The Word Garden has created a full transcription of the Proceedings of the Adventurers, six books held by the Cambridgeshire Archives; a project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. These archives provide details of the day to day planning of the transformation the Fens by the Company in the 1650s in the time of the Commonwealth and Oliver Cromwell.
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The archive contains many fascinating stories about this key time in the history of the Fens and this country. These include the use prisoners of war from Scotland and the Netherlands to work on the engineering works, the resistance of locals, how Cromwell’s troops quelled riots, problems with finance that so nearly ended the project, as well as many other stories and details about life in these times; riots by women, corruption, disputes with the workers, arrests for stealing of turf and many more.
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In addition to the transcription, we are creating maps, an interpretive text, a history walk (with sound trail), podcasts and radio style dramas to bring the stories to life. We are also planning to hold events in Ely, Wisbech and Ramsey to share our findings.
We believe this is one of the great stories in English history and deserves to be more known.
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For more information on the project have a look at The Word Garden website - www.thewordgarden.co.uk