Abstract
Excerpt: Wicken Fen is a 305-ha wetland oasis surrounded by an intensively managed agricultural landscape. Drainage of the vast floodplain mire of almost 4000 sq km actually commenced in Roman times but was piecemeal until the more determined and planned efforts of Vermeyden, the Dutch engineer. From the seventeenth century onwards, the conversion of one of Europe's most expansive lowland peatlands progressed steadily.