IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Cants Drove, WISBECH, PE13 4HW

B1187 from Guyhirn to Murrow.

This raised road runs from Murrow to Guyhirn on top of a bank which was once part of the flood defence system in the Fens. Somewhere near this point the road name changes from Murrow Bank to Gull Bank but historically it is called Fendyke Bank. Fendyke Bank, the great bank stretching from Cloughs Cross on the Lincolnshire border southwards to Guyhirn, is one of the most important in the district. For many hundreds of years it was the bastion of defence against the fresh waters coming down from the upland counties, and the landward counterpart to the old sea bank on the east side of Leverington. Fendyke protected the whole district on the north side of Wisbech which includes Tydd St. Giles, Newton, Leverington, Guyhirn, and Wisbech St. Mary. Its importance cannot therefore be exaggerated, and the most stringent measures were taken to ensure its safety. The obligation to maintain the bank was imposed on the landowners in the protected parishes. A great breach was made in the bank in 1437, when 13,400 acres were flooded through the default of one Thomas Flower, the owner of 24 acres in Wisbech High Fen. (fn. 5) Further breaches occurred in 1570 (fn. 6) and in 1770. At the latter date a gap 130 yards wide was made, probably at Abel's Gull. Parts of the country-side were flooded to a depth of 6 feet, and were not brought back into cultivation for three years. So sudden was the disaster that some fled for their lives to Thorney Abbey and the higher lands around. (fn. 7) The Fendyke may be said to mark the boundary between the 'peat' and 'silt' portions of the parish. The former, comprising Parson Drove Fen, has always been less highly valued and was formerly used mainly as sheep pasturage; it is sparsely populated. The latter, which is the area of ancient settlement, forms part of the Wisbech fruit-growing and market-gardening district. From: 'Wisbech Hundred: Chapeiry of Parson Drove', A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 4: City of Ely; Ely, N. and S. Witchford and Wisbech Hundreds (2002), pp. 197-200. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=21917 Date accessed: 12 July 2011.

Closed in 1982. Sections of the line were sold off to adjacent landowners, some of whom took grants to plant trees on it.

One of several fields in the area which appears to be suffering from repetitive cropping of maize to feed anaerobic digestors in the area, the economics and "greenness" of which never appear to stack up.

Towards Guyhirn.

Heading towards Tholomas Drove.

Small area of vegetables amongst the large arable fields.

Living up to the very origins of the road name. Heavy rainfall over a 6 week period has resulted in the fenland soil becoming totally saturated and many fields in the Fens have large areas of water laying on them.

On Wisbech High Fen west of Guyhirn. This is one of the later areas of the Fens to be reclaimed for agriculture. There is no church between Guyhirn and Thorney which is always a good indicator as to how long the land has been habitable.