#216: Wicken Fen- 125th anniversary

2024 marks the 125th anniversary of the founding of Wicken Fen.

From the website:

Before 1899, the Sedge Fen area was home to a thriving sedge-harvesting community, and was frequented by naturalists who delighted in this remnant of undrained fenland. 

In the 19th century, Wicken Fen became popular with Victorian naturalists - while there isn't evidence that Charles Darwin actually visited Wicken, he is known to have collected beetles in the fens in 1820. Later, during the first half of the 20th century, Cambridge botanists Sir Harry Godwin and Dr Arthur Tansley - recognised as the fathers of modern ecology and conservation - carried out cutting-dge studies in the area.

In the late 19th century, with the local sedge and peat industries collapsing, naturalists paid villagers to assist with collecting trips on the Fen, and also bought up land from them. Distinguished entomologist Herbert Goss suggested the National Trust should consider saving Wicken Fen as early as 1898, as it was 'the haunt of much wildlife'. These naturalists then sold or gifted their land at Wicken to the newly-formed National Trust, including J C Moberley whose two acres were sold to the organisation for £10. Other notable donors included George Verrall, MP for Newmarket, who bequesthed 239 acres, on his death in 1911. Banker Charles Rothschild, an early influential figure in nature conservation donated parts of St Edmunds and Adventurers' Fens in 1901.

In 1999 - to mark the 100th anniversary of the first acquisition - the Wicken Fen Vision was launched, a 100-year project that will see the nature reserve expanded from Wicken Fen to the edge of Cambridge. Since 1999, the size of the reserve has more than doubled, for the benefit of wildlife, and for access into green space for people.

Image: © National Trust Images/Rob Coleman

Wicken Fen is very close to Ely, and the school where I work.

#132: London Plane

I am fortunate to work in a school whose grounds have some ancient trees. 

The 75-acre campus is home to a wonderful array of trees, including of course the legendary Great London Plane Tree of Ely. 

This, the oldest tree we have, is in the grounds of the Old Palace, Ely.

From the King's Ely website:

Following the ravages of the Civil War, restoration projects in Cambridgeshire included the Bishop’s Palace, and it was following the Palace’s refurbishment in 1674 that the tree was gifted to and planted by the Bishop of Ely at the time, Peter Gunning.

In June 2002 and in celebration of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, The Tree Council designated the Great London Plane Tree of Ely as one of the ‘Top 50 British Trees’ – and it even has its place in national heritage.

In 2012, King’s Ely took over custody of the tree and it is thanks to the expertise and care of the school’s Grounds Team, with support from Barcham Trees, based just south of Ely, that the magnificent specimen continues to flourish as the largest and oldest living example of the London Plane Tree in the UK.
In 2013, King’s Ely launched a project with Barcham Trees to take cuttings from the Plane Tree and to nurture and grow them on as a direct strain of the original UK trees. With the support of East Cambridgeshire District Council’s trees officers, the first cuttings were taken in 2014. To everyone’s relief, the cuttings took hold and the young Plane Trees started to grow under the watchful eye of arborists at Barcham Trees.

In October 2018, one of those young Plane Trees was planted in the Old Palace Gardens – not far from its ‘parent’ – and in November 2018, two of the young Plane Trees were delivered to London’s Kew Gardens and Norfolk’s Sandringham Estate. Other cuttings have been planted at Denston Hall in Suffolk, Parham Hall in Suffolk and at the Arboricultural Association in Gloucestershire.
More details on the tree here.

Here's a Big Big Train track with the same name, describing the Thames and the mudlarks.

Image: Old Palace Grounds at King's Ely - Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license