MEN OF THE FENS

Evening Star, Issue 20983, 23 December 1931, Page 13

MEN OF THE FENS

, THE LESSON OF THE ROMANS “The air is full of rotten ha its (sea fogs); water putrid and muddy, yea, full of loathsome vermin; the earth spongy and boggy, and the fire noisome with the stink of smoking hassocks.’’ Sucli is the description of the Fen country given by an ancient writer, and there are still people who believe that the district is wet, and unhealthy, J and that the inhabitants have webbed feet. But in the last hundred years perhaps no part of England has undergone a greater transformation than the Fen country. Before the arrival of tiro Homans the whole of the area surrounding the Wash, from Skegness in the north to King’s Lynn in the south, westwards as far as the higher ground of the Bourne Hills and southwards far into Cambridgeshire, was one vast marsh, frequently inundated by the sea, with hero and there higher places, where the “ fen slodgers ” built their miserable little huts and homes, and connected by narrow waterways winding through the reeds. Little wonder that St. Guthlac, the founder of Crowland Abbey, in his search^ for a place of retirement, should have chosen the Lincolnshire Fens.

The Romans had previous experience of the value of alluvial deposit, for they had already drained similar areas and great lakes in Italy, and knew the great fertility of such reclaimed soils. It was an enormous undertaking to* build a bank nearly sixty miles long and great enough to keep out the highest tides (and the tides in the Wash rise nearly 28ft), and then to drain the area thus enclosed and render, it fit for the plough. Great areas of the Wash outside the Roman Bank have been reclaimed at later dates, but the old Roman Bank can still be traced for the greater part of its length, and for considerable stretches along the north coast of the Wash it is still the only means of keeping out the sea. The system of draining the Fens today is based on that adopted by the Romans. Greatly improved and elaborated, it is the same basic system of catchwater drains to collect the highland water and 1 ring it in narrow channels to the rivers or into the sea. So complete and satisfactory is the presentday drainage system that although the whole of the area is below high-water level it is one of the driest and healthiest in England, and flooding is practically unknown. Ague, once common in the Fens, has entirely disappeared. Fogs are distinguished by their rarity rather than by their frequency. The soil in the Lincolnshire portion, known as the Holland Division, is not black and peaty, but is a beautiful alluvial silt, capable of growing the finest of crops. The Fen country does not attract the tourist. It can boast of no scenic grandeur, but it has a beauty of its own, and the Fenland sunsets are second to none. At all seasons of the year they are an attraction worth travelling many miles to see, but the autumn sunsets are a glory all to themselves, and such enormous masses of flaming colours can be seen nowhere else.

And what of the people who inhabit the Fens? Like the slowly-moving water in the dykes and drains, the Fenman is slightly sluggish, but once he is sure of his ground nothing will turn him from his course. Hospitable to an extreme degree, he is slow but not unwilling to form new friendships. Farming, being his chief interest, is also his chief topic of conversation. And he is a good farmer.— ‘ The Times.’