The Fens

Ely Cathedral, The Ship of the Fens, can be seen for miles on a clear day.

This is "The Cambridgeshire Fens".

For hundreds of years man has tried to drain the Fens, but it wasn't until Cornelius Vermuyden came along that success was achieved. The Cambridgeshire Fens are now dissected by the Ouse Washes, created around 1630, with first the Old Bedford River and then approximately 20 years later, the New Bedford River or 100 foot. With various other drainage schemes [including the 40 foot or Vermuyden's Drain] undertaken around the same time, the Fens were eventually reclaimed!.

The Ouse Washes looking South East from Welney Bridge 4th January 2003

The Old Bedford River or The 80 Foot Drain

It's certainly an awe inspiring sight when in winter the Ouse washes perform their major task of relieving the Gt. Ouse of it's flood waters. 21 miles of water up to 1000 yards wide stretching from Earith in the south to Salters Lode and Welmore Sluice in the north

The River Delph in Flood 4th Jan 2003

The final stages of securing the Fens were implemented after the catastrophic floods of 1947. The Relief Channel was dug and in 1964 the Cut Off Channel was also completed, thus completing the jig-saw of drainage.

The Forty Foot Drain or Vermuyden's Drain [Left]

The Sixteen Foot Drain [Right]

After years of drying out, the drained Fens began to sink and we are left with the phenomena of the Rivers and Drains being higher than the surrounding farmland. This necessitated the banks being raised to prevent the low lying farmland from flooding.

The river Gt. Ouse.

The major river of Fenland

Denver Sluice [left] near Downham Market. The major controlling factor of the Great Ouse.

The Relief Channel. Approx. 9 miles long, running from Denver to Kings Lynn

This vast flat landscape of some of the richest agricultural land to be found in Europe, has a beauty all of it's own. With huge skies, glorious sunrises and sunsets, the Fens reverberate with the sounds of wildfowl lifting off from their overnight roosts, a truly amazing and wonderful place to be, especially if you are a Pike Angler.

Can you imagine how these places must have been in years gone by, with vast reed beds, huge shoals of fish in unpolluted waters, being pursued by massive Pike!