Talk:The Fens

message: As I understand it, the 'Gentlemen Adventurers' were people who had invested  actively in the Dutch East India Company, and were rewarded by being given an area of bog that no one wanted near Boston, Lincolnshire. They drained it, and the area is today  known and even signposted as as 'Adventurers Land'
In this context, my reading of Adventurer is 'speculator' or 'investor'. The people (ad)ventured their capital in a project such as a cargo from China or draining land, on condition that in return for its success, they got their cut of the profit.  I suspect that you are combining the stories of more than one venture.
: Adventurer does mean someone who adventurers money, and there is no connection with the Dutch East India Company.  There were "Adventurers" in all the different drainage schemes; those near Boston in the 1640s were headed by the Earl of Lindsay.  As far as I know, he lost his title to those lands during the Civil War and (unlike the Earl of Bedford in the Great Level, renamed the Bedford Level) he did not get them back at the Restoration.  Lindley's book details all of the different groups of drainers in the 1630s and 40s. - *jb
There were two types of people involved in Fen Drainage. The 'Adventurers' and the 'Undertakers' The role of the Adventurer has been widely covered, but the 'Undertaker' was the person who actually undertook the work. In this day and age he(she) would be known as a 'Contractor'.(TonyDodson 09:47, 16 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: An undertaker. 131.111.164.208 14:41, 25 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, Vermuyden was an undertaker, since he was not an investor; there continued to be many other "undertakers" or "takers of works" - this was the generic term for anyone hired to maintain or build drainage works (banks, canals, sluces).  In the Bedford Level in the late seventeenth century, they often complained about not being paid.  - *jb (talk) 16:03, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

text: A correction to my own comment: when debating the drainage of the fens in the 1650s, the term 'Undertakers' was commonly used to refer to investors in drainage (like the Earl of Bedford), as they 'undertook' to pay for/organize the works; Adventurers might be used, or simply participants. These words weren't strictly defined at all; they were being coined from the verbs, though after 1663, 'undertaker' is primarily used in the Bedford Level Corporation (BLC) records to refer to the men who contracted to do specific work for the BLC. 
Also, Vermuyden might have also invested some of his own money in Hatfield Level; I know that there were some Dutch investors there.  He may have bought into the Great Level as well; he wasn't one of the original 14 Participants in c1632, but the original 14 weren't even there as of a few years later in c1636 - some had sold up their interest.  Vermuyden came into the Great Level with Charles after 1638, and was back again with the 5th Earl of Bedford after 1649; his son and heir (also Cornelius Vermuyden) was on the Board of the BLC in 1665, which meant that somewhere along the line he or his father acquired some BLC land and thus would officially be 'adventurers'. - 99.156.66.116 (talk) 02:12, 3 July 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Adventurers vs Undertakers 

message: From the Formation section: "The three principal soil types resulting from this are the mineral-based silt, resulting from the energetic marine environment of the creeks and clay from the marsh and mud-flats." Only two soil types are listed, unless the sentence following is meant as the third. Educated clarification is needed. Pjrich 20:01, 9 September 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I hope that is clearer. If not, discuss it further. It was interesting to find that someone had read it! :-) (RJP 21:20, 9 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Formation

message: "Nonetheless, these works are now much more effective than they were until the mid-twentieth century" doesn't  make any sense.  I've delete the 2nd half.  If the original author would care to explain what they meant then we can have something that doesn't leave the reader baffled as to what is being conveyed.Ewx 14:24, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Draining the Fens 

message: Just passing through here, but this page would really benefit from a map of the area. Matthew 22:48, 16 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Map 

message: I came across a reference to 1189, when Richard I disaforested Spalding and Pinchbeck . The reference suggests this was re-iterated by later kings. --Robert EA Harvey (talk) 07:42, 25 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  disaforestation date 

message: The first paragraph of The_Fens#Formation_and_geography mentions the northern North Sea basin draining into the "Viking Deep", which someone tagged with . Very reasonably, since Google (including Google Scholar, doesn't find it. I've removed this phrase, which doesn't appear essential to the account, but if anyone wants to restore it, please could they clarify terminology and preferably give a reference. --Stfg (talk) 10:11, 16 March 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Viking Deep 

message: John Rennie & the drainage of the Witham Fens, Lincolnshire, UK. Free to read for limited period. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:39, 18 May 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Free article access 

message: The last paragraph uses the rather obscure unit of OSSP. Could we perhaps use something more conventional like gallons or litres here? Nyth63 21:59, 10 July 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Modern drainage