| HOLME FEN, WHITTLESEA MERE and the SOUTHERN FENS |
| BACKGROUND HISTORY TO THIS AREA To the right, is one of the metal supports from the Great Exhibition in London in 1851. Rumour has it that a number of the posts were bought by a William Wells for another use. He was the later inspiration for the Admiral Wells public house at Holme. A left over post was sunk into the Mere to get rid of it and not as a depth marker. It was sunk into the Mere with the platform at the top, underneath the cone, level with the water in the mere. Since that time the mere has been drained, the peat dried out and shrunk down, and silver birch trees have grown. The peat is still shrinking at the rate of about 0.75 inch per year. It is within living memory that years ago, the level of the peat was so high that it was possible to leap frog over the top of the post. When the Mere was drained a number of strange items were found in the soft peat, these included a pike that weighed 52 lb, the skeleton of a whale, and an ancient dugout canoe. There was also a number valuables that were traced to have originated from Ramsey Abbey, and it was assumed that they were lost overboard from a boat when the Monks fled from the Abbey after the dissolution in 1539 |
DIRECTIONS TO THE POSTS IN HOLME FEN (There is no entrance charge) From Peterborough. Travel South to Yaxley, and then follow the directions to Holme village, You are then travelling on a tarmac road across a flat black fen. (You should have a railway line on your far left, and beyond that an area of silver birch frees) After about two miles, turn left about a quarter of a Mile short of Holme Village, and go over a railway crossing. You should then have silver birch tress on both sides the road. After a few hundred yards the posts will be seen in the silver birch trees on the right. This area is owned by English Nature, and is regarded as being the largest area of silver birch tress in the Britain. From the A1 (Great North Road) Turn off left at the Norman Cross Flyover to the west of Peterborough. It matters not whether you are travelling south or north. Follow the signs to Holme Village, travel through the village, but turn left just before the railway crossing, Travel for about a quarter of a mile, turn right and over the railway crossing. You should have silver birch trees on both side of the road. This was originally the mere. After a few hundred yards the posts on the right will be seen in the silver birch trees. which are regarded as being the largest silver birch plantation in England. This area is owned by English Nature, and still includes a few small areas of the original Mere [main Index] [Top] |
| The above post is one of a cluster and is not in a hole, but on a flat fen in all directions, with the current water level in a nearby drain even lower. |
| Below: Is the top of the another post at Holme Fen nearby to the one on the above right |
| To the south at the edge of the Fens is the town of Warboys with its well known clock tower at a road junction. This brick tower was erected in 1887 to commemorate Queen Victoria's Silver Jubilee |
The Fen men learned to respect their water filled wilderness, as it controlled their lives and deaths. They told themselves that water was nothing more than just heavy air that you cannot breath and it was just a material that provided them with a living, so they did not become transfixed by it's hypnotic qualities, instead they just looked up to the distant hills and dreamed. |
| Go to: - Drainage of the Fens - Nene - Top |
| It must be remembered that when the below map was drawn when there was no Railway Line or Motor vehicles, and merchandise including coal was moved by boat . |
| THE ROMAN FENS The actual fens had no Roman Roads, but there were two that skirted the western fringes. One is now known as 'Kings Street' that travelled from London and Lincoln, went through Sleaford and west of Paperbrough through the Deepings, and the other known as Ermine Street which travelled through Lincoln and came nearest to the fens as it travelled through Great Casterton west of Stamford towards London. On the southern edge of the Fens, the Romans created a town were Ermine Street (The Great North Road) crossed the river OUSE, and they called it Godmanchester, on the Western edge of the Fens they built a town and crossed the Nene at a place called Caster, and the Witham was crossed at Lincoln. It would appear that early fen men used watercourses to traverse the Fens, but the Romans were responsible for creating the Foss Dyke and the Car Dyke which in those days would have been canals. Carr Dyke (Canal) did in fact travel further east than the roads, but still stuck to western fringes of the fens. On Roman times, the fens were a water filled marsh, and travel across the fens was best undertaken by water borne craft, and this water was generally shallow, so the early Fen men travelled by 'Skerries', 'Carricks', 'Punts' and other flat bottomed craft. |
| IF you disagree with any of the above facts - Please let is know by clicking here To see what English Nature has to say about Holme Fen: Click here |
| Click to go to: Main Page - Peat Fens -Top of Page |
| HOLME FEN POSTS |
| WHITTLESEA MERE (ANCIENT MAP) Whittlesea Mere: was a large lake about 2.5 miles wide and about 1.75 miles long. It covered an area of about 1,600 acres of peat in the summer, and spread to about 3,000 acres in the winter months. When it froze over in the winter time, skating took place. In the summertime it was a boating lake. |
| ^ N O R T H |
| ^ Peterborough and Main Fens |
| See modern aerial view of above location. Please note: Fen Posts are on the left of the silver birch wood (grey) area in the centre of the picture and also note the areas of existing Mere. |
| EARLY HISTORY OF THE FENS. Prior to man's occupation of the Fens, and going back may years, rumour has it that the shallow depression we know as the fens was caused by an earthquake. The Chalk rocks of Norfolk and Lincolnshire were joined together across the entrance to the Wash between the locations currently occupied by Skegness and Hunstanton, which of course would have meant that the Fens were a large lake, or inland sea. The chalk cliffs at Hunstanton give testament to this. The water built up to such an extent in the Fenland Lake that it forced a way through the low chalk hills to the sea, and eventually created the mouth of the Wash as wide as it today. This all happened long before the last ice age, and even after the ice age although boulder clay blocked the outward flow for a short time, the water soon ran out to sea again. Great beasts roamed The Fens during this period, these included the Hippopotamus and Rhineceros. The only remaining remnants of this land-locked lake left were Meres around the Fens, of which Whittlesay Mere (above) was the largest. Early man started to encrouch on the fens, and because the ground was soft and marshy, they were forced to move around on stilts, except in harsh winters when the marshes froze over, then they moved around on bone skates. Lodes were created to drain the water into the main rivers. It is hard to realise but up to about 300 years ago, the area resembled an inland sea in the wintertime, and notorious area of swamps and reed covered islands in the summer, when most of the open water could be found in the meres (lakes). The reeds would wave like corn in the wind, and the main inhabitants would be hundreds of starlings. In addition, the area would be inhabited by Teal, Mallard, Ruff, Reeves, Herons, Osprey's and Bustards. |
| Note: The woman in the picture is about 5' 4" tall, and the platform is recorded as being 14 feet from the current ground level |