THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21088, 13 February 1934, Page 10

THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN

SETTLEMENTS OF FENLAND RESEARCH B\ ATRIAL PHOTOGRAPHY (TROM OCR OWK CORRESfOSaEJCT.) LONDON, January 12. To-day the Fenland is a sparsely populated area of England, but aerial photography shows that in Roman times this region was well cultivated and probably largely free from the swamps that are to be found to-day. So perfectly has the soft, and largelv undisturbed soil preserved the imprint of former prosperity that it. is expected that the completed survey will yield what will be practically an ordnance map of Fenland in Roman times. Even the system of cultivation is being brought to light by the camera. Population has been found to follow fairly closely the lines of ancient waterways which arc now being traced out. and it has been established that in Roman times Fenland required no protection from the sea. The aerial survey is being carried out for the archaeologists and scientists of the recently-formed Fen Research Committee, the officers of which are leading members of Cambridge University. The scheme largoly originated in the work of Major Gordon Fowler, an engineer by profession and a vice-president of the committee.

Major Fowler discovered that many of the old waterways of Fenland could be traced as meandering banks of silt, except where ploughing or digging had reduced them to the level of surrounding land. Among Major Fowler's discoveries is the fact, recently communicated to the Royal Geographical Society, that the Cam formerly flowed through Wisbech, about eight miles from its present course, instead of ihrough King's Lynn.