“Isle of Axholme” – vermuyden400.org.uk

April 9, 2026

Vermuyden’s Subsidiary Drainage Works – sasses and sluices.

1629 – Court of Sewers appointed In 1629, the Crown appointed a new Court of Sewers to oversee the “Level of Hatfield Chase,” a move intended to mark the completion of Cornelius Vermuyden’s great drainage project. This court was charged with maintaining the new network of drains, banks, and sluices that had reshaped the wetlands and opened large areas to...

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April 2, 2026

Vermuyden’s Drainage Scheme – Phase 2

Draining the Levels – Vermuyden’s Second Phase (1628-1631) By 1627, just two years after Cornelius Vermuyden and King Charles I had signed their fateful contract, Vermuyden reported that the first phase of drainage works was completed so that a commission could be appointed to allot the land and commence its work. The 1627 Commission was appointed to begin the process...

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March 20, 2026

Vermuyden’s Drainage Scheme – The River Torne

The River Torne presented a significant challenge to the drainage of the Isle of Axholme. Its original course ran from the west, around Wroot, to the River Idle at Ben Intake (a location now known as Tunnel Pits). Unlike the Don and the Idle, it was not possible to divert the Torne along an existing watercourse, meaning it had to...

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February 12, 2026

How Vermuyden Financed the Hatfield Chase Drainage

After agreeing with Charles I to drain the Isle of Axholme & Hatfield Chase, Cornelius Vermuyden had to work out how to finance his drainage scheme. The drainage scheme was funded by the sale of Vermuyden’s land to a number of partners, known as Participants. Most of the earliest Participants were Dutch. Among Vermuyden’s associates, three networks can be discerned:...

Contract with Charles I Comments: 0

February 5, 2026

1626 Agreement between Charles I and Cornelius Vermuyden to Drain the Isle of Axholme and Hatfield Chase

The full agreement may be read here After the James I, commission of 1622, Vermuyden obviously investigated the feasibility of draining the Isle of Axholme and Hatfield Chase and declared himself prepared to undertake the drainage. However, in 1625, James I died and Charles I succeeded to the throne. On 24th May 1626, the second year of Charles’ reign, an...

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January 17, 2026

Before Vermuyden: Drainage and River Management in the Isle of Axholme

Long before Cornelius Vermuyden arrived in the 1620s with his grand Dutch-engineered drainage scheme, the Isle of Axholme was already a landscape shaped by centuries of human effort to manage water. The Isle’s rivers, meres, and artificial channels were central to life, economy, and identity — and the people who lived here developed sophisticated systems of communal and manorial governance...

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January 2, 2026

Axholme Before Vermuyden – The Land and Its Lords – Manor of Crowle

Manor of Crowle The Domesday Record At the time of the Conquest, Crowle was the most populous and valuable manor in the Isle of Axholme. The Domesday Book recorded impressive resources: fifteen villagers and nineteen bordars working seven ploughs, thirty-one fisheries valued at thirty-one shillings, thirty acres of meadow, and woodland and pasture measuring one mile in each direction. The...

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December 30, 2025

Axholme Before Vermuyden – The Land and Its Lords – Manor of Epworth

Before the Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden arrived in the 1620s, the Isle of Axholme was a patchwork of manors, commons, and ancient rights. The main manors in the Isle of Axholme were Epworth, in the centre, and Crowle in the North. Lords of manors held sway over land and law, but when titles lapsed or estates were forfeited, ownership reverted...

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December 30, 2025

Rights and Protections for Isle of Axholme Tenants – Summary of the Mowbray Charter of 1360.

The tenants of the Isle of Axholme petitioned their lord, Sir John Mowbray, to resolve disputes caused by his officials. In response, Mowbray granted a series of rights and protections to all tenants and residents of the Isle, to apply permanently to them and their heirs. Key points granted: The charter was sealed by both parties at Epworth on 1...

Axholme before Vermuyden Comment: 1

December 30, 2025

Mowbray Deed of 1360 – from Peck’s Isle of Axholme (1815)

A true copy of the ancient deed of JOHN DE MOWBRAY, some time Lord of the ISLE of AXHOLME, and the Honour of BREMBER, made to the Freeholders there, after he had made an approvement to himself of some of the Wastes within the Manor of EPWORTH in the said Isle; and is now translated out of French into English...

Axholme before Vermuyden Comment: 1

Tag: “Isle of Axholme”

Vermuyden’s Subsidiary Drainage Works – sasses and sluices.

Vermuyden’s Drainage Scheme – Phase 2

Vermuyden’s Drainage Scheme – The River Torne

How Vermuyden Financed the Hatfield Chase Drainage

1626 Agreement between Charles I and Cornelius Vermuyden to Drain the Isle of Axholme and Hatfield Chase

Before Vermuyden: Drainage and River Management in the Isle of Axholme

Axholme Before Vermuyden – The Land and Its Lords – Manor of Crowle

Axholme Before Vermuyden – The Land and Its Lords – Manor of Epworth

Rights and Protections for Isle of Axholme Tenants – Summary of the Mowbray Charter of 1360.

Mowbray Deed of 1360 – from Peck’s Isle of Axholme (1815)

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