page_title: Bedford Level Corporation
section_title: Work of the Corporation
hierarchical_section_title: Bedford Level Corporation / Work of the Corporation
caption_attribution_description: The Windpump at Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire. This windpump is the only working wooded windpump in the Fens.
context_page_description: The Bedford Level Corporation was founded in England in 1663 to manage the draining of the Fens of East Central England. It formalised the legal status of the Company of Adventurers previously formed by the Duke of Bedford to reclaim 95,000 acres of the Bedford Level.
context_section_description: As the drainage succeeded in its general purpose, albeit with many technical difficulties, the level of the land sank as it dried out, negating the achievement. It then became necessary to introduce windpumps (hundreds in all) to lift the water from the fields into the drainage ditches and rivers. The windpumps had to be replaced over time with more efficient steam-powered and then diesel-powered pumps.
  The system also depended on a number of sluices (locks) to prevent flooding at high tide or to control the flow of water within the system. These required constant maintenance and repair.
  Other ongoing problems concerned silting and navigation issues such as towpaths and access.
caption: Typical Fenland windpump
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