Wicken Fen

My photographs from wandering around beautiful Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire. The information included has been culled from both The National Trust and the Eastern Daily Press

Wicken Fen

The National Trust’s Wicken Fen, near Ely, is one of the last remaining fragments of un-drained fen which once covered the vast lowlands of East Anglia.
Eastern Daily Press

The Wicken Fen Water Pump

“At one time Wicken Fen periodically flooded with calcium-rich river water which had filtered through the chalk of the Newmarket Hills before flowing towards Wicken. Flooding has diminished over the centuries after drainage of the land for farming”

“Today the Fen’s main source of water is rainwater, which is more acidic and has led to a decline in the fen’s delicate plant communities”

Information from Chris Bishop’s article in the Eastern Daily Press May 12, 2011.

“The Environment Agency has funded a major project to install a wind powered water pump to help re-wet the land. The wind pump will lift river water up onto the Fen, via a newly constructed channel beneath under Wicken Lode, from where it will gradually spread out across Wicken’s ancient Sedge Fen”

The historic water pump (below) is one of the original six pumps located on the Fen. Now preserved by The National Trust:

With the collapse of the turf digging industry it fell into disrepair, but was rescued from dilapidation, dismantled, extensively restored, and moved to its current location in 1956. Much of the restoration was paid for by Lord Fairhaven, the former owner of nearby Anglesey Abbey, and carried out by local wheelwright, C.J.Ison
National Trust

The Konik ponies are quite a primitive breed and there are a few unusual things about them. You can see on the back of their legs they have zebra stripes. Along their back is a thin stripe and their mane is both blonde and dark.’
Carol Laidlaw, Grazing Warden