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The Fenland Research Committee
Stumps of a large Yew tree (Taxus baccata) at Isleham Fen, Cambridgeshire, being examined in 1935 by ProfessorA.C. Seward (Chairman of the Fenland Research Committee) and DrH.Godwin. From: Godwin, Sir H., 1978 Fenland: its ancient past and uncertain future. Cambridge University Press.
By the 1930s, the evolution of ideas concerning Archaeology, thedevelopment of the Fenland and the need to apply a stratigraphicalapproach to place securely all the evidence had reached a point whereit became evident that a co-ordinated approach was required toinvestigate the region. So it was that in June 1932 the FenlandResearch Committee, a working group of amateurs and professionals, wasestablished. Its first President was the University of Cambridge Professor of Botany, Dr A.C. (later Sir Albert) Seward, its Secretary Professor Grahame Clark and its Vice-President was the Ely sugar-beetfactory manager Major Gordon Fowler.
Other archaeological members included C.W. Phillips, the archaeological officer of the Ordnance Survey, T.C.Lethbridge and M.C. Burkitt.Geological matters were overseen by the Head of the Cambridge GeologyDepartment, Professor O.T. Jones, assisted by Dr W.A. Macfadyen.Professor J.A. Steers and H.C. Darby (Department of Geography,University of Cambridge) represented Physical and Historical Geography, respectively. Critically, the palaeobotanical and stratigraphical investigations were undertaken by Dr H. (later Sir Harry) Godwinof the Cambridge Department of Botany. Others, particularly includingthe Chief Engineers of the River Great Ouse Catchment Board, O.Borer and W.E.Doran, also made important contributions.
Many others assisted at excavations and at its height the committee included some 42 members. Of particular significance was O.G.S.Crawford, the Ordnance Survey pioneer in air photography who provided vital cartographical support for the Committee's investigations.
The great importance of the Fenland Research Committee was that it represented the first example of a fully co-ordinated multidisciplinary research organisation established to understand the evolution of the Fenland's Quaternary geology, its archaeology and its environmentalevolution. This was achieved by undertaking considerable field-basedresearch in the Fenlands, often determined by chance finds. More importantly, the Committee also initiated field projects at sites selected because they "were expected to yield high dividends" (Godwin,1978).
It is a great pity that these intensive and highly-rewarding activities were brought to an abrupt end after only a few short years in 1940 bythe Second World War. Dispersal of the members meant that meetings were never resumed. "Nevertheless the body had then served the function ofhaving stimulated and focussed scientific interest from many directions upon the problems of Fenland history, and for that matter had generated the impulse to found similar research ventures independently in other regions" (Godwin, 1978). After the war, some of the sites were reinvestigated using new information and techniques. In particular, pollen analysis and peat stratigraphic studies were continued and greatly expanded in the Cambridge Botany Department (the Botany School) where in 1948 the University had established the Subdepartment of Quaternary Research , under its first director, Harry Godwin .
Further reading
Godwin, Sir H., 1978 Fenland: its ancient past and uncertain future. Cambridge University Press, Ch.5.
(download for fuller details on this topic).
Smith, P.J., 1997 Grahame Clark's new archaeology: the Fenland Research Committee and Cambridge prehistory in the 1930s. Antiquity 71, 11-30.
(download )
More information on Dr P.J.Smith's research on the history of archaeological research in Cambridge.
Excavations for Fenland archaeology (photograph courtesy of P.J.Smith).
Roddens (abandoned river channels) on the surface of the Fens (photograph courtesy of P.J.Smith).