Subsiding road, Station Road, Little Steeping

Image: © Chris Taken: 23 Mar 2017

Subsiding roads are a way of life on the East Fen, which was once an area of meres and marshland, with some deeper parts (there is an area called The Deeps nearby in TF4358). P.203 of "A History of the Fens of South East Lincolnshire" (W.H.Wheeler, 1897, https://archive.org/stream/cu31924014023893#page/n3/mode/2up ) quotes Camden (1602), who describes the East Fen as "quite in a state of nature and exhibits a specimen of what the country was before the introduction of draining". Various drainage schemes have been implemented here over the centuries. The marsh has been tamed - or has it? The roads do not sit well on their peaty foundations and the area is traversed by switchbacks like this one, which throw vehicles off the road and into deep watery dykes. So it seems the ghost of the banished marsh still lurks, and claims its sacrifices.

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