen areas of north Lincolnshire, such as the Isle of Axholme. Some scholars, such as Keith Lindley, include the Isle of Axholme as part of the Fenland as it has the same kind of environment and a similar environmental and social history. However, it is not contiguous with the rest of the East Anglian Fenland, nor was its drainage ever jointly organised with that of any of the main Fenland drainage areas.
  4. ↑ Wise, John; Noble, W. Mackreth (1882). Ramsey Abbey: Its Rise and Fall. Huntingdon: Ellis & Cooper. ISBN 0-904701-10-7.
  5. ↑ Christian, Anne Hait (1984). The Search for Holmes, Robson, Hind, Steele and Graham Families of Cumberland and Northumberland, England. La Jolla, CA: Search. p. 7. ISBN 0-9613723-0-3.
  6. ↑ H. C. A discourse concerning the drayning of fennes and surrounded grounds in the sixe counteys of Norfolk, Suffolke, Cambridge, with the Isle of Ely, Huntington, Northampton and Lincolne. London: 1629. Reprinted in 1647 under title: The Drayner Confirmed, and the Obstinate Fenman Confuted.
  7. ↑ "UK's lowest spot is getting lower". BBC. 29 November 2002. Retrieved 26 March 2010.
  8. ↑ Isle of Ely at WheresThePath.com
  9. ↑ "An Act for settling the Draining of the Great Level of the Fens called Bedford Level", 1663, reproduced in Samuel Wells, The History of the Drainage of the Great Level of the Fens called Bedford Level, (London, 1830), Vol.2, pp.383ff.
  10. ↑ Bedford Levels information from Ordnance Survey 1:50 000 First Series Sheets 142 (1974) and 143 (1974). Lincolnshire information from Wheeler, W.H. A History of the Fens of South Lincolnshire 2nd edn. (1896) facsimile edn. Paul Watkins (1990) ISBN 1-871615-19-4
  11. 1 2 3 David Hall and John Coles, Fenland Survey. An essay in landscape and persistence. Archeological Report 1. English Heritage, 1994.
  12. ↑ Christopher Taylor. The Cambridgeshire Landscape. Hodder and Stroughton, London, 1973. p30.
  13. ↑ Hall, David; Coles, John (1994). Fenland survey: an essay in landscape and persistence. English Heritage. ISBN 978-1-85074-477-1.
  14. ↑ Simon Young, AD500 p.245 (Notes & Sources) references Life of Saint Guthlac (Cambridge University Press 1956), pp. 108–11.
  15. 1 2 A Popular Guide to Norfolk Place-names: by James Rye: Published by Larks press, Dereham, Norfolk, 2000 ; ISBN 0-948400-15-3
  16. ↑ http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Walpole
  17. ↑ Geographical Etymology, (1887), Christina Blackie, J. Murray, London, accessed 21 May 2010
  18. ↑ House of Names – Walpole Family Crest and Name History, accessed 21 May 2010
  19. ↑ Bertram Colgrave (ed). Felix's Life of Saint Guthlac, (c730). Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-31386-5
  20. ↑ "ULAS – Thorney". University of Leicester Archaeological Services. 26 February 2007. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
  21. ↑ Map showing location of Kesteven Forest on the web site of St John's College, Oxford
  22. ↑ Margaret Albright Knittl, "The design for the initial drainage of the Great Level of the Fens : an historical whodunit in three parts", Agricultural History Review, 55:1 (2007), pp. 23–50. Abstract
  23. ↑ "Historyof the Black Sluice Internal Drainage Board".
  24. 1 2 3 "Why Farming Matters in the Fens (2)" (PDF). NFU East Anglia. 2008. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
  25. ↑ Welcome to Wisbech – Capital of the Fens
  26. ↑ radiolistings.co.uk On Mardle Fen
  27. ↑ http://lesleyglaister.weebly.com/honour-thy-father.html
  28. ↑ Thorpe, Adam (2 April 2014). "The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth review 'A literary triumph'". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  29. ↑ Ubisoft (2008). "Locations". Ubisoft. Retrieved 1 April 2011.

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Fens.

Coordinates: 52°29′18″N 0°13′52″W / 52.48838°N 0.23118°W / 52.48838; -0.23118

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, May 04, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.