Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for BEDFORD LEVEL

BEDFORD LEVEL, an extensive marshy flat, in Norfolk, Suffolk, Huntingdon, Northampton, Lincoln, and Cambridge. It includes about 63,000 acres in Norfolk, 30,000 in Suffolk, 50,000 in Huntingdon, Peterborough fen in Northampton, the parts of Holland in Lincoln, and nearly all the isle of Ely in Cambridge; and comprises altogether about 400,000 acres. It was anciently covered with forest; was disforested by the Romans, and intersected by a Roman road; was afterwards brought into a state of high cultivation; was laid waste, in the 13th century, by repeated inundations of the sea; and settled into a mixture of morass and lake, in some places 20 feet deep, and in some parts navigated by boats. Repeated attempts were made to drain it, especially in the reign of Henry VI. and in the early part of the reign of Charles I., but without success. Another and better attempt was begun in 1649 by the fourth Earl of Bedford. A company was then formed to effect and maintain drainage; was incorporated in 1664; and has continued to act till the present day. Great cuts, called the Old and New Bedford rivers, Bevil's river, Sam's cut, Peakirk, South-eau, Sixteen-Feet counter, South Holland drain, and North Level drain were formed; numerous small cuts also were made; old embankments were strengthened and improved; new embankments were thrown up; and extensive tracts of pasture and corn-land were reclaimed.

The Bedford Level was divided, in 1695, into the North, Middle, and South Levels. The North has its drainage by the Nen; the Middle and the South, by the Ouse; and the three, in some great respects, have competing interests. The first was put under separate management from the others in 1753; and the second also has recently been proposed to be put under separate management from the third. One of the earliest and chief works of the corporation was a sluice across the Ouse at Denver, about 12 miles above Lynn. This consists of folding doors set in strong brick-work, and so constructed as to be opened by the fresh water when the tide runs out, and shut by the salt water when the tide comes in; and it was formed entirely with a view to drainage, and possessed the advantage that the banks above it did not require to be strong enough to resist the weight and surge of the sea-water, or high enough to prevent an overflow by an unusually high tide. But the sluice was soon supposed to be injurious to navigation, particularly by occasioning a choking of Lynn harbour; and it gave rise to sharp controversy. It was subject, however, to a gradual undermining of its brick-work by the action of the tides; it suddenly "blew up" in 1713; it lay in ruin till 1750; and it then, in spite of strong opposition, was rebuilt. The numerous and extensive works on the Middle and South Levels, till this time and later, failed to make the drainage good, and were accompanied by increasing obstruction to the navigation of the Ouse. An opinion gained ground that the bad state of both drainage and navigation arose from the width, shallowness, and circuitousness of the river's course from Eau Brink to Lynn, and would be corrected by the forming of a straight cut between these points. Such a cut was authorized by an act of 1795, but not completed till 1821; and it answered the expectations of its promoters. Other works, connected with it, were authorized by subsequent acts, and have been found highly beneficial. A chief of these bears the name of the Middle Level drain; is about 11 miles long, and perfectly straight; was completed in 1852, at a cost of upwards of £400,000; has its outfall into Ean Brink cut, about 3 miles above Lynn, by a sluice which cost £30,000; and was formed entirely for drainage, without reference to navigation. This drain, though made solely for the benefit of the Middle Level, traverses the fen territory of Marshland, which lies between Wisbeach and Lynn, forms no part of the Bedford Level, and was reclaimed, about the beginning of the present century, from a state of swamp, into a state of fertile corn land. On the 4th of May 1862, the sluice "blew up," the drain was swept by the tide, and the banks, which had been constructed to resist only the fresh-water from above, threatened to give way. Vigorous attempts were made to form a dam across the drain, but they failed; and on the 12th, under the weight of a high spring tide, the west bank broke to the extent of about 210 feet, allowing the roaring surge to pour, with spreading flood, over the adjoining lands; and for the next eleven days, at every tide, the inundation continued to go on till nearly 10,000 acres became submerged. The remedy required only the reconstruction of the sluice and the reparation of the breach in the bank, there being a complete system of drainage throughout the lands themselves; yet it was a work of great difficulty and much expense.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "an extensive marshy flat"   (ADL Feature Type: "wetlands")
Administrative units: Cambridgeshire AncC       Huntingdonshire AncC       Lincolnshire AncC       Norfolk AncC       Northamptonshire AncC       Suffolk AncC
Place: Bedford Level

Go to the linked place page for a location map, and for access to other historical writing about the place. Pages for linked administrative units may contain historical statistics and information on boundaries.