Fenland Its Ancient Past and Uncertain Future

About this book

The features so characteristic of the Fenland, its flatness, its flooding, its vast stretches of silt land and black peat, its drainage channels, meres, buried forests, abundant water fowl and aquatic plants, its special crops, all relate to the special conditions in which the Fenland was formed and ultimately was taken over by man. This is the story, by one of the active participants, of how the researches of natural scientists, biologists, geologists, geographers, historians and archaeologists, over the last fifty years have, by active co-operation and the use of modern techniques, reconstructed Fenland history through the last 10,000 years and have provided fresh understanding both of its ancient past and its uncertain future. It is the only such synthesis for either specialist or general reader in a hundred years and it is written in simple non-technical language and fully illustrated both by photographs and drawings.

Contents

Acknowledgements

1. Introduction
2. Ecological background
3. Pollen analysis
4. Bog oaks and buried forests
5. Flandrian deposits and the Fenland Research Committee
6. Shippea Hill and the natural bed of the River Little Ouse
7. The Lower Peat and the Fen Clay
8. The Upper Peat: hoards and trackways
9. Iron Age hiatus, roddons and Romans
10. Extinct meres and shell-marl
11. Conspectus and historical framework
12. Peat and its winning
13. The loss of the peat: shrinkage and wastage
14. Fenland drainage
15. Ancient crops, natural and cultivated
16. Lost and vanishing species: conservation

References
Index

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