Holbeach Marsh
Holbeach Marsh is a large area of the Great Fen in Holland, the south-eastern part of Lincolnshire; long since drained, it has become richly fertile arable land, dotted with farms and hamlets.
The marsh lies between the market town of Holbeach on the A17 road at the south, and the shore of the Wash at the north. It is bounded by the waterways of the Whaplode (Holbeach) River at the west, and Fleet Haven at the east.
- Location: 52°50’56"N, -0°3’43"E
The marsh covers some 14,500 acres of arable farms, dispersed buildings, and small settlements. The marsh villages of Holbeach Bank and Holbeach Clough—or Saracens Head—are at the south-west edge, and Gedney Dyke at the south-east. Within the Marsh are the villages and hamlets of Holbeach St Marks, Holbeach St Matthew, and Holbeach Hurn.
At the north-east on The Wash saltmarsh is the bombing range of RAF Holbeach.
History
In 1810 a late 17th- or early 18th-century wooden coastal vessel, the Sea Venture, was beached and wrecked during a gale on the marshes just north of Holbeach St Matthew, while trading between Whitby and London.[1]
Historical trade directories include Marsh occupations in 1855 of publicans of the Harvest Man and Pear Tree public houses, a blacksmith, and 34 farmers; in 1885 a shopkeeper & beer retailer, a butcher who was also the proprietor of a public house, and 18 farmers, one of whom was also a land agent, and one a landowner; and in 1933 two farmers with 53 smallholder]]s.[2][3][4][5]
By the 1870s the Marsh was a centre for yearly South Lincolnshire Fen-country hare coursing competitions under St Leger open meetings. Beating on horseback was used to flush out the quarry.[6][7]
Holbeach Marsh was an ecclesiastical district within Holbeach parish in the late 19th century, and had a population of 743.[8]
In 1948, 1,500 acres of land were reclaimed from The Wash by the construction of an embankment 11 feet high, six and a half miles long, with a base 64 feet deep and a top of 9 feet. The bank took six months to build and used 500,000 tons of clay. The scheme was the work of three local farmers with the support of the Ministry of Agriculture, and cost £41,000.[9]
Outside links
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References
- ↑ National Monuments Record: No. 942792 – Sea Venture
- ↑ Post Office Directory of Lincolnshire 1855, Kelly & Co. pp.120, 303-330, 347,349
- ↑ Kelly's Directory of Lincolnshire 1855, p.120
- ↑ Kelly's Directory of Lincolnshire with the port of Hull 1885, pp.478, 480
- ↑ Kelly's Directory of Lincolnshire 1933, pp.296-298
- ↑ The Coursing Calendar for the Autumn Season 1870, Horace Cox, pp.197, 199, 202
- ↑ The Sporting Review, edited 'Craven' (1869) p.393. Reprint Rare Books Club (2012). ISBN 1150175257
- ↑ Holbeach Marsh on Vision of Britain
- ↑ Dean, Basil; "Gain 1,500 Acres In Fen Country", London Letter in the Ottawa Citizen, 13 November 1948, p.21