The Fens

The Fens stretch inland from the Wash across parts of Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Once a vast marshy plain of fresh and salt water, the land was drained over centuries and now lies almost flat, mostly only a few metres above sea level. A network of dykes, drains and pumping stations keeps the fields dry, though the peat soil continues to shrink and the land in places falls below sea level. The region covers nearly 3,900 square kilometres and remains one of England’s most fertile farming areas. The Fens were long known for monasteries at Crowland, Ely, Peterborough, Ramsey and Thorney, which gave the area its nickname the ‘Holy Land of the English’. Other towns such as Boston, King’s Lynn, Spalding and Wisbech grew on the silt lands around the Wash. Before drainage, higher ‘islands’ like Ely’s cathedral hill stood above the flooded fens, while the rest supported fishing, fowling and reed cutting rather than arable farming. Visitors today find wide horizons of arable fields, straight drainage ditches and occasional villages on the old islands. The Great Level, once drained by the Earl of Bedford’s adventurers, still shows its divided districts of North, Middle and South Levels. Near Spalding, the Black Sluice carries water through the South Forty-Foot Drain to Boston Haven. Along the River Witham, stretches of fen remain between Washingborough and Skegness, giving a sense of the land as it once was.