The East Anglia Region - Southern England - page 289

FIG 282. The Little Ouse rodden (Fig. 275, c7 ), a silt-filled ancient channel. (Copyright
reserved Cambridge University Collection of Air Photographs)
Before their general drainage, the Fens contained not only numerous winding
rivers, but also many lakes, often called meres. The conversion of the Fen wetlands to
the valuable arable 'prairies' that exist today means that all of these meres are now dry
and often generally forgotten. Some of the best known were those at Soham (see Area
13, Fig. 243), Ramsay and Whittlesey.
Whittlesey Mere ( c8 ) was not drained until 1851. Before that, it was some 4 km
across and was claimed to be the second largest lake in England, after Windermere. It
was famous for its fishing, for its recreational sailing, and for the size of waves that
would form on its surface under stormy conditions. It was also known for the exploits
of the speed skaters who competed there under the fierce freezing winter conditions
common in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The limestone blocks shown in Figure 283, the smallest weighing over a tonne,
provide unusual evidence for the former presence of Whittlesey Mere. They are
thought to have arrived here when the mere was open water, as they were being trans-
ported on a raft which foundered during stormy weather. They appear to have origin-
ated in one of the Middle Jurassic limestone quarries in the west, and had been destined
for a building site - probably one of the religious settlements on the Fenland 'islands'
to the east. They were marked out as a navigational hazard before the mere was drained
and they again became visible.