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Bedford Level, Norfolk

Historical Description

Bedford Level, an extensive marshy flat in Norfolk, Suffolk, Huntingdon, Northampton, Lincoln, and Cambridge. It includes about 63,000 acres in Norfolk, 30,000 in Suffolk, 50,000 in Huntingdon, Peterborough fen in Northampton, the parts of Holland in Lincoln, and nearly all the Isle of Ely in Cambridge, and comprises altogether about 450,000 acres. It was anciently covered with forest; was disforested by the Romans, and intersected by a Roman road; was afterwards brought into a state of high cultivation; was laid waste, in the 13th century, by repeated inundations of the sea; and settled into a mixture of morass and lake, in some places 20 feet deep, and in some parts navigated by boats. Repeated attempts were made to drain it, especially in the reign of Henry VI. and in the early part of the reign of Charles I., but without success. Another and better attempt was begun in 1649 by the fourth Earl of Bedford, whose energetic measures were carried out under the direction of the famous Dutch engineer, Cornelius Vermuyden. A company was then formed to effect and maintain drainage, was incorporated in 1664, and by their labours great cuts, called the Old and New Bedford rivers, Bevil's River, Sam's Cut, Peakirk,Southeau, Sixteen-Feet Counter, South Holland Drain, and North Level Drain were formed; numerous small cuts also were made; old embankments were strengthened and improved, new embankments were thrown up, and extensive tracts of pasture and corn-land were reclaimed. The corporation thus established has since been kept up, and consists of a governor, 6 bailiffs, 20 conservators, and a commonalty. It is empowered to impose and levy taxes for the preservation of its land, and for upholding the ways, passages, rivers, cuts, banks, &c. throughout the Level, which are also the property of the corporation. The governor and bailiffs must each possess at least 400 acres of the land granted to the corporation to qualify them for holding these offices. The qualification requisite for the conservators is 290 acres, and such of the commonalty as possess 100 acres are allowed to vote in the election of the officers of the corporation. At various times during the last two centuries extensive works have been carried on to effect a better drainage of this large flat region by the construction of artificial rivers. The principal of these was completed under Acts passed in 1827 and 1829 for improving the outfall of the river None; for the drainage of the lands discharging their waters in Wisheach river; for improving the navigation of the Wisbeach river from the upper end of Kinderley's Cut to the sea; and for embanking the salt marshes lying between Kinderley's Cut and the sea. Under these Acts a new channel was cut for the discharge of the waters of the None into the sea, reclaiming several thousand acres of marsh land, and affording a safe passage between Wisbeach and the sea for small vessels at all states of the tide. Further important works were subsequently carried out, and so effectively has the work been done that some places formerly marsh have now in dry seasons barely sufficient water. Formerly an immense number of windmills were employed for raising and carrying off the water, but these are now to a great extent superseded by steam engines. In the North Level the drainage is effected without either windmills or steam engines. Abundant crops of grain, flax, coleseed, and various other kinds of produce are now raised in the Bedford Level.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Church Records

Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Norfolk Record Office, have images of the Parish Registers for Norfolk online.


Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Norfolk newspapers online:

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