4288 x 2848 px | 36,3 x 24,1 cm | 14,3 x 9,5 inches | 300dpi
Data acquisizione:
22 giugno 2015
Altre informazioni:
The Old Bedford River, out of shot behind the sluice, is an artificial river cut in the 1630s by the fourth Earl of Bedford as part of the first major attempt to drain the southern fens of Cambridgeshire. It was intended to form a shortcut for water from the Great Ouse, seen here flowing away on the right of the picture, towards the sea and thus reduce flooding by the then meandering river. But it burst its banks as soon as water was diverted into it, partly because the banks were made largely of peat dug to make the river, and it never achieved its intended purpose. It was superseded by the parallel New Bedford River, dug under direction of the Dutch engineer Sir Cornelius Vermuyden in the 1650s and funded by the fifth Earl of Bedford and co-investors, and was soon relegated to the role of land drain.
