The Ouse Washes north of Welche's Dam, Cambridgeshire, England
The Ouse Washes, seen here to the right from just north of Welche's Dam, are the area between the Old Bedford River, just visible to the left and the New Bedford River, out of shot to the right. The latter was a central element of the Fens drainage scheme orchestrated by the Dutch engineer, Sir Cornelius Vermuyden, in the 1640s and '50s, after the failure of the Old Bedford River dug by the Earl of Bedford in the 1630s. The Washes acted - and still act - as a reservoir for flood water to prevent it spreading out onto the wider fen. The waterway, running diagonally away mid-left, is the River Delph dug probably in the 1650s, as a refinement of Vermuyden's scheme, to move flood more quickly off the Washes when river volumes lessen.
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Photo credit: © John Worrall / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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Keywords: bedford, cambridgeshire, cornelius, delph, drainage, embankment, england, fen, fens, nature, ouse, reserve, river, sir, summer, sunny, uk, vermuyden, washes
