Ouse News - Spring 2022

Ouse News Page 26 This work is planned and undertaken by our Waterways Assets Team who utilise framework contractors to carry out our annual capital maintenance programmes. We release information of these works as they take place via our social media accounts and navigation notices, so why not subscribe and follow us via these so you can get the very latest information as it is released.

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Sir Cornelius Vermuyden and the Disastrous Venture in Somerset The achievements of the great Anglo-Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden in the Cambridgeshire fens are well known and documented – with varying degrees of accuracy – in many places. So, to a lesser extent, are his land draining adventures in such places as Dagenham, Canvey Island, Windsor Great Park and the levels of Hatfield Chase in Yorkshire. We explored his little-known venture into lead mining in Derbyshire here in Ouse News a few years ago.

His adventure in Somerset has been little remarked upon – mainly because it didn’t just fail; it didn’t even start. Here’s what happened..: Vermuyden had an eye for the future. While working in the fens, he was quietly investing some of his money in land in the Somerset levels. These huge areas of low-lying land were practically worthless as they were – but if drained, their values would rocket. Vermuyden was confident he could drain these levels quickly, effectively and above all affordably. So confident was he of success that he built a house for himself and his family in Highbridge; he would stay here when in Somerset managing his new estates while keeping his town residence in Westminster.