EVENING DISCOURSES. 



FIRST EVENING DISCOURSE 

 Friday, August 19, 1938. 



HISTORY OF THE FENLAND 



BY 



DR. H. GODWIN. 



The Discourse illustrated the great advantages which follow from co- 

 operation between workers in different sciences converging on some common 

 problem. The Fenland Research Committee, which was founded in 1932 

 under the presidency of Sir Albert Seward, F.R.S., includes in its members 

 botanists, geologists, archaeologists, geographers and professional experts 

 in fen drainage. With the help of small grants from the British Association, 

 the Percy Sladen Trust and the Department of Scientific and Industrial 

 Research, they have established the rough outline of fenland history in the 

 period since the last Ice Age. 



This history was begun when the North Sea had not yet been formed 

 and peat fens covered the fiat country between the east coast of England 

 and the continental coast. By the recently developed technique of pollen 

 analysis it has been possible to recover from the submerged peats of the 

 Dogger Bank the pollen grains of trees growing in that former period. 

 These grains are still recognisable by their size, shape, pores and surface 

 markings as readily as grains dispersed to-day. From extensive counts of 

 these sub-fossil tree pollens, it has proved possible to reconstruct the 

 post-glacial forest history of Europe. 



The Dogger Bank peats belong to a period of sparse birch-pine forests, 

 which is known on the continent to be at least as old as 8000 B.C. As the 

 North Sea formed during the following centuries more recent peats were 

 restricted to the shallower coastal areas. The considerable age of the 

 deeper peats was confirmed by the discovery of a bone fish spear of Meso- 

 lithic type from a lump of peat dredged by fishing boats from the Leman 

 and Ower Banks off the Norfolk coast. 



The deposits of the fenland itself are mostly younger than this. The 

 lecturer showed illustrations of sections established by lines of borings 

 from the fen margin towards the sea. The typical section showed continu- 

 ous peat formation at the landward margin, but towards the sea this was 

 split by a bed of soft fen clay, which its content of microscopic plants and 

 animals (diatoms and foraminifera) showed to have been formed in brackish 

 lagoon conditions. On the seaward side of the fens the uppermost deposit 

 is a thick silt which was laid down under semi-marine conditions : it is 

 the fertile potato-, fruit- and bulb-growing land of the Wisbech-Spalding- 

 Holbeach district. 



The excavations and enquiries of the Fenland Research Committee have 

 always sought to determine both the date and the conditions under which 

 these major types of deposit were laid down, and they have met with a 

 good deal of success. Of particular interest was the excavation of an ancient 



