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Middle Level Commissioners
The Middle Level Commissioners are a land drainage authority in eastern England. The body was formed in 1862, undertaking the main water level management function within the Middle Level following the breakup of the former Bedford Level Corporation. The Middle Level is the central and largest section of the Great Level of The Fens, which was reclaimed by drainage during the mid-17th Century. The area is bounded on the northwest and east by the River Nene and Ouse washes, on the north by previously drained Marshland silts and to the south and west by low clay hills. The Middle Level river system consists of over of watercourses most of which are statutory navigations and has a catchment of over . History In the distant past Great Britain was part of continental Europe with the rivers of eastern England being tributaries of the River Rhine, which flowed across a flat, marshy plain, which is now the southern North Sea. Around 12,000 years ago, following the end of the last Ice ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bedford Level Corporation
The Bedford Level Corporation (or alternatively the Corporation of the Bedford Level) was founded in England in 1663 to manage the draining of the Fens of East Central England. It formalised the legal status of the Company of Adventurers previously formed by the Duke of Bedford to reclaim 95,000 acres of the Bedford Level. History The low-lying land of East Central England, known as the Fens, consisted traditionally of semi-continuous marshland and peat bog interspersed with isolated patches of higher ground. Agriculture has only been made possible by a co-ordinated system of drainage ditches. During medieval times this was controlled by the great monasteries in the area but fell into disrepute after the dissolution of the monasteries. By the 1600s the general drainage situation was so bad that King Charles I invited Cornelius Vermuyden, the Dutch engineer, to devise a scheme to drain the Great Fen. The Bedford Level The Great Fen, lying between the Wash and Cambridge, is more p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council was abolished in 2009. Bedfordshire is bordered by Cambridgeshire to the east and north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east and south. It is the fourteenth most densely populated county of England, with over half the population of the county living in the two largest built-up areas: Luton (258,018) and Bedford (106,940). The highest elevation point is on Dunstable Downs in the Chilterns. History The first recorded use of the name in 1011 was "Bedanfordscir," meaning the shire or county of Bedford, which itself means "Beda's ford" (river crossing). Bedfordshire was historically divided into nine hundreds: Barford, Biggleswade, Clifton, Flitt, Manshead, Redbornestoke, S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Russell, 1st Duke Of Bedford
William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford KG PC (August 1616 – 7 September 1700) was an English nobleman and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 until 1641 when he inherited his Peerage as 5th Earl of Bedford and removed to the House of Lords. He fought in the Parliamentarian army and later defected to the Royalists during the English Civil War. Early life, 1616–1640 He was the son of Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford and his wife Catherine, the daughter and coheir of Giles Brydges, 3rd Baron Chandos. Russell was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and then, in 1635 went to Madrid where he hoped to learn Spanish. He returned by July 1637, at which point he concluded a marriage (initially against his father's wishes), to Anne, the sole heir of Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset. Career during the English Civil War, 1640–1644 Bedford as Parliamentarian, 1640–1642 In April 1640, Russell was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Tavistock in the Shor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Act Of Parliament
Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of parliament begin as a Bill (law), bill, which the legislature votes on. Depending on the structure of government, this text may then be subject to assent or approval from the Executive (government), executive branch. Bills A draft act of parliament is known as a Bill (proposed law), bill. In other words, a bill is a proposed law that needs to be discussed in the parliament before it can become a law. In territories with a Westminster system, most bills that have any possibility of becoming law are introduced into parliament by the government. This will usually happen following the publication of a "white paper", setting out the issues and the way in which the proposed new law is intended to deal with them. A bill may also be introduced in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
St Ives, Cambridgeshire
St Ives is a market town and civil parish in the Huntingdonshire district in Cambridgeshire, England, east of Huntingdon and north-west of Cambridge. St Ives is historically in the historic county of Huntingdonshire. History The township was originally known as Slepe in Anglo Saxon England. In 1001-2, a peasant is recorded as uncovering the remains of Ivo of Ramsey, a Cornish Celtic Christian Bishop and hermit while ploughing a field. The discovery led Eadnoth the Younger, an important monk and prelate to found Ramsey Abbey. Slepe was listed in the Hundred of Hurstingstone in Huntingdonshire in the Domesday Book. In 1086 there was one manor and 64 households, 29. 5 ploughlands, of meadows and of woodland. The importance of Ramsey Abbey grew through the Middle Ages. In the order of precedence for abbots in Parliament, Ramsey was third after Glastonbury and St Alban's. Its influence benefited the area as Slepe became St Ives and was granted a charter to become a mark ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peterborough
Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until 1974, when county boundary change meant the city became part of Cambridgeshire instead. The city is north of London, on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea to the north-east. In 2020 the built-up area subdivision had an estimated population of 179,349. In 2021 the Unitary Authority area had a population of 215,671. The local topography is flat, and in some places, the land lies below sea level, for example in parts of the Fens to the east and to the south of Peterborough. Human settlement in the area began before the Bronze Age, as can be seen at the Flag Fen archaeological site to the east of the current city centre, also with evidence of Roman occupation. The Anglo-Saxon period saw the establishment of a monastery, Medeshams ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guyhirn
Guyhirn (sometimes spelled Guyhirne) is a village near the town of Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, England. It is on the northern bank of the River Nene, at the junction of the A141 with the A47. The population is included in the civil parish of Wisbech St Mary. It is notable chiefly for the Chapel of Ease, a rare example of church architecture of the Interregnum (1649–1660), and as a key crossing point of the River Nene. History According to ''A Dictionary of British Place Names'', Guyhirn, which was 'La Gyerne' in 1275, derives from the Old French 'guie', which means "a guide" (referencing the control of tidal flow or a "salt-water ditch"), with the Old English 'hyrne', which means an "angle or corner of land". According to folklore, recorded in the early nineteenth century, Guyhirn was the site of "a severe engagement between a Saxon King and the abbot of Ely... the legend informs us that 5000 men were brought into the field... it arose from disputes respecting the boundar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earith
Earith is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Earith lies approximately east of Huntingdon. Earith is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as being a historic county of England. At Earith, two artificial diversion channels of the River Great Ouse, the Old Bedford River and the New Bedford River, leave the river on a course to Denver Sluice near Downham Market, where they rejoin the Great Ouse in its tidal part. At the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 1,677, reducing to 1,606 at the 2011 Census. History A Roman bronze statue was found to the west of the village at Bury Fen in 1826. It is now in the British Museum. To the north east of the village, between the Old Bedford River and the New Bedford River lies the remains of an English Civil War fort known as Earith Bulwark. It is believed to have been constructed as early as 1643, to fortify the crossing point of the River Great Ouse. M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old Bedford River
The Old Bedford River is an artificial, partial diversion of the waters of the River Great Ouse in the Fens of Cambridgeshire, England. It was named after the fourth Earl of Bedford who contracted with the local Commission of Sewers to drain the Great Level of the Fens beginning in 1630. It provided a steeper and shorter path for the waters of the Great Ouse, and was embanked to prevent them flooding the low ground of the South Fens. Throughout the project, the Earl and his Adventurers faced disruption from those who were opposed to drainage schemes. The project was deemed to have succeeded in draining the fens in 1637, but that decision was reversed in 1638. After a lull during the English Civil War, when much of the work was damaged, the Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden worked with William Russell, the fifth Earl of Bedford to complete the drainage. Disruption and unrest continued while the work was carried out, resulting in the Adventurers employing armed guards. A secon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sir Cornelius Vermuyden
Sir Cornelius Vermuyden ( Sint-Maartensdijk, 1595 – London, 11 October 1677) was a Dutch engineer who introduced Dutch land reclamation methods to England. Vermuyden was commissioned by the Crown to drain Hatfield Chase in the Isle of Axholme, Lincolnshire, Vermuyden was knighted in 1629 for his work and became an English citizen in 1633. In the 1650s, he directed major projects to drain The Fens of East Anglia, introducing the innovation of constructing washes, to allow periodic flooding of the area by excess waters. Early life and education Cornelius was the son of Giles Vermuyden and Sarah Werkendet. He was born in 1595 in Sint-Maartensdijk on the Isle of Tholen in Zeeland, Netherlands. He trained in the Netherlands as an engineer, learning Dutch techniques for controlling water and draining marshland. Career in England By the period of 1621 to 1623, Vermuyden was working in England, where his first projects were on the River Thames, repairing a sea wall at Dagenham a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles I Of England
Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until Execution of Charles I, his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after his father inherited the English throne in 1603, he moved to England, where he spent much of the rest of his life. He became heir apparent to the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1612 upon the death of his elder brother, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales. An unsuccessful and unpopular attempt to marry him to the Spanish Habsburg princess Maria Anna of Spain, Maria Anna culminated in an eight-month visit to Spain in 1623 that demonstrated the futility of the marriage negotiation. Two years later, he married the House of Bourbon, Bourbon princess Henrietta Maria of France. After his 1625 succession, Charles quarrelled with the Parliament of England, English Parliament, which sought to curb his royal prerogati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adventurers (land Drainage)
Adventurers were groups of English engineers and wealthy landowners, who funded large scale land drainage projects in the seventeenth century, in return for rights to some of the land reclaimed. Early entrepreneurs Land drainage works were expensive, and were usually undertaken in sparsely populated areas. In the seventeenth century a number of such schemes were carried out by Adventurers, who acted under parliamentary sanction, but who financed the works carried out themselves. In return, they gained rights to the land reclaimed as a result of the civil engineering works. One such scheme was the draining of the Bedford Levels. The Bedford Level Corporation was in charge of the works, which when conceived in 1630, would create large tracts of "summer lands", which would be suitable for grazing during the summer months, but would still be liable to flooding in the winter. Funds for the work were provided by the Earl of Bedford and thirteen other Adventurers. Of the land reclaimed, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
