The Lost Fens

England's Greatest Ecological Disaster

Ian D. Rotherham

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2013
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9780750976244
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

The Lost Fens is the history of the cultural landscape of the Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, and Yorkshire Fenlands from the Humber and the Vale of York, to Norfolk. The book draws together the story of changing landscapes, lost cultures and ways of life, and the wildlife that has gone, too. This story of destruction is the most dramatic example of ecological destruction in our history. Between 6,000 and 10,000 square kilometres of wetland present in the 1600s, was almost entirely obliterated by 1900. Gone are the vast flocks of wetland birds that filled the evening skies in winter, the frozen wetlands and the fen skaters of the winter, and the abundant Black Terns or breeding wading birds of the summer months. This is the history of a landscape, of a region, and of its people, long since passed away. It is a remarkable tale and, above all, a history of a lost ecology.

Table of contents

• Title
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1 Changing Perceptions of the Fens
• 2 The Fenlands of Eastern England
• 3 The Wildlife and Flora of the Ancient Fens
• 4 Draining and Improving the Fens: The Background to the Great Drainage
• 5 The Great Drainage Begins
• 6 The Progress of ‘Improvement’
• 7 Stripping the Flesh from the Bones: The Fenland Peat Cutters
• 8 Destruction and Rebirth: Fenlands From the Late Nineteenth Century Through the Twentieth Century
• 9 The Future Fens
• Bibliography
• Plates
• Copyright