British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Wednesday 6 February 2008
Seventeenth Century Draining of the Fens and the impact on navigation
Professor Michael Chisholm, FBA
Emeritus Professor of Geography, University of Cambridge
Draining the Fens was an enterprise of national significance, an enterprise that has spawned a larger literature. There is a widespread opinion that the drainers were not interested in navigation and made no specific provision for the passage of boats. It is commonly believed that, from the mid-seventeenth century, river traffic was seriously impaired. The lecture draws upon a wide variety of evidence, showing that in fact trade continued and prospered, leading to a re-assessment of the relationship between drainage and navigation.
Professor Michael Chisholm was elected a Fellow of the Academy in 2002. His publications include 'Conservators of the river Cam 1702-2002', Proceedings of the Cambridge Anitquarian Society. Professor Chisholm was a member of the Local Government Boundary Commission for England 1971to 1978 and he was also a Member of The Local Government Commission for England from 1992 to 1995.