BEDFORD LEVEL, the name given to a flat district on the eastern coast of England, comprising the greater part (amounting to 450,000 acres) of the marshy district called the Fens, the whole isle of Ely in Cambridgeshire, and a portion of the south of that county, 30,000 acres of Suffolk, 63,000 acres of Norfolk, 57,000 of Huntingdon, about 8000 of Northamptonshire, and the south-eastern portion of Lincolnshire. The extent of the whole tract is 60 miles in length, from Milton in Cambridge to Toynnton in Lincoln; its breadth is about 40 miles, from Peterborough in Northampton to Brandon in Suffolk. The boundary on three sides is of an irregular form, giving it something of a horse-shoe shape, with the opening terminated by the sea on the north.
This district obtained its present name from the agreement of Francis Earl of Bedford, the principal landholder, and thirteen other adventurers, with Charles I. in 1634, to drain the level, on condition of receiving 95,000 acres of the reclaimed land. This district has within historic periods undergone remarkable changes. In the time of the Romans it was a dense forest, which, as a stronghold of the Britons, those invaders destroyed. It then became a swamp, through which the lazy waters of the Ouse, the Welland, the Nene, and Wisbeach, crept to the sea. In the thirteenth century, the sea here, as in other parts of N.W. Europe, burst its
boundaries, and the inundated land became a pestilential swamp. The first attempt to drain this morass seems to have been made in the year 1436, and embankments and ditches were formed at a great expense. These, however, were swept away during the ensuing winter by the flooding of the river Ouse. Another partial attempt at drainage was made by Bishop Moreton in the reign of Henry VII., but this also proved a failure. An act was passed in the 44th year of Queen Elizabeth for effecting its reclamation; but the first effectual attempt at reclaiming it was not made until 1634, as already mentioned; and many embankments and canals were constructed at various intervals at an expense above one million sterling. Three years after the agreement of the Earl of Bedford and his partners with the king, after an outlay of £1,100,000 on the part of the company, the contract was annulled, on the fraudulent plea that the works were insufficient; and an offer was made by King Charles to undertake its completion on condition of receiving 57,000 acres in addition to the amount originally agreed on. This unjust attempt was frustrated by the breaking out of the civil war; and no further attempt at drainage was made till 1649, when the parliament reinstated the Earl of Bedford's successor in his father's rights. After an additional outlay of £300,000, the adventurers received 95,000 acres of reclaimed land, according to the contract, which however fell far short of repaying the expense of the undertaking. In 1664 a royal charter was obtained to incorporate the company, which still exists, and carries on the concern under a governor, 6 bailiffs, 20 conservators, and a commonalty, each of whom must possess 100 acres of land in the level, and has a voice in the election of officers. The conservators must each possess not less than 280 acres, the governor and bailiffs each 400 acres. The original adventurers had allotments of land according to their interest of the original 95,000 acres; but Charles II., on granting the charter, took care to secure to the crown a lot of 12,000 acres out of the 95,000, which, however, is held under the directors, whereas the allotments are not held in common, though subject to the laws of the corporation. The level was divided in 1697 into three parts, called the North, Middle, and South Levels, comprising respectively the tracts between the Welland and the Nene, the Nene and Old Bedford rivers, and the third between Old Bedford river and the southern limit of the level.
Since then extensive works have at different times been carried on to complete the drainage of this district; but the most effectual are under the Acts of 1827 and 1829, for "improving the outfall of the Nene," "The Navigation of the Wisbeach," and "The Embanking of the Salt Marshes between the canal called Kinderley Cut and the sea." Vessels of 60 tons burden can now come up to the town of Wisbeach at all tides, and those of from 100 to 200 tons at spring tides. The draining of the lower lands, which, like the Dutch Polders, are below low-water mark, was carried on by windmills; but these have now been almost superseded by steam-engines, with great advantage: in the North Level the drainage is effected by sluices without either windmills or steam-engines. As the result of these extensive operations, the level now abounds in rich pasture and corn lands. (Moore, Dodson, and Burrell, on the Bedford Level; Parliamentary Papers, 1827-29.)