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88:, who saw it in 1697, the mere was "3 mile broad and six mile long. In the midst is a little island where a great store of Wildfowle breed.... The ground is all wett and marshy but there are severall little Channells runs into it which by boats people go up to this place; when you enter the mouth of the Mer it looks formidable and its often very dangerous by reason of sudden winds that will rise like Hurricanes...."
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took it into the mere on one side and out on the other. The area covered by water was at least 1,870 acres (756 hectares) in summer, extending to 3,000 acres (1,214 ha) in winter. The mere was a source of fish, wildfowl, reed and sedge for local inhabitants, and also provided a setting for 'water
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in 1851 and its inventor was commissioned to design a pump for the draining of the mere. It was 4.5 feet (1.4 m) in diameter, and powered by a 25 hp (19 kW) steam engine, could raise 101 tons of water per minute by 2 or 3 feet (0.6 or 0.9 m).
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may eventually see the mere return to wetland, although the lake bed is now higher than the former shoreline due to the uneven shrinkage of the surrounding peat as it has dried. Subsidence of four metres since 1852 is shown visually at
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one Sunday in
February, 1851, wandered from his post and sank up to his armpits in the reed beds of Whittlesey Mere. Obscured from view, he remained stuck for 19 hours, which he ascertained from the sound of the bells of
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A flood occurred in 1852 and the mere filled with water, but it was drained again. In 1862, the
Marshland Sluice gave way under pressure from the tide and water flooded in. It was drained once more and farming resumed.
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The name 'Whittlesea Mere' remains on maps to this day, although the only water is to be found in farmers' irrigation reservoirs and dykes draining the fertile farmland. Stage 3 of the
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and other silver items were found in the bed of the mere and from the ram's head on one of these pieces were believed to have come from
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229:. Also found in the bed were blocks of quarried stone, which are supposed to have fallen from a barge on their way to the Abbey.
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Page, William; Proby, Granville; Ladds, S Inskip, eds. (1936). "The Middle Level of the Fens and its reclamation".
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264:(1887) by a writer who claimed to have heard it from the principal actor, tells of a cottager's son from
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Before drainage, the fens contained many shallow lakes, of which
Whittlesey Mere was the largest. The
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The "Black Ham Engine" used in the 1850s to drain
Whittlesey Mere. Unique in that it was turf fired
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277:, until a fellow villager found him by chance, extricated him and returned him to his parents.
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originally flowed through this mere, then south to Ugg Mere, before turning east towards the
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Wentworth Day, J. (1954). A History of the Fens. George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd, London.
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Whittlesea Mere was the last of the 'great meres' to be drained. The old course of the
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James, Maureen (2014), "Of the Fens and
Farming: The Legend of Whittlesey Mere",
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completed in 1848, enabled the mere to be drained. A pumping station with an
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expansion had reduced
Whittlesey Mere to about 400 ha and only a metre deep.
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The drainage turned both the mere and Holme Fen into usable farmland, but
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The present-day site of
Whittlesey Mere, looking south towards Tower Farm
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The project was funded by a group of gentlemen and local landowners:
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Map made and printed on satin in 1786 by land surveyor John Bodger
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Saunders, W.H. Bernard (1891). "A Legend of
Whittlesey Mere".
530:"'Weirder than any other landscape': a wild walk in the Fens"
317:. Edited and introduced by Christopher Morris (London: The
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was used to achieve this, rather than the more traditional
413:. Victoria County History. Vol. 3. pp. 249–290
116:’s Voyage Round The Fens in 1774 By 1851, silting and
167:. The pump had been shown for the first time at the
294:"Streetmap.co.uk- search results for 522500,290500"
95:Circa 1660 map showing the size of Whittlesey Mere
140:The Ramsey Abbey censer and incense boat in the
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359:. Middle Level Commissioners. Archived from
148:The construction of a new main drain of the
386:. Landmark Publishing Ltd. pp. 38–40.
225:), incense boat and a sword are now in the
144:; they were found when the mere was drained
626:Whittlesea Mere at Yaxley History Project
112:. The mere was one of the locations of
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410:A History of the County of Huntingdon
357:"St Germans Pumping Station: History"
332:"Lord Orford's Voyage round the fens"
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81:picnics' for the region's nobility.
703:Land drainage in the United Kingdom
268:who while employed bird scaring on
258:A local legend, first recounted in
688:Former lakes of the United Kingdom
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693:1848 disestablishments in England
556:"Holme Fen Posts | The Great Fen"
37:was an area of open water in the
461:"The Ramsey Abbey Incense Boat"
57:occupied the land southeast of
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315:The Journeys of Celia Fiennes
275:All Saints Church, Conington
227:Victoria & Albert Museum
582:Fenland Notes & Queries
179:of Holmewood; Heathcote of
84:According to the traveller
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601:Cambridgeshire Folk Tales
447:"The Ramsey Abbey Censer"
433:"The Ramsey Abbey Censer"
382:Hinde, K. S. G. (2006).
336:www.huntshistoryfest.com
150:Middle Level Navigations
673:Lakes of Cambridgeshire
384:Fenland Pumping Engines
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73:lay to the northeast.
41:area of the county of
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489:"Ramsey Abbey Stones"
201:Wentworth Fitzwilliam
154:Wiggenhall St Germans
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645: /
560:www.greatfen.org.uk
516:"Great Fen Project"
298:www.streetmap.co.uk
221:. The thurible (or
649:52.4996°N 0.2007°W
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603:, History Press,
393:978-1-84306-188-5
363:on 9 October 2013
243:Great Fen Project
65:Fen and north of
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181:Conington Castle
169:Great Exhibition
161:centrifugal pump
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536:. 22 April 2018
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185:Edward Fellowes
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43:Huntingdonshire
35:Whittlesea Mere
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69:. The town of
61:Fen, south of
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339:. Retrieved
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417:30 December
341:18 February
248:Holme Posts
203:of Milton.
165:scoop wheel
114:Lord Orford
698:River Nene
667:Categories
637:52°29′59″N
588:: 156–158.
565:26 January
540:26 January
281:References
237:Modern day
210:followed.
208:subsidence
193:Diddington
106:River Nene
78:River Nene
71:Whittlesey
640:0°12′03″W
270:Holme Fen
67:Holme Fen
215:thurible
124:Drainage
475:"Sword"
100:History
51:England
39:Fenland
607:
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223:censer
199:; and
158:Appold
63:Farcet
59:Yaxley
53:. The
266:Holme
45:(now
605:ISBN
567:2023
542:2023
419:2010
388:ISBN
369:2013
343:2021
118:peat
110:Ouse
55:mere
187:of
152:to
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
