Editing The Fens (section)

==History==

===Pre-Roman settlement===
There is evidence of human settlement near the Fens from the [[Mesolithic]] on.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.fensforthefuture.org.uk/the-fens/heritage|title=Archaeology of the Fens|last=Studio|first=Root|website=Fens for the Future|access-date=2019-09-20}}</ref> The evidence suggests that Mesolithic settlement in Cambridgeshire was particularly along the fen edges and on the low islands within the fens, to take advantage of the hunting and fishing opportunities of the wetlands.<ref>Christopher Taylor. ''The Cambridgeshire Landscape''. Hodder and Stroughton, London, 1973. p30.</ref> Internationally important sites include [[Flag Fen]] and [[Must Farm]] quarry Bronze Age settlement and [[Stonea Camp]].

===Roman farming and engineering===
The Romans constructed the [[Fen Causeway]], a road across the Fens to link what later became [[East Anglia]] with what later became central England; it runs between [[Denver, Norfolk|Denver]] and [[Peterborough]]. They also linked [[Cambridge]] and [[Ely, Cambridgeshire|Ely]]. Generally, their road system avoided the Fens, except for minor roads designed for exporting the products of the region, especially salt, beef and leather. Sheep were probably raised on the higher ground of the Townlands and fen islands, then as in the early 19th century. There may have been some drainage efforts during the Roman period, including the [[Car Dyke]] along the western edge of the Fenland between Peterborough and Lincolnshire, but most canals were constructed for transportation.<ref name="John Coles 1994"/>

How far seaward the Roman settlement extended is unclear owing to the deposits laid down above them during later floods.
[[File:Williamson p16 3.svg|thumb|The [[Kingdom of East Anglia]] during the early [[Anglo-Saxon period]], showing the approximate coastline and the Fens at the time]]

===Early post-Roman settlements===
The early post-Roman settlements were made on the [[Townlands]]. It is clear that there was some prosperity there, particularly where rivers permitted access to the upland beyond the fen. Such places were [[Wisbech]], [[Spalding, Lincolnshire|Spalding]], Swineshead and Boston. All the Townlands parishes were laid out as elongated strips, to provide access to the products of fen, marsh and sea. On the fen edge, parishes are similarly elongated to provide access to both upland and fen. The townships are therefore often nearer to each other than they are to the distant farms in their own parishes.

===Early Middle Ages and Middle Ages===
After the end of Roman Britain, there is a break in written records. It is thought that some [[Iceni]] may have moved west into the Fens to avoid the [[Angles (tribe)|Angles]], who were migrating across the North Sea from [[Angeln]] (modern [[Schleswig]]) and settling what would become [[East Anglia]]. Surrounded by water and marshes, the Fens provided a safe area that was easily defended and not particularly desirable to invading [[Anglo-Saxons]].

It has been proposed that the names of [[West Walton]], [[Walsoken]] and [[Walpole, Norfolk|Walpole]] suggest the native British population, with the ''Wal-'' coming from the Old English ''walh'', meaning "foreigner".<ref>Simon Young, ''AD500'' p.245 (Notes & Sources) references ''Life of [[Saint Guthlac]]'' (Cambridge University Press 1956), pp. 108–11.</ref> However, the villages are in close proximity to the old Roman sea wall, so the ''wal-'' element is more probably from ''wal'' or ''weal'', meaning "wall". ''Walton'' is generally believed to mean "wall-town",<ref name="ReferenceA">''A Popular Guide to Norfolk Place-names'', by James Rye: Dereham, Norfolk: Larks Press, 2000; {{ISBN|0-948400-15-3}}</ref> ''Walsoken'' to mean "the district under particular jurisdiction by the wall",<ref name="ReferenceA"/> and ''Walpole'' to mean simply "wall-pole" (Old English ''wal'' and ''pal'').<ref>{{Cite book|last=Blackie|first=Christina|url=http://archive.org/details/geographicaletym00blacuoft|title=Geographical etymology. A dictionary of place-names giving their derivations|date=1887|place=London |publisher= J. Murray}}</ref>

When written records resume in Anglo-Saxon England, the names of a number of peoples of the Fens are recorded in the [[Tribal Hidage]] and Christian histories. They include North [[Gyrwas|Gyrwe]] (Peterborough and Crowland), South Gyrwe (Ely), the Spalda (Spalding), and Bilmingas (part of south Lincolnshire).

In the early Christian period of Anglo-Saxon England, a number of Christians sought the isolation that could be found in the wilderness of the Fens. Later classified as saints, often with close royal links, they include [[Guthlac]], [[Etheldreda]], [[Pega]], and [[Wendreda]]. Hermitages on the islands became centres of communities which later developed as monasteries with massive estates. In the ''[[Life of Saint Guthlac]]'', a biography of the East Anglian [[hermit]] who lived in the Fens during the early 8th century, Saint Guthlac was described as attacked on several occasions by people he believed were [[Britons]], who were then living in the Fens. However, Bertram Colgrave, in the introduction to one edition, doubts this account, because of the lack of evidence of British survival in the region. British place names in the area are "very few".<ref>{{Cite book|editor= Bertram Colgrave|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Gs4AAAAIAAJ&q=Britons%2520in%2520the%2520Fens&pg=PA1|title=Felix's Life of Saint Guthlac: Texts, Translation and Notes|date=1985|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-31386-5|page=1}}</ref>

Monastic life was disrupted by Danish (Anglo-Saxon) raids and centuries of settlement from the 6th century but was revived in the mid-10th-century monastic revival. In the 11th century, the whole area was incorporated into a united [[Anglo-Saxon England]]. The Fens remained a place of refuge and intrigue. It was here that [[Alfred Aetheling]] was brought to be murdered and here where [[Hereward the Wake]] based his insurgency against [[Norman England]].

Fenland monastic houses include the so-called ''Fen Five'' ([[Ely Cathedral|Ely Cathedral Priory]], [[Thorney Abbey]], [[Croyland Abbey]], [[Ramsey Abbey]] and [[Peterborough Cathedral|Peterborough Abbey]])<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.le.ac.uk/ulas/projects/thorney.html | title = ULAS – Thorney | access-date = 17 March 2011 | date = 26 February 2007 | publisher = University of Leicester Archaeological Services | archive-date = 18 December 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141218151813/http://www.le.ac.uk/ulas/projects/thorney.html | url-status = dead }}</ref> as well as [[Spalding Priory]]. As major landowners, the monasteries played a significant part in the early efforts at drainage of the Fens.

====Royal Forest====
During most of the 12th century and the early 13th century, the south Lincolnshire fens were [[Royal Forest|afforested]]. The area was enclosed by a line from Spalding, along the River Welland to [[Market Deeping]], then along the Car Dyke to [[Dowsby]] and across the fens to the Welland. It was deforested in the early 13th century. There is little agreement as to the exact dates of the establishment and demise of the forest, but it seems likely that the deforestation was connected with the [[Magna Carta]] or one of its early 13th-century restatements, though it may have been as late as 1240. The forest would have affected the economies of the townships around it and it appears that the present [[Bourne Eau]] was constructed at the time of the [[deforestation]], as [[Bourne, Lincolnshire|the town]] seems to have joined in the general prosperity by about 1280.

Though the forest was about half in [[Holland, Lincolnshire|Holland (Lincolnshire)]] and half in [[Kesteven]], it is known as Kesteven Forest.<ref>{{cite AV media|url=http://info.sjc.ox.ac.uk/forests/ForestsMapTileSheet123.html|title=Forest Map near Kesteven | type= image |website=info.sjc.ox.ac.uk|access-date=19 March 2018}}</ref>