Bedford Level Corporation

The Bedford Level Corporation (or alternatively the Corporation of the Bedford Level) was founded in England in 1663 to manage the draining of the Fens of East Central England. It formalised the legal status of the Company of Adventurers previously formed by the Duke of Bedford to reclaim 95,000 acres of the Bedford Level.

The low-lying land of East Central England, known as the Fens, consisted traditionally of semi-continuous marshland and peat bog interspersed with isolated patches of higher ground. Agriculture has only been made possible by a co-ordinated system of drainage ditches. During medieval times this was controlled by the great monasteries in the area but fell into disrepute after the dissolution. By the 1600s the general drainage situation was so bad that King Charles I invited Cornelius Vermuyden, the Dutch engineer, to devise a scheme to drain the Great Fen.

The Great Fen, lying between the Wash and Cambridge, is more popularly known as the Bedford Level after Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford, who owned a large part of it. It covers some 300,000 acres in the historical counties of Northamptonshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire and much of it lies below sea level. It was divided under Vermuyden's plan into three areas, North, Middle and South Level.

Following the King's initiative The Duke of Bedford was asked to undertake to free the Bedford Level from flooding as an alternative to giving the project to Vermuyden. In 1630 he agreed a contract with the Commissioners of Sewers (who were responsible for fenland drainage) which was known as the "Lynn Law" after the town of King's Lynn where it was drawn up. The Earl and his 12 associates, known as Adventurers (i.e. venture capitalists), contracted to drain the southern part of the fens within 6 years in return for 95,000 acres of the reclaimed land. 12,000 acres would go to the King and 80,000 would be allocated amongst the adventurers in proportion to their financial investment. The latter would be in terms of £500 shares, 20 in all. The shares were wholly and partly transferable and thus the list of shareholders changed and grew. Charges on the land reclaimed would fund maintenance and future development. The constitution and the rights to levy charges was confirmed by Royal Charter in the name of Charles I.

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