Planned Peat Fen

Seminatural fen habitat at Fowlmere Fen Cambridgeshire. (© Geo-East)

Summary

Overall description:

A flat, low lying and sparsely populated landscape characterised by dark peaty soils, a grid like pattern of large arable fields bounded by drainage ditches and wide views to distant, often dramatic skies.

Location:

This is the southern component of the extensive former Fenland of eastern England - stretching from south Lincolnshire, through Cambridgeshire, to south west Norfolk, and north-west Suffolk.

Physical environment

Landform:

An expansive, low-lying (often below sea level), landscape with a distinctively flat landform.

Natural / water features:

The Hundred Foot Washes are a key water feature when flooded in winter, as are the altered courses of major rivers (e.g. Old Bedford River and the Nene). There are also occasional gravel extraction lakes (e.g. at Needingworth).

Vegetation and land use

Ecological character:

A uniform and low-lying landscape, characterised by drained fenland, but supporting a mosaic of wetland habitats including fens, reedbed, wet woodland and patches of grazing marsh.

Primary land use :

An intensively farmed arable landscape.

Tree cover:

Almost no tree cover - restricted to infrequent patches of secondary woodland/scrub and discrete conifer belts around farmsteads.

Cultural pattern

Historic features:

The area is dissected by long straight roads with 90 degree bends, often located on dykes above the arable fen fields, or following ditches. Occasional pump houses are a feature.

Enclosure pattern:

Planned geometric landscape with large fields defined by straight ditches. There is little apparent structural difference between the early and recent episodes of field creation.

Settlement pattern:

Settlement is sparse and limited mainly to isolated brick-built farmsteads on former fen islands. Most are post-medieval in origin reflecting the late reclamation of the area for agriculture. Thorney is the only historic nucleated settlement.

To be completed at a later date.

Historic development :

A landscape created by drainage from the medieval period onwards to create farmland. Most comprises recent (18/19th century) fen enclosures, but significant areas of early (16th-18th century) enclosure also exist in the south and around Thorney.

Perceptions

Tranquility:

A quiet, remote landscape where the sky plays a particularly dominant role in creating mood and interest.

Views:

The flat horizontal nature of the landscape can give vertical features (eg church towers and more recently wind farms) unusual prominence.