Water management in the Fens before the introduction of pumps
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 16525281 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michael Chisholm (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 45-68 |
| Publication date | 2012-05-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Landscape History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0143-3768 • E-ISSN: 2160-2506 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01433768.2012.671035 |
| OpenAlex | W2267535052 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 10 |
Much has been written about the seventeenthcentury draining of the (peat) Fens debouching into The Wash but there are some persistent misunderstandings and also issues on which information is lacking. Some of the main issues relate to: relationships between drainage and navigation; management of water levels; and the antecedents of the scheme undertaken by Cornelius Vermuyden from 1649. These uncertainties are additional to the over-riding lesson of this enterprise, that the peat Fens as a whole could not be drained successfully in the absence of pumps, initially windmills, to lift water over waterway embankments to compensate for shrinkage of the peat once drained. These lessons enable us the better to appreciate the achievements of the Anglo-Saxons and their successors in defending the silt lands and modifying the channel network in the peat areas; much of this network modification was apparently for transport purposes, the peat lands acting as a vast flood storage area. From the mid-thirteenth century, Commissions of Sewers were established in response to disasters and the failure of customary maintenance arrangements; these Commissions reflect the scale and sophistication of the inherited infrastructure but we do not know how the works had originally been organised and executed
Archaeology · Culvert · Ditch · Drainage · Flood myth · Geography · Geotechnical engineering · Hydrology (agriculture · Lift (data mining · Mire · Peat · Sanitary sewer · Sociology · Sophistication · Water resource management · Computer Science · Ecology · Environmental Engineering · Environmental Science · Geology · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Historical and Archaeological Studies · Peatlands and Wetlands Ecology
The History of the Drainage of the Great Level of the Fens, Called Bedford Level
Waterways and Canal-Building in Medieval England
A Fenland Frontier
Navigation and the seventeenth-century draining of the Fens
English Heritage Book of Flag Fen
Flag Fen, Fengate, Peterborough I
The Early History of Commissions of Sewers
Settlement and Society
The Records of the Commissioners of Sewers in the Ports of Holland 1547-1603
| Citations per year | 0.15 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2013 - 2021 (9) |
| Highly cited | No |