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The Fens, also known as the , is a naturally marshy region in eastern England. Most of the fens were drained several centuries ago, resulting in a flat, damp, low-lying agricultural region. A ''fen'' is the local name for an individual area of marshland or former marshland and also designates the type of marsh typical of the area, which has neutral or alkaline water chemistry and relatively large quantities of dissolved minerals, but few other plant nutrients. Fenland primarily lies around the coast of the Wash; it reaches into four ceremonial counties: Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and a small area of Suffolk, as well as the historic county of Huntingdonshire. In whole it occupies an area of nearly .〔It is debated whether this area includes the fen areas of north Lincolnshire, such as the Isle of Axholme. Some scholars, such as Keith Lindley, include the Isle of Axholme as part of the Fenland as it has the same kind of environment and a similar environmental and social history. However, it is not contiguous with the rest of the East Anglian Fenland, nor was its drainage ever jointly organised with that of any of the main Fenland drainage areas.〕 Most of the Fenland lies within a few metres of sea level. As with similar areas in the Netherlands, much of the Fenland originally consisted of fresh- or salt-water wetlands, which have been artificially drained and continue to be protected from floods by drainage banks and pumps. With the support of this drainage system, the Fenland has become a major arable agricultural region in Britain for grains and vegetables. The Fens are particularly fertile, containing around half of the grade 1 agricultural land in England. The Fens have been referred to as the "Holy Land of the English" because of the churches and cathedrals of Ely, Ramsey, Crowland, Thorney and Peterborough. Other significant settlements in the Fens include Boston, Spalding, Wisbech and King's Lynn. ==Background: historical flooding and drainage== The Fens are very low-lying compared with the chalk and limestone uplands that surround them – in most places no more than 10 m above sea level. Indeed, as a result of drainage and the subsequent shrinkage of the peat fens, many parts of the Fens now lie below mean sea level. Although one writer in the 17th century described the Fenland as entirely above sea level (in contrast to the Netherlands),〔H. C. ''A discourse concerning the drayning of fennes and surrounded grounds in the sixe counteys of Norfolk, Suffolke, Cambridge, with the Isle of Ely, Huntington, Northampton and Lincolne''. London: 1629. Reprinted in 1647 under title: ''The Drayner Confirmed, and the Obstinate Fenman Confuted''.〕 the area now includes the lowest land in the United Kingdom, Holme Fen in Cambridgeshire, at around 2.75 metres below sea level. Within the Fens there are a few hills, which have historically been called "islands" as they remained dry when the low-lying fens around them were flooded. The largest of the fen-islands is the Isle of Ely, on which the cathedral city of Ely was built: its highest point is 39 m above mean sea level.〔(Isle of Ely ) at WheresThePath.com〕 Without artificial drainage and flood protection, the Fens would be liable to periodic flooding, particularly in winter due to the heavy load of water flowing down from the uplands and overflowing the rivers. Some areas of the Fens were once permanently flooded, creating small lakes or ''meres'', while others were only flooded during periods of high water. In the pre-modern period arable farming was limited to the higher areas of the surrounding uplands, the fen islands and the so-called "Townlands", an arch of silt ground around the Wash where the towns had their arable fields. Though these lands were lower than the peat fens before the peat shrinkage began, the more stable silt soils were reclaimed by medieval farmers and embanked against any floods coming down from the peat areas or from the sea. The rest of the Fenland was dedicated to pastoral farming, fishing, fowling and the harvesting of reeds or sedge for thatch. In this way, the medieval and early modern Fens stood in contrast to the rest of southern England, which was primarily an arable agricultural region. Since the advent of modern drainage in the 19th and 20th centuries, the Fens have been radically transformed, so that today arable farming has almost entirely replaced pastoral, and the economy of the Fens is heavily invested in the production of crops such as grains, vegetables and some cash crops such as rapeseed and canola. Drainage in the Fenland consists of both river drainage and internal drainage of the land between the rivers. The internal drainage was organised by ''levels'' or districts, each of which includes the fen parts of one or several parishes. The details of the organisation vary with the history of their development, but the areas include: * The Great Level of the Fens is the largest region of fen in eastern England: including the lower drainage basins of the River Nene and the Great Ouse, it covers about . It is also known as the Bedford Level, after Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford, who headed the so-called adventurers (investors) in the 17th-century drainage in this area; his son became the first governor of the Bedford Level Corporation. In the 17th century, the Great Level was divided into the North, Middle and South Levels for the purposes of administration and maintenance. In the 20th century, these levels have gained new boundaries, and include some fens which were never part of the jurisdiction of the Bedford Level Corporation. * *The South Level lies to the southeast of the Ouse Washes and surrounds Ely, as it did in the 17th century. * *The Middle Level currently lies between the Ouse Washes and the Nene, but historically lay between the Ouse Washes and Morton's Leam, a 15th-century canal which runs north of the town of Whittlesey. * *The North Level now includes all of the fens in Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire between the Nene and the River Welland, but originally included only a small part of these lands, including the ancient parishes of Thorney and Crowland, but excluding most of Wisbech Hundred and Lincolnshire, which were under their own local jurisdictions.〔"An Act for settling the Draining of the Great Level of the Fens called Bedford Level", 1663, reproduced in Samuel Wells, ''The History of the Drainage of the Great Level of the Fens called Bedford Level,'' (London, 1830), Vol.2, pp.383ff.〕 * Deeping Fen, in the southern part of Lincolnshire, lies between the River Welland and the River Glen with its tributary the Bourne Eau. * The Black Sluice District, much of which was known as the Lindsey Level when it was first drained in 1639, extends from the Glen and Bourne Eau to Swineshead. Its water is carried through to the Haven at Boston. The above were all redrained at one time or another after the Civil War (1642-1649). * The Witham Commission Fens: * *First District: from Washingborough to Billinghay Dales * *Second District: Blacksluice – Holland Fen * *Third District: north of the River Witham above Bardney * *Fourth District: East, West and Wildmore Fens and the Townland from Boston to Wainfleet * *Fifth District: Kyme Eau to Billinghay Skirth * *Sixth District: Blacksluice – Helpringham Eau to Kyme Eau These were drained in the 18th and 19th centuries.〔Bedford Levels information from Ordnance Survey 1:50 000 First Series Sheets 142 (1974) and 143 (1974). Lincolnshire information from Wheeler, W.H. ''A History of the Fens of South Lincolnshire'' 2nd edn. (1896) facsimile edn. Paul Watkins (1990) ISBN 1-871615-19-4〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Fens」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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