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16th March 2002 Impington Village College Fenland History 1800-1900

Mike Petty’s Guides for the Cambridgeshire Researcher

1800 saw water in the Littleport district 3½ feet deep and it lay 12 months in that state. The water in the rivers at Ely were six inches higher than normal and in a gale on 20^th January "rolled over the banks as I rode alone in a truly terrified state … at last the banks gave way and inundated 60,000 acres in one general ruin".

Desolation was more frequent that before because the new inclosures in the upland districts were discharging water more rapidly into the rivers. At St Ives the floods on the Ouse meadows were more sudden than previously & eight hours of heavy rain brought a flood. The interior of the fen had subsided to a lower level due to the various efforts being made to drain it. High banks needed to be built to keep the river water in and more windmills installed to scoop the water off the low land and throw it into the high river, but as the land continued to sink one windmill could not lift the water high enough, a second had to be erected beside the first and the fen landscape became dotted with these machines. The rivers were sluggish streams being choked by the mud thrown into them by the increasing number of drainage mills. The main village of Sutton was high above these problems, but its parish lands extended down into the fens.

Communication was improved when turnpike trusts were set up by Act of Parliament to improve the roads, people having to pay a fee to travel along various stretches; these were collected at Toll Houses, at places like Witcham Toll & stagecoach ran between Cambridge & Ely and on to other places.

For many years fenmen were the champion skaters of the world, aided by the vast areas covered with water and by the specially prepared skating courses. Frozen rivers also allowed them to travel far further than was possible at other times of the year.

One answer to the flooding was thought to be to improve the outfall to the sea and work began in 1811 on a new cut – the Eau Brink, which would take off a huge bend in the river. It was expensive work and caused hardships for people who resisted paying the necessary taxes for something happening many miles away.

But there was something else happening miles away which was having an impact on the fens – the Napoleonic wars. The threat of invasion was such that local militia were recruited and required to undertaken training to be ready to repel the French. Some communities took it seriously, others did not & Sutton was one of those. At Ely a dispute arose over who should pay for the uniforms. The men thought that their rucksacks should be supplied, the army disagreed. There was a mutiny in 1809 which was put down by sending in German Legion. What happened next was presented differently; some of the rioters were flogged. The news was reported throughout the country. William Cobbett denounced the action in The Political register and was sued for libel, fined £1,000 and imprisoned for 2 years. His printer, Mr Hansard, was also gaoled.

In 1814 they thought it was all over with Peace festivals at Soham and Ely. In fact they were premature since the fighting surged up again, until Bonaparte was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. But the end of the fighting brought extra hardship, prices soared and wages dropped; wages were paid by the day in comparison to the price of corn but corn prices fell.

The situation came to a head at Littleport where disgruntled workers sought extra wages and events turned violent. They marched to Ely to press their case. The magistrates called out the army, the riots were crushed and men rounded up. The trial was held behind closed doors at Ely, at the end of a week people were allowed in to hear the sentence passed - 24 were to be hung. "The whole room was as still as if everyone had been struck dumb when they heard this. Then, when they had got their wits back, there was such a cursing from the men and shrieking from the women that the judge said if they didn't stop he'd put his black cap on again and sentence a few more". Later some had their sentences changed to transportation to Australia but five were hanged.

By now there were changes in the fens - the old drainage windmills were coming down and being replaced by steam engines that could work whether the wind blew or not and could pump far more water. On the farm the old fashioned methods which needed long hours of manpower were being replaced by new machinery needing less workers and the rich landowners were petitioning parliament for Inclosure Acts. People at Lt Thetford were determined this was something they did not want, resisting the Inclosure men as they came to post the notice on the church door in Nov 1833, but it was to no avail - enclosure came, doing away with the Commons and the strips in open fields to give people blocks of land - which they had to fence - only some people couldn't afford the fencing and had to sell their land instead. Stretham had the saving grace of allotments – though these were subject to strict rules

In Grunty Fen, between Witchford & Ely one day a poor man was digging peat & struck gold – a man ornament lost centuries before by some occupant of Grunty Fen far richer than he. Out at Manea in 1838 money was abolished when they set up a Community for working class people where men would work just 4 hours a day and the motto would be 'Each for All'. It actually happened and ran for 3 years. Brick houses were built heated from a central point to avoid making fires.

In Ely things started to improve – the rutted conditions of Fore Hill were remedied, new lights introduced, a new bridge over the river. They even did away with the hated Bishop’s gaol, so dilapidated that prisoners were chained to the floor or made to wear spiked collars so they could not break out through the roof. A prison where debtors were imprisoned until they could pay their debt – and in the meantime made to pay for their food, adding to the debt. But like everywhere else the poor were hit by the new Poor Laws with their dreaded Union Workhouse which were considered worse than gaols and prompted men to poach or steal to keep alive rather than turn to he workhouse. But then Ely was hit by an outbreak of fever – which they tried to disguise, though people who attended funerals of the victims took the pestilence to their own communities.

Meanwhile village conditions could be terrible. In 1850 at Witchford the main road was covered with "accumulations of decaying animal and vegetable matter either thrown from the dwellings or flowing into it from the adjoining farm yards" all in all ... the misery could not be surpassed in any civilised or even uncivilised part of the world". As for the cottages "the conditions of the dwellings is wretched beyond description ... without the slightest means of ventilation, filled with dense smoke ... eight sick people in a single room about 14 feet by 10 feet ... "

But people survived and some flourished - David Cox of Wardy Hill was one, he had four wives, the first of whom lived till he was 76! Women too were tough fenworkers often employed by farmers as they were cheaper than the men – and now there was machinery brute strength was not such a necessity. Children were cheaper still – sometimes the only member of the family to earn a wage often walking miles to work long hours in the fields with only sometimes a gang master who would supply transport.

Those too young or weak to work were and dosed with poppy-tea to keep them quiet. Opium was a cure-all for all the ills and hardships of fenland life in the late 1840s & 1850s.But there was another crop yielded by the fen - coprolite - which were discovered under the fields and made work for those who could extract it – gangs of diggers, not village farm workers.

Frustrations and discontent manifested itself in great outbreaks of incendiarism, week after week barns and stacks were burnt; farmers feared to turn their back or shut their eyes for an instant. Nor was the destruction confined to stacks - village homes were equally vulnerable to fires deliberate or accidental.

At Grunty Fen enclosure & drainage came in 1859 – with men striking over pay and Ely fearing a riot would take place. As if all that was not enough in 1865 cattle plague struck, devastating herds and bankrupting even more farmers; ironically the next year, 1866 Grunty Fen railway opened, offering farmers better methods of taking their produce to market & opening up the fenland in a way never seen before. People could visit from away – and local people could travel to Ely, Cambridge, Hunstanton and Liverpool – forced away from the village by the hardship of the time – the parson in the pulpit at Soham stressing that they did not want their lads to go, but there was nothing for them at home

Education arrived too with the opening of village schools following the Education Act of 1870 which made elementary education compulsory but whilst schools were going up many churches were coming down in the name of restoration, and being rebuilt – totally different.

Nonconformist congregations were building new & bigger chapels and baptising in the river. At Lt Thetford a crowd gathered to watch the scene - despite pouring rain; before all tramping home "ankles were covered in mud, dresses drenched with water showed an utter absence of crinoline and embroidery of petticoats was no longer visible through the thick coating of mire". Also covered in mud where the drainage workers continuing their struggle to keep the fenland dry yet despite all their efforts and despite the modern machinery time after time nature won and the land flooded again – as in 1897 when Swaffham engine broke down, the crankshaft snapped; it took 5 weeks to get a portable engine and the area was under water.

But in 1897 there was something to celebrate : the Diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria and the celebrations were arranged in villages. The century ended relatively dry and with an aged and respected Queen, wondering what the C20 will bring – it could not be worse that the one before – or could it?

M.J. Petty, MBE, MA, ALA. The Pound, 1 Ely Road, Stretham, Ely, Cambs CB6 3JH phone 01353 648106

E-mail mikepetty@fenhistory.fsnet.co.uk

April 2001

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Last Updated on: 9 March 2002
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