Vehicle recovery in UK
- Thread starter XRCD011
- Start date
I live about twenty miles form the location of the vehicle you see. Most of the part of the landscape in which it was buried, including the village of Crowland and its environs, are at or slightly below sea level, and are kept from flooding by the efforts of a couple of thousand Dutchmen under the management of a Dutch land engineer called Vermuyden back in the late 17th century at the behest of King Charles II. All that effort century goes most of the way to explaining why the Fenland, as it is called, exists in its present state, and is not, as was formerly the case, under water. The water level in general is controlled by numerous dykes and pumping stations, including the principal water control of the Denver sluice. The Vermuyden earthworks can be seen from space, and include the New Bedford River/Drain in Cambridgeshire among others of similar dimensions. The arrow-like straightness is a giveaway.
Many of the Dutch workers settled here in East Anglia after their tasks had been completed, which explains the huge number of Dutch names in the area, and the dominance of Dutch architectural styles on buildings, especially the port of Wisbech. Many Dutch settlers ended up managing the hundred of windmills, just like they had done back in Holland, and a few have survived. Most, however, were replaced by huge steam pumping stations, like those at Dogdyke Fen and Stretham - both popular visitor locations of local industrial archeology. They, in their turn, have been superceded by diesel pumps of no real interest to historians or lovers of the landscape.
Many of the Dutch workers settled here in East Anglia after their tasks had been completed, which explains the huge number of Dutch names in the area, and the dominance of Dutch architectural styles on buildings, especially the port of Wisbech. Many Dutch settlers ended up managing the hundred of windmills, just like they had done back in Holland, and a few have survived. Most, however, were replaced by huge steam pumping stations, like those at Dogdyke Fen and Stretham - both popular visitor locations of local industrial archeology. They, in their turn, have been superceded by diesel pumps of no real interest to historians or lovers of the landscape.
