Hundred Foot Washes Management
1630 - 1920

by The Company of Adventurers
and the Bedford Level Corporation

Introduction

The grand venture to drain the southern part of the huge tract of fenlands known as The Great Level of the Fens, the low lands in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk - was instigated in 1630 by a group of wealthy men including some large land-owners. They became known as the Company of Adventurers, and they organised the original scheme from 1630-37.

It was not a success. Sir Cornelius Vermuyden reviewed the work and presented his proposals, which he called a "Discourse", to the King, Charles 1st, outlining a second and much larger scheme. Later, in 1642, he published those proposals. In it he split the land into three parts divided by rivers. Many historians say he named the three parts North, Middle and South Levels, and the whole area The Bedford Level, but I've read the Discourse and found no such references, nor are they in the Act of 1649 enabling the work, so assume those names came later.

As explained below, their responsibilites passed to their successors, the Corporation of the Bedford Level, more commonly known as the Bedford Level Corporation (BLC).

Gradually over very many years the three levels became more self-governing and eventually split away from the BLC. Within the Levels there were further divisions and sub-divisions. The BLC's powers and responsibilities diminished and in 1920, after 237 years, it was wound-up.

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The Hundred Foot or Ouse Washes divides the Middle and South Levels, but the Washes are part of neither. The outer (north-west) bank of the Old Bedford/Delph is the Middle Level Barrier Bank; the outer (south-east) bank of the New Bedford is the South Level Barrier Bank.
Draining and irrigating the actual fields and washlands between the rivers (from Earith to Welmore Lake Sluice) has been the duty of the Hundred Foot Washes IDB from its formation (?) to the present day.

Since 1920 a variety of government authorised bodies have had responsibility for vast and sometimes different areas of which The Washes is a just a tiny part.Each were tasked with a set of duties which will be explained later, but all with responsibility for controlling the main rivers surounding the Washes.

The table below briefly summarises the management bodies and their responsibilities prior to 1920.  Like the rest of this page this is an early draft - much has to be added!

Management Bodies

from	to	name	inits	main responsibities
	1663	Commissioners of Sewers	COS	Land drainage
1630	1652	Company of Adventurers	COA	construction of new drainage systems
1663	1920	Bedford Level Corporation	BLC	Established under the General Drainage Act 1663 to maintain drainage & navigation on all three levels. Lost resp for most of NL 1753 and all by 1857 Lost resp for most of ML 1810 and all by 1864 Lost resp for much of SL 1830 and all by 1920 According to Summers, by 1850 resp was confined to major channels & sluices

Sources: various

Foundation of the Company of Adventurers

The original works, cutting the two main rivers with their retaining banks and building the controlling structures, were instigated by the Commissioners of Sewers who asked Francis Russell, the 4th Earl of Bedford, to become the "undertaker" of a venture that had previously failed to start through lack of popular support and funding. Russell had extensive estates in the Fens at Thorney and Whittlesey (as well as the family seat in Bedford) was wealthy, well connected and much respected.

At a meeting of the Commissioners held at King's Lynn in January 1630, a contract, subsequently known as the 'Lynn Law', was agreed and Russell became the contractor of a scheme to drain the southern part of the fens within 6 years in return for 95,000 acres of the reclaimed land. The contract received the approval of the King, Charles 1, and the High Court in London.

Russell and his son William persuaded 12 other wealthy men to join them, to become 'Adventurers' - venture capitalists in todays terminology - in a Company with 20 transferable shares of £500 each. The deed of incorporation in February 1631 is known as the 'Indenture of Fourteen Parts'. The King gave his consent to this in return for a 12,000 acre share of the 95,000 acres. After Russell's death (of small-pox, in May 1644) his son, William, the 5th Earl, took over his father's role.

The Adventurers

The original Adventurer's, and their share holding and promised land reward

Adventurer	home/estates/assets	shares	acres
Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford (W) or Russel (E)	Family seat at Woburn, Beds, plus 20,000 acres at Thorney and Whittlesey	2	8,000
Oliver, Earl of Bulingbrooke (W) or Bolingbroke (E)		1	4,000
Edward, Lord Gorges		1	4,000
Sir Robert Heath, Knight		1	4,000
Sir Miles Sandys, Knight & Baronet	Wilberton, Isle of Ely	2	8,000
Sir William Russell, Knight & Baronet (son of Francis, & later 5th Earl & 1st Duke of Bedford)	Chippenham, cambs	2	8,000
Sir Robert Bevill, Knight & Baronet	Chesterton, Hunts	1	4,000
Sir Thomas Tyringham, Knight (W) or Teringham (E)	Tyringham, Bucks	2	8,000
Sir Philibert Vernatt (W) or Vernat (E)	Carleton, Yorks	1	4,000
William Sames, LL.D (W) Sams (E)		1	4,000
Anthony Hamond, Esq.	Saint Albons, Kent	2	8,000
Samuel Spalding, Gent.	Cambridge	1	4,000
Andrew Burrell, Gent.(W) Burrel (E)	London	1	4,000
Sir Robert Lovett, Knight (W) or Lovel (E)	Liscombe, Bucks	1	4,000
TOTAL		19	76,000

Notes: main source: (E) = Elstobb, 1743; (W) = Samuel Wells, 1830.  Note differences in spelling.

Wells states that Francis Russell reserved 3 shares but only took up 2, so only 19 shares were originally issued out of the 20 authorised. The remaining 20th share must have been issued soon after as it is recorded that by 10th July 1631 £10,000 had been paid. (Wells, V1 p151). Each share cost just £500 initially, but committed the holder to a 20th part of the expenses. As the works progressed and the costs increased, to a total of £93,000 by March 1637, the Adventurers had to make further payments. Some were unable or unwilling to do so and within a short time many shares were split or reassigned. According to Summers, that increased the number of Adventurers to more than 200.

Annual taxes were levied on the lands awarded in order to finance maintenance and future works. For many of the Adventurers, their share of the expenses and the taxes due outweighed income from the lands, and many were bankrupted.

Adding the King's 12,000 acres to the 80,000 acres covered by the 20 shares leaves 3,000 acres which I have not yet found to be allocated.

Offices and Meeting Places of the Company

This huge venture was managed, and initially largely financed, by Francis Russell from 1630 until his death in 1644, then by his son William, possibly working from their estate offices at Thorney. They would of course have needed a growing team of professional staff to deal with legal matters, land conveyance, accounting and record keeping, and the best place to find that was the legal area of London, the "Inns of Court", where the "Fen Office" was established within a barrister's chambers. When that was is not clear, but according to Wells the first meeting at the Fen Office"was in June 1660. The whole operation would have been administered by a "Clerk", probably a lawyer, and not to be confused with the more humble clerks who did the paperwork.

Another office would have been needed somewhere in the fens for the surveyors, engineers and superintendents, and for local people to pay their rents or lodge complaints. At some stage an office for that was opened in Ely, and confusingly also called "Fen Office".

Premises were also needed for meetings, annual or otherwise, of the Adventurers, and as their numbers increased, as mentioned above, so too didthe size of venue. The Shire Hall in Ely was used in the 1660s, but when it was first used and where else they may have met I have not fully discovered, norsome of the names of office-holders.

abridged Chronology of events and locations

town	on or from	on or to	meeting place or matter	remarks	note/src
King's Lynn	1630, Jan			Francis Russell appointed to drain fens
	1631, Feb			Incorporation of the Company of Adventurers to fund works
St. Ives	1637, Oct		Session of Sewers	adjudged land drained
Huntingdon	1638, Apr		Session of Sewers	reversed 1637 decision
	1639, Jan		Vermuyden presented his "Discourse" to K. Charles 1st		8. p40
	1642		Vermuyden published his "Discourse"		2.p369
England	1642	1651	Civil War
	1644		Francis Russell died
	1645		Oliver Cromwell appointed Gov'nr of Isle of Ely	formed drainage committee
	1649, Jan		King Charles 1st executed for high treason	Monarchy abolished, 'Commonwealth of England' eatablished as a republic
	1649		the "Pretended Act" passed by the Commonwealth	authorised William Russell & 4 others to drain land
	1649		Vermuyden re-engaged	to do the "second stage"
	1650		Jonas Moore appointed surveyor	compiled map of reclaimed land allotted to Adventurers
	1652		second stage of drainage completed
London	1656, Jan 26		Lord Chief Justice St. John's chambers, Lincoln's Inn		1. p319
Ely	1656, Sep 29			meeting of 41 adventurers	1, p305
London	1656, Feb	1657, Apr	"Mistris Henley's house"	used for Company meetings	1. p321
London	1657, Apr 18		Lord Chief Justice St. John's chambers, Lincoln's Inn	Company meeting	1. p327
London	1657, May 15		Lord Chief Justice St. John's chambers, Lincoln's Inn	Coy mtg (last here) no records of further meetings until 1660	1. p327
	1657		William Dugdale	commissioned by Adventurers to write history of fen drainage.
	1658		Cromwell died
	1660, May 8		restoration of Monarchy , Charles 2nd proclaimed king
London	1660	1663	Fen Office, Inner Temple (3 Tanfield Court?)	1st mtg recorded here was 20 Jun '60. Passed to BLC in 1663	1. p321

Officers of the Company

Clerk(s)

From	to	name	Remarks, voting
1656,	1663	Thos Bland	in 1663 became Register of BLC

Auditor

From	to	name	Remarks, voting

Surveyors and Surveyor-General

From	to	name	Remarks, voting
1650		Jonas Moore
in 1657	in 1666	Lord Richard Gorges

The original drainage contracts held by the Company of Adventurers included the ability to raise taxes for maintenance, but it became clear that the Company was not a suitable organisation to carry out long term works, nor to administer drainage of land into the main rivers, or look after navigation interests - not to mention the Company's incorporation was by a charter from the King (Charles I) not government, and therefore the legality of taxation was questionable.

A properly constituted body was obviously needed and in 1663 the General Draining Act provided a means of doing so.

Foundation of the Corporation of the Bedford Level

The 1663 Act set up the Corporation of the Bedford Level - more commonly called the Bedford Level Corporation (BLC) - to take over the work of the Company of Adventurers to be a central authority for drainage and navigation.

Offices of the Corporation

The BLC managed its business from the 'Fen Office' in London, as had the Company of Adventurers. The Office moved a number of times from one set of chambers to another, and in 1666 the building it then occupied was destroyed, along with most of the early records, in the Great Fire of London. The Office remained in London until 1843 when operations were moved to offices the BLC already occupied in Ely, two adjacent but very different buildings.

Office locations

town	from	to	address	remarks, voting
London	1663	1666	Mr Hampson's chambers, 3 Tanfield Court, Inner Temple	Burnt down in Great Fire 2nd Sept 1666
London	1666	1667	Mr Moyle's chambers Inner Temple Lane	temporary arrangement
London	1667	c1825	ground floor 3 Tanfield Court, Inner temple	purchased [from?] Mr Hampson who had erected them on the site of the old chamber
London	c1825	1843	6, Serjeants' Inn, Fleet St	in 1830, Wells wrote "Fen Office lately moved to No 6 Serjeants Inn"
London	1843		London office closed	relocated to Ely
Ely	1824	1903	St Mary's Street	3 storey building
Ely	1824	1947	Bedford House, St Mary's Street	single storey building

Ely

The two buildings still exist (in 2022) much as they were in the 1820s except the pillared doorway of the taller building was removed (from the right end judging by the brickwork) and rebuilt at the left end and perhaps changes to the ground level windows. The door on the right has the carved stonework set into the wall above the entrance representing the BLC Coat of Arms.
Front of the two Ely buildings. Note carving above right hand door (close-up below).
Rear view. Semi-circular room back of single storey bldg would have been a splendid setting for Board meetings.
Carving above the door of right hand building at Ely. Spot the differences with the coat of arms below

BLC Coat-of-Arms from map in my collection. Motto: Arridet Aridum "Dryness Pleaseth"

Wells says the annual election of the Board took place in London every year until 1809 when it "was very properly removed to Ely" (V1, p518). Wells also refers on p 557 to annual meetings in April in the Shire Hall at Ely. From the list of Registers (below) we can seen from the votes cast that some years more than 160 people attended, so a large building was needed.
 
I addition to the office in LondonThe Corporation must have had an area office in Ely from the beginning for engineers, local management and to receive rents etc, from local people, but I haven't found details prior to c1820 when one source said that it was then that the BLC acquired the two adjoining buildings in St.Mary's Street. They were apparently rebuilt c1827, and in 1841 relocation from London to Ely began; by 1843 removal was complete and the London office closed.

The taller of the two buildings was relinquished by BLC in 1905 and it became a girls school according to plaque on wall.  The single-story one was retained By BLC until at least 1947, as records talk of engineers working from it to combat the floods (source: Harvest Home, p36) (note, Ely on-line history says the Ely office was only used 1844-1864. which is clearly wrong; and they have used my photo of the front view without permission or acknowledgement, dispicable!)

The History of Ely High Sch states that In the early 19th century a three storey dwelling was erected in St Mary's Street, Ely by Thomas Page for use as a private house, and In 1824 it was acquired by BLC. In 1903 is was bought by Cambs CC, and from 1905 to 1957 it was Ely High School. The school website also confirms that BLC still occupied the single story building in 1947, and the army commandeered part of the school.

The Bedford Level and its divisions

Vermuyden's plan had divided the land of the Bedford Level into three areas, North, Middle and South Levels, and the BLC administered them all.

Gradually over very many years the three levels became more self-governing and eventually split away from the BLC. Within the Levels there were further divisions and sub-divisions. The BLC's powers and responsibilities diminished and in 1920, after 237 years, it was wound-up.

The Ouse Washes divides the Middle and South Levels, but the Washes are part of neither. The outer (north-west) bank of the Old Bedford/Delph is the Middle Level Barrier Bank; the outer (south-east) bank of the New Bedford is the South Level Barrier Bank.
Draining and irrigating the actual fields and washlands between the rivers (from Earith to Welmore Lake Sluice) has been the duty of the Hundred Foot Washes IDB from its formation (?) to the present day.

Since 1920 a variety of government authorised bodies have had responsibility for vast and sometimes different areas of which The Washes is a just a tiny part. Each were tasked with a set of duties which will be explained later, but all with responsibility for controlling the main rivers surounding the Washes.

The table below briefly summarises the management bodies and their responsibilities prior to 1920.  Like the rest of this page this is an early draft - much has to be added!