Middle Level Commissioners
The Middle Level Commissioners are a land drainage authority in eastern England. The body was formed in 1862, undertaking the main water level management function within the Middle Level following the breakup of the former Bedford Level Corporation.
The Middle Level is the central and largest section of the Great Level of The Fens, which was reclaimed by drainage during the mid-17th Century. The area is bounded on the northwest and east by the River Nene and Ouse washes, on the north by previously drained Marshland silts and to the south and west by low clay hills. The Middle Level river system consists of over 120 miles (190 km) of watercourses most of which are statutory navigations and has a catchment of over 170,000 acres (690 km2).
In the distant past Great Britain was part of continental Europe with the rivers of eastern England being tributaries of the River Rhine, which flowed across a flat, marshy plain, which is now the southern North Sea. Around 12,000 years ago, following the end of the last Ice Age, the sea levels rose, severing Britain from Europe and flooding the Fen Basin, a large hollow created as the ice retreated. The fen area gradually became separated from the sea by extensive sand banks, which circled the fringes of the Wash. Within the fens, dense vegetation grew in the fresh water forming peat deposits, which built up over some 6000 years. During the Roman occupation, some embankments were erected to protect agricultural land from inundation by rivers and sea water, but when they left in 406, the Fens became a wilderness of marshes and flooding again. However, some settlement occurred, particularly on a number of clay islands within the fens, including Ely and Ramsey. The last stand against the Norman invaders took place in the region, and ended in defeat when Hereward the Wake was betrayed by the monks of Ely in 1071.
The early thirteenth century was a particularly wet period, and the Fens suffered from frequent flooding. Recognition that any solution needed organising centrally came in 1258, when the first Commissioners of Sewers were appointed. They found it difficult to fund any kind of drainage works, as the population were unwilling to pay for them, but around 1400, the Commissioners were given powers to raise taxes and punish those who refused to contribute. John Morton, the bishop of Ely, set about straightening parts of the River Nene between 1478 and 1490, and Morton's Leam still bears his name. The Wars of the Roses interrupted his plans for further land drainage projects, and the Dissolution of the Monasteries between 1536 and 1539 had a catastrophic effect on the region. Monasteries had supervised many land drainage initiatives, but once they were replaced by hundreds of small landowners, there was neither the resources nor the organisation to maintain the works, which rapidly fell into disrepair. High sea levels in 1570 broke through the Roman sea defences, and vast areas were flooded, as far inland as Bedfordshire.
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