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===Early modern attempts to drain the Fens=== {{See also|Twenty, Lincolnshire|Bedford Level Corporation}} Though some signs of Roman hydraulics survive, and there were also some medieval drainage works, land drainage was begun in earnest during the 1630s by the various investors who had contracts with [[Charles I of England|King Charles I]] to do so.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.greatfen.org.uk/heritage/drained-fens|title=The drained fens|website=Greatfen.org.uk|language=en|access-date=2019-09-20}}</ref> The leader of one of these syndicates was the Earl of Bedford, who employed [[Cornelius Vermuyden]] as engineer. Contrary to popular belief, Vermuyden was not involved with the draining of the Great Fen in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk in the 1630s, but only became involved with the second phase of construction in the 1650s.<ref>Margaret Albright Knittl, "The design for the initial drainage of the Great Level of the Fens: an historical whodunit in three parts", ''Agricultural History Review'', 55:1 (2007), pp. 23β50. [http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=18823993 Abstract] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721002301/http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=18823993 |date=21 July 2011 }}</ref> The scheme was imposed despite huge opposition from locals who were losing their livelihoods based on fishing and wildfowling. Fenmen known as the Fen Tigers tried to sabotage the drainage efforts. Two cuts were made in the Cambridgeshire Fens to join the [[River Great Ouse]] to the sea at King's Lynn β the [[Old Bedford River]] and the [[New Bedford River]], the latter being known also as the ''Hundred Foot Drain''. Both cuts were named after the [[Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford|Fourth Earl of Bedford]] who, along with some ''gentlemen adventurers'' ([[venture capitalist]]s), funded the construction and were rewarded with large grants of the resulting farmland. The work was directed by engineers from the [[Low Countries]]. Following this initial drainage, the Fens were still extremely susceptible to flooding, so [[windpump]]s were used to pump water away from affected areas. The Company of Adventurers were more formally incorporated in 1663 as the [[Bedford Level Corporation]]. However, their success was short-lived. Once drained of water, the peat shrank, and the fields lowered further. The more effectively they were drained, the worse the problem became, and soon the fields were lower than the surrounding rivers. By the end of the 17th century, the land was under water once again. Though the three Bedford Levels together formed the biggest scheme, they were not the only ones. [[Robert Bertie, 1st Earl of Lindsey|Lord Lindsey]] and his partner [[William Killigrew (1606β1695)|Sir William Killigrew]] had the Lindsey Level inhabited by farmers by 1638, but the onset of the [[English Civil War|Civil War]] permitted the destruction of the works until the [[act of Parliament]] that led to the formation of the Black Sluice Commissioners, the [[Black Sluice Drainage Act 1765]] ([[5 Geo. 3]]. c. ''86'').<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.blacksluiceidb.gov.uk/the-drainage-board/history.html |title=Historyof the Black Sluice Internal Drainage Board |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110428032212/http://www.blacksluiceidb.gov.uk/the-drainage-board/history.html |archive-date=28 April 2011 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> [[File:Stretham Old Engine.JPG|thumb|right|[[Stretham Old Engine]],<br />alongside the River Great Ouse]] Many original records of the Bedford Level Corporation, including maps of the Levels, are now held by [[Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies]] Service at the County Record Office in Cambridge.
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