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| PRONUNCIATION BY FEN PEOPLE Years ago the Language of the Fens is regarded as being the true English when many other people in the United Kingdom were still communicating in Latin and French. Today, the Fen Folk are regarded has having a strange dialect that is a long way from the Queen's English. Much of the original dialect has now disappeared in general conversation, but the place names still reflect much of this dialect. ASCOUGHFEE HALL at Spalding built in 1429 is pronounced 'As-coff-fee Hall' COWBIT is pronounced 'Cubbit' CROWLAND (or Croyland) - Means a soft and muddy place, and has no link to the bird of the same name. PODE HOLE was originally called 'Pode Hall' QUADRING is pronounced 'Kwaydring'. |
| DETERMINATION OF THE FEN PEOPLE Many citizens of the UK, regard Fen People as those 'Carrot Crunchers from the East of England', and the Fens as a 'flat treeless damp boring place', neither can be further from the truth. The Fens can be a flat damp place, but are interesting rather than boring (Go to FENLAND INTRIGUE and see the Fens in their best clothes). Early fenland people were the closest human form of the amphibian. The Fen People are a determined people, and a friendly people. Who would sooner have 100 friends than a £100,000 in the bank, who live in a place where the stillness is only broken by bird song. Where there is no carbon monoxide, other than that dispersed by a few tractors or combine harvesters at the appropriate time of the year. They are far from being 'stuck-in-the-mud' of time. In the past Fen People lived in a flat and wet landscape, which was a refuge by everyone who wished to reject authority, in an area that if the water did not rush in from the North Sea and drown them, then the land borne forces like the Normans, and Vikings, would get them and kill them. The Fen People found this a real test of character. But the Fen People were up to the challenge, they used to avoid the water by going to higher ground (those that did not drown), then returning to their homes when the water receded to continue with their living. They hid in the marshes, when the land borne hordes and insurgents invaded their area. Nobody wanted the way they lived, but everyone wanted the area they lived in. No wonder Cromwell befriended then and enlisted them in his army, because of their ferociousness and stubborn determination. The ultimate trick for the Fen People was to get the eels and fish to market in London while they were still fresh, and this was undertaken by keeping them alive in barrels of water. Vermuyden soon discovered the tenacity of these Fen People when he tried to drain the fens and take away their livelihood. After accepting the draining, the real test of character for the Fen People was to admit the inevitable, and turn the fens into arable land, as they had no water they were forced to change from their occupations of fishing, duck hunting, eel catching and reed collecting, to growing things like sugar beet, cultivating cornfields, harvesting potatoes, and breeding livestock. In other words they turned their water wonderland, into a large food larder. The Fen Men (and Women) still provide the bulk of food for United Kingdom and transport it where it is needed most. But the final test of character is still to come. With global warming and the risk of North sea rushing in once again, the Fen People will cope somehow, but will the residents of the United Kingdom show their gratitude rather than their condemnation for this determination. |
FAMOUS FENLAND PEOPLE 1. Matthew Flinders - Is Life and Voyages - He was regarded as a renowned navigator of the nineteenth century, and lived at Donington, near Spalding, Lincolnshire, where he attended the Thomas Cowley Grammar School in the late seventeen hundreds As a young seaman, he spent his early life on HMS's Scipio, Alert, and Bellerophon. He later served on the Providence, which was under the command of Captain Bligh of the Bounty fame, and went on to travel throughout the world's oceans. There is now a stained glass window in Lincoln Cathedral which depicts Matthew Flinders, and commemorates his exploits. 2. Peter Scott - Painter and Naturalist - Not many people know that Peter Scott once lived in a lighthouse on the edge of The Wash at Sutton Bridge. The story goes that he started life shooting ducks, and finished his life preserving duck life. The Lighthouse on the edge of The Wash was next to the largest mud flats in the UK and was inhabited by many thousands of ducks. He was instrumental in the formation of the Slimbridge Naturalist Trust on the Banks of the Severn, and also a reserve on the Ouse Marshes, near Welney, where he engaged a G H (Jose) Scott as the Warden (author of 'From Guns to Binoculars' - In stock but not listed on our internet database). He also engaged a Mackenzie Thorpe to look after his ducks when he was absent from Sutton Bridge. The story goes that what changed Scott from shooting ducks to preserving them is based in the fact, he was out shooting one day, and when he returned the next day, one of the ducks he had shot was still alive. Scott is reputed to be instrumental in the formation of the Peakirk Wild Fowl Trustee (Sutton Bridge Walk). 3. Pilgrim Fathers: Venturers For The Kingdom - The Pilgrim Fathers are the most famous of all people who once resided in the Lincolnshire Fens (See Mayflower) 4. MacKenzie Thorpe 'Kenzie': Thorpe lived in a houseboat in a corner of The Wash near Holbeach Marsh and was a well known wildfowler in the area. On his death, his houseboat was burned with all his belongings which is part of Gypsy tradition. Thorpe was the proverbial Poacher-cum-Gamekeeper. Peter Scott enlisted Thorpe's help to look after his ducks at Sutton Bridge, after Scott and a Davig Haig Thomas, both undergraduates at Cambridge, had a confrontation with him. At the time 'Kenzie' was reputed to be the Middle-Weight Boxing Champion of Lincolnshire, and was the son of a Gypsy. Later, when Peter Scott was painting, 'Kenzie' thought that painting wildlife was a good idea, and produced 'genuine Peter Scott paintings' for visitors to the lighthouse. 5. The original Duke of Bedford employed many engineers, the most famous being the Dutchman Cornelius Vermuyden who commenced to drain the fens, and was instrumental in constructing the twin rivers that by-passed the Ouse, and ran from Earith to Denver in the Fens. These rivers which still exist today and are called the 'Bedford Levels' 6. George Bass although better known as a sailor/explorer was in fact a naval surgeon and born in Lincolnshire (UK). He is known to be involved in the exploration of Australia on a boat called The Reliance, at one time he was a shipmate of Matthew Flinders (mentioned above). He was eventually drowned off the coast of Tasmania in 1803. |
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| A typical example of 'Fenland Murk', the local name for a wet grey mist that comes off the North Sea. |
| Typical misty morning along a man made fenland waterway, which can be claustrophobic. |