Fen is the old English and North European word for bogland and swamp. The fens comprise south-east Lincolnshire, north Cambridgeshire and north-west Norfolk, taking in the lower basins of the rivers Witham, Welland, Nene and Great Ouse. It is a plain: 75 miles north-west to south-west and 36 miles west to east, totalling some 700 square miles. The only remaining area which shows a fen as it once was is at Wicken. In this 1970 documentary, part of the Regions in Britain series, you will discover landmarks such as the church in West Keal, Tattershall Castle and Ely Cathedral. Attempts had been made to drain the fens before 1630, but in that year fourteen “Adventurers” who were merchants and under the leadership of the Earl of Bedford, all risked their fortunes nad employed Cornelius Vermuyden to do the job properly. This man-made country, won back from the swamps, is now the richest agricultural land in England; the land of corn, sugarbeet, potatoes and, since the beginning of the 20th...