Terrington St Clement History Group

RECLAMATIONS AT TERRINGTON

The parish of Terrington St.Clement has almost doubled since 1790 by reclaiming land from the sea. The above map shows the extent of those reclamations and the dates they were undertaken. The Bentinck family were involved over several years with these reclamations and the farms they established are marked within the red rectangles i.e Welbeck Farm, Rhoon Farm, Bentinck Farm and Pierrepont Farm James Walker also reclaimed 1,500 acres marked on the map as Walkers Marsh and the farm he built there was named Balaclava and the house he built in the village he named Alma Lodge. He was also involved in several other large drainage and railway works in other parts of the country. Thomas Hoseason worked for William Bentinck when he was Governor of Madras in India and when he and Bentinck returned they both became involved in the 1763 reclamations and Hoseason built his house, Banklands, at Clenchwarton at the eastern end of the reclaimed land.

It can be seen that the early reclamations were undertaken parallel with the east bank of the Nene estuary which was the main outfall from the adjacent Fenland in the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries. The estuary was vast extending to almost include the Ouse estuary. Note the Roman Bank which was the east bank of the river Nene in Saxon times this embankment is not Roman but of a later date.

The very wide estuary of the Nene could be crossed on foot with a Wash guide from Cross Keys to Sutton Crosses near Long Sutton about a five mile trek. King John’s wagon train was purported to have been overtaken by the tide making the crossing, a good story but highly suspect.

25 square miles have been reclaimed from the sea between the Ouse and Nene since Saxon times.