Tag: Vermuyden

July 2, 2026

Thirty-One Battles: Nathaniel Reading and the Long Reckoning

The Isle of Axholme, 1651–1719 By the summer of 1651 the Sandtoft settlement lay in ruins, the Participants’ tenants had fled, and the commoners of the Isle of Axholme held the land they believed had always been theirs. They had won, for now. What followed was not peace. It was six more decades of conflict. The Restoration and Reading’s Return...

Categories Opposition to Vermuyden's Drainage Comments: 0

June 25, 2026

‘They Would Stay Till the Whole Level Were Drowned’

The Civil War, the Snow Sewer, and the Fall of Sandtoft, 1642–1651 After the Star Chamber proceedings of 1631 and the Exchequer Award of 1636, a tense and uneasy quiet settled over the Isle of Axholme. The commoners had not accepted the settlement. They had been compelled, temporarily, to live with it. They were waiting. In 1642, their moment came....

Categories Opposition to Vermuyden's Drainage Comments: 0

June 19, 2026

‘Only to Maintaine Their Right’

The Crown’s Legal Counterstroke and the Star Chamber, 1628–1631 Robert Coggan was shot dead on 15 August 1628. The Crown did not investigate his killing. Instead, it moved swiftly to secure the drainage works, silence the opposition, and settle the legal question of the Epworth commons in terms that favoured the Participants. What followed over the next three years was...

Categories Opposition to Vermuyden's Drainage Comments: 0

June 11, 2026

The Killing of Robert Coggan

Friday, 15 August 1628: Armed Men at Haxey Carr Two days after the stoning of John Kitchen, and the wider violence of Wednesday 13 August, the situation at Haxey Carr had not calmed. It had hardened. Vermuyden’s work crew had spent Thursday recovering, regrouping — and rearming. When they returned to the carr on Friday morning to resume the damming...

Categories Opposition to Vermuyden's Drainage Comments: 0

June 4, 2026

The Women of Haxey

Wednesday, 13 August 1628: The First Day of Riots on the Isle of Axholme In the early afternoon of Wednesday, 13 August 1628, an English labourer named John Kitchen was walking along the road to the village of Haxey. Kitchen worked for Cornelius Vermuyden, the Dutch engineer commissioned two years earlier by King Charles I to drain the great fenlands...

Categories Opposition to Vermuyden's Drainage Comment: 1

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...

Categories Vermuyden's Drainage Scheme Comments: 0

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...

Categories Vermuyden's Drainage Scheme Comments: 0

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...

Categories Axholme before Vermuyden Comments: 0

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...

Categories Axholme before Vermuyden Comment: 1

December 24, 2025

Axholme before Vermuyden – Agriculture Before the Dutch Drainage

Life in Axholme before the drains was shaped by water. Islanders were not impoverished peasants—they were skilled pastoralists, fishers, and peat cutters. Cattle were the backbone of the economy, with thousands overwintered on the commons. Fishing rights were lucrative, and peat from the moors provided essential fuel. Villagers navigated the landscape by boat, using dykes and rivers to reach markets...

Categories Axholme before Vermuyden Comments: 0