The draining of Hatfield Chase was a Dutch enterprise. The engineer Cornelius Vermuyden and all but two of his 45 backers were Dutch, and they applied Dutch technology. They aimed at changing the wetlands into valuable farmland – not realising that those ‘wastelands’ provided resources that were cherished by the local population. The paper will focus on Vermuyden’s background and...

Several places have claimed to be the residence of Cornelius Vermuyden during his work on the draining of the Isle of Axholme & Hatfield Chase. There do not appear to be any contemporary sources providing details on where Cornelius Vermuyden lived whilst working in the area. Most sources are secondary and written a significant time after the event. This post...