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A roddon, also written as rodham, roddam or rodden, is the dried raised bed of a
watercourse
A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long large streams are ...
such as a river or tidal-creek, especially in
The Fens
The Fens, also known as the , in eastern England are a naturally marshy region supporting a rich ecology and numerous species. Most of the fens were drained centuries ago, resulting in a flat, dry, low-lying agricultural region supported by a ...
in eastern England. Such raised
silt
Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...
and clay-filled beds are ideal for settlement in the less firm
peat
Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...
of The Fens. Many writers have followed the archaeologist Major Gordon Fowler's preference for the word ''roddon'' to define such structures though modern researchers suggest the word ''rodham'' is the more correct local word.
Oak preserved in peat through which roddons passed has been dated to around 4000 years before present (
BP). The origin of the raised nature of a roddon is debated; some writers suggest this is due to a silt build-up during marine incursion. Another explanation (and the one most favoured today) is based on the greater shrinkage of peat, compared to that of silt. This theory suggests that the surrounding peat lands have subsided more than the silt-filled banks of the roddon, leaving the banks raised above the general level of the area.
Etymology
The term ''roddon'' may be a corruption of the now rare ''rodham'', which meant "near a river where osiers grow", with particular reference to the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...
; an
osier is a willow used in basket-making.
Archaeologist Bob Silvester suggests that the term ''roddon'' is more popular among local writers such as Fowler (1932), Darby (1940), Phillips (1970), and
Harry Godwin
Sir Harry Godwin, FRS (9 May 1901 – 12 August 1985) was a prominent English botanist and ecologist of the 20th century. He is considered to be an influential peatland scientist, who coined the phrase "peat archives" in 1981. He had a long ass ...
(1978), though ''rodham'' is acknowledged by Godwin. Silvester notes that Astbury (1958) and e.g. Seale (1975) ''Soil survey of Cambridgeshire'' preferred the term ''rodham''. ''Roddam'' is used by Egar (1897) and also by
Skertchly (1877); in Skertchly's case, as a local term "used only in the
Isle of Ely
The Isle of Ely () is a historic region around the city of Ely in Cambridgeshire, England. Between 1889 and 1965, it formed an administrative county.
Etymology
Its name has been said to mean "island of eels", a reference to the creatures that ...
". The ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
'' quotes an even earlier written source of ''roddam'' as Wright (1857). Toponymist Richard Coates (2005) agrees that whilst roddon is now the normal geographical term, the older form, ''–(h)am'', rejected by Fowler, was in fact the correct local term, and writers who followed Fowler are wrong. Astbury goes further, quoting Clarke (1852) discussing "veins of silt" as silted-up creeks, which Astbury claims are ''rodham''s, though Clarke does not use that term.
Journalist A K Astbury (1987) also examines the word ''roddin'', which means a rough path or a track trodden by sheep. He says that in north
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...
, a ''roading'' is a private and little-used road. Astbury agrees that later writers have adopted Fowler's spelling though he still maintains that fenmen call such silted-up old river beds ''rodhams''. None of the different spelling variations of roddon is found in Robert Forby's ''The Vocabulary of East Anglia''.
Formation
Carbon dating of
bog oak
Bog-wood (also spelled bogwood or bog wood), also known as abonos and, especially amongst pipe smokers, as morta, is a material from trees that have been buried in peat bogs and preserved from decay by the acidic and anaerobic bog conditions, some ...
found in the
Fen Edge peat of Adventurers Fen near
Wicken, almost from the nearest present-day coast at
Kings Lynn
King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, no ...
, suggests the peat in this area was formed by a large marine incursion in about 2400 BC. The Nordelph peat, which covers a large area of fenland, including most of the Ely district, began forming around 4000
BP. Sampling of roddons in the area has confirmed that they were formed from the mid– to late–
Holocene
The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togethe ...
age — 6000–2000 BP. The raised and layered banks of silt in a roddon contain mostly
estuarine
An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...
foraminifera
Foraminifera (; Latin for "hole bearers"; informally called "forams") are single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class of amoeboid protists characterized by streaming granular Ectoplasm (cell biology), ectoplasm for catching food and ot ...
and
ostracod
Ostracods, or ostracodes, are a class of the Crustacea (class Ostracoda), sometimes known as seed shrimp. Some 70,000 species (only 13,000 of which are extant) have been identified, grouped into several orders. They are small crustaceans, typic ...
s, which suggests that the silt was deposited through tidal processes.
The raised nature of the roddon is debated. The archaeologist Major Gordon Fowler explained these are due to the extensive drainage of the fens, and "differential shrinkage" of the silt bed and the surrounding peat. Harry Godwin noted that near the
Holme Fen
Holme Fen is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest near Holme in Cambridgeshire. It is also a National Nature Reserve and a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I. It is part of the Great Fen project, which aims to create a 3,700 w ...
post the peat surface stood above
ordnance datum
In the British Isles, an ordnance datum or OD is a vertical datum used by an ordnance survey as the basis for deriving altitudes on maps. A spot height may be expressed as AOD for "above ordnance datum". Usually mean sea level (MSL) is used fo ...
(OD) in 1848 with the clay of the fen floor about below OD. In 1957 Godwin reported the peat surface at the same post below OD — a shrinkage of in 109 years. The peat is now below OD in the area. The cause of the shrinking is due to a combination of drying out, trench cutting for peat-fuel, biological oxidation and surface burning associated with arable farming.
Godwin suggests that roddons were formed in the
Romano-British
The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, a ...
age (AD 43–500) during a second and less severe marine incursion, which left extensive silt deposits on the seaward parts of the fens and "silt deposition up the main rivers", forming raised banks or
levees
A levee (), dike (American English), dyke (Commonwealth English), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is a structure that is usually earthen and that often runs parallel to the course of a river in its floodplain or along low-lying coastlin ...
. Dinah Smith agrees with Fowler, suggesting that the raised nature of the silt banks are due to the "subsidence" of the surrounding area, mainly caused by human activity, such as agriculture and drainage. These have permanently changed the environment, and future marine incursions may not have the same effects as historical ones.
Settlements
In recounting the building practices of the local area, Astbury notes that major structures such as the monasteries at
Ely Ely or ELY may refer to:
Places Ireland
* Éile, a medieval kingdom commonly anglicised Ely
* Ely Place, Dublin, a street
United Kingdom
* Ely, Cambridgeshire, a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, England
** Ely Cathedral
Ely Cathedral, formal ...
,
Thorney and
Crowland
Crowland (modern usage) or Croyland (medieval era name and the one still in ecclesiastical use; cf. la, Croilandia) is a town in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated between Peterborough and Spalding. Crowland c ...
were built on islands or ridges. These structures rest on
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...
Lower Greensand
The Lower Greensand Group is a geological unit present across large areas of Southern England. It was deposited during the Aptian and Albian stages of the Early Cretaceous. It predominantly consists of sandstone and unconsolidated sand that were ...
that overlie
Jurassic
The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...
period
Kimmeridge
Kimmeridge () is a small village and civil parish on the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula on the English Channel coast in Dorset, England. It is situated about south of Wareham and west of Swanage. In 2013 the estimated population of the civil p ...
on top of Jurassic period
Ampthill
Ampthill () is a town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, between Bedford and Luton, with a population estimate of 8,100 (Mid year estimate 2017 from the ONS). It is administered bAmpthill Town Council The ward of Ampthill which also i ...
clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
s. For example, the village of
Little Thetford
Little Thetford is a small village in the civil parish of Thetford, south of Ely in Cambridgeshire, England, about by road from London. The village is built on a boulder clay island surrounded by flat fenland countryside, typical of settle ...
, south of Ely, lies at about above sea-level, and sits largely on an island of Kimmeridge Clay, a Jurassic
shallow-water shelf-sea deposit. Underlying the Kimmeridge Clay are older Jurassic clays, which also contain thin beds of
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
and
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
.
Buildings can and have been erected on peat although it is a poor founding material. Older houses, in the area of Burnt Fen near
Littleport, Cambridgeshire
Littleport is a large village in East Cambridgeshire, in the Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. It lies about north-east of Ely and south-east of Welney, on the Bedford Level South section of the River Great Ouse, close to Burnt Fen a ...
, were built on peat whilst more modern buildings in the same area are built on concrete raft foundations floating on the peat.
In contrast,
Benwick
Benwick is a village and civil parish in the Fenland district of Cambridgeshire, England. It is approximately from Peterborough and from Cambridge. The population of Benwick was recorded as 1137 in the United Kingdom Census 2011 with 452 hou ...
, north-west of Ely, is an example of a settlement built on a roddon
of the old West Water. "Once described as the 'only village on the peat, Benwick's High Street is built on a roddon.
The roddon
that was the course of the
River Great Ouse
The River Great Ouse () is a river in England, the longest of several British rivers called "Ouse". From Syresham in Northamptonshire, the Great Ouse flows through Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk to drain into the Wa ...
forms a base for the very small hamlet of
Prickwillow
Prickwillow is a village in East Cambridgeshire with an estimated population of 440. Originally a small hamlet on the banks of the River Great Ouse, it is now on the banks of the River Lark since re-organisation of the river system. It lies in th ...
, north-east of Ely.
Wisbech St Mary
Wisbech St Mary is a village in the Fenland District of Cambridgeshire, England. It is west of the town of Wisbech. It lies between two roads, the B1169 and the A47. The population of the civil parish (including Guyhirn and Thorney Toll) at th ...
, a small village west of
Wisbech
Wisbech ( ) is a market town, inland Port of Wisbech, port and civil parish in the Fenland District, Fenland district in Cambridgeshire, England. In 2011 it had a population of 31,573. The town lies in the far north-east of Cambridgeshire, bord ...
is built on a roddon. Spaindelf Farm is built on the dried out bed of the Little Ouse.
A roddon noted by Fowler in 1932 at Rodham Farm, north-east of
March, Cambridgeshire
March is a Fenland market town and civil parish in the Isle of Ely area of Cambridgeshire, England. It was the county town of the Isle of Ely which was a separate administrative county from 1889 to 1965. The administrative centre of Fenland ...
was exposed in a pit just east of the farm cottage. At that time, this roddon was above the nearby peat and was wide on its curved surface. It was once thought to be an ancient gravel track. Piles need to be used on the sides of dykes that cut through large roddons to prevent the silt of the roddon collapsing into the dyke.
References
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* {{Cite journal , last= Willmoth, first=Frances, date=October 1998, volume=71, issue=176, pages=281–302, title=Dugdale's History of Imbanking and Drayning: a 'Royalist' Antiquarian in the Sixteen-Fifties, journal= Historical Research, doi=10.1111/1468-2281.00065
Sedimentology