The Fens in the context of "Kingdom of the East Angles"

Pumping stations, also called pumphouses, are public utility buildings containing pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are critical in a variety of infrastructure systems, such as water supply, drainage of low-lying land, canals and removal of sewage to processing sites. A pumping station is an integral part of a pumped-storage hydroelectricity installation.

Pumping stations are designed to move water or sewage from one location to another, overcoming gravitational challenges, and are essential for maintaining navigable canal levels, supplying water, and managing sewage and floodwaters. In canal systems, pumping stations help replenish water lost through lock usage and leakage, ensuring navigability. Similarly, in land drainage, stations pump water to prevent flooding in areas below sea level, a concept pioneered during the Victorian era in places like The Fens in the UK. The introduction of "package pumping stations" has modernized drainage systems, allowing a compact, efficient solution for areas where gravity drainage is impractical.

Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford PC (1587 – 9 May 1641) was an English nobleman and politician. He built the square of Covent Garden, with the piazza and St Paul's Church, employing Inigo Jones as his architect. He is also known for his pioneering project to drain The Fens of Cambridgeshire.

The Kingdom of the East Angles, informally known as the Kingdom of East Anglia, was a small independent kingdom of the Angles during the Anglo-Saxon period comprising what are now the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk and perhaps the eastern part of the Fens; the area still known as East Anglia.

The kingdom formed in the 6th century in the wake of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain and was one of the kingdoms of the Heptarchy. It was ruled by the Wuffingas dynasty in the 7th and 8th centuries, but the territory was taken by Offa of Mercia in 794. Mercian control lapsed briefly following the death of Offa but was reestablished. The Danish Great Heathen Army landed in East Anglia in 865; after taking York it returned to East Anglia, killing King Edmund ("the Martyr") and making it Danish land in 869. After Alfred the Great forced a treaty with the Danes, East Anglia was left as part of the Danelaw.

A ditch is a small-to-moderate size trench created to channel water. A ditch can be used for drainage, to drain water from low-lying areas, alongside roadways or fields, or to channel water from a more distant source for plant irrigation. Ditches are commonly seen around farmland, especially in areas that have required drainage, such as The Fens in eastern England and much of the Netherlands.

Roadside ditches may provide a hazard to motorists and cyclists, whose vehicles may crash into them and get damaged, flipped over, or stuck and cause major injury, especially in poor weather conditions and rural areas.

Downham Market, sometimes simply referred to as Downham, is a market town and civil parish in Norfolk, England. It is on the edge of the Fens, on the River Great Ouse, approximately 11 miles (18 km) south of King's Lynn, 39 miles (63 km) west of Norwich, and 30 miles (48 km) north of Cambridge.

The civil parish has an area of 5.20 square kilometres (2.01 sq mi) and at the 2011 census had a population of 9,994 in 4,637 households. It now includes the hamlet of Broomhill, formerly part of Wimbotsham parish to the north of the town.

The River Welland is a lowland river in the east of England, some 65 miles (105 km) long. It drains part of the Midlands eastwards to The Wash. The river rises in the Hothorpe Hills, at Sibbertoft in Northamptonshire, then flows generally northeast to Market Harborough, Stamford and Spalding, to reach The Wash near Fosdyke. It is a major waterway across the part of the Fens called South Holland, and is one of the Fenland rivers that were laid out with washlands. There are two channels between widely spaced embankments with the intention that flood waters would have space in which to spread while the tide in the estuary prevented free egress. However, after the floods of 1947, new works such as the Coronation Channel were constructed to control flooding in Spalding, and the washlands are no longer used solely as pasture, but may be used for arable farming.

Significant improvements were made to the river in the 1660s, when a new cut with 10 locks was constructed between Stamford and Market Deeping, and two locks were built on the river section below Market Deeping. The canal section was known as the Stamford Canal, and was the longest canal with locks in Britain when it was built. The river provided the final outlet to the sea for land drainage schemes implemented in the seventeenth century, although they were not completely successful until a steam-powered pumping station was built at Pode Hole in 1827. Navigation on the upper river, including the Stamford Canal, had ceased by 1863, but Spalding remained an active port until the end of the Second World War.

Open terrain, open country or open ground is terrain which is mostly flat and free of obstructions such as trees and buildings. Examples include farmland, grassland and specially cleared areas such as an airport.

Such terrain is significant in military manoeuvre and tactics as the lack of obstacles makes movement easy and engagements are possible at long range. Such terrain is preferred to close terrain for offensive action as rapid movement makes decisive battles possible.