In order to give due weight to the CWAECs’ efforts at reclamation, and the difficulties faced in attempting to change landscapes and agricultural practices as fast as possible, we now turn in more detail to the coastal marshlands and the Fenland.

We saw in Chapter 8 that many different environments were subjected to committee transformation, and in line with this all around the coasts potential sites for reclamation were sought. Floodplains were inspected because their fertility might now be released for food supplies, although this placed drainage at a premium and impacted on surface water runoff and thereby on soil water regimes. Whereas rough grazing might tolerate poor drainage, arable cultivation would not, and CWAECs again had to weigh up the advisability of pushing precious resources into such areas. Decaying vegetation blocked drains if not cleared, and impeded flows in these flatter landscapes meant difficulty in clearing water away. A key fear in all such efforts therefore was extensive flooding. Examples of reclamation were to be found around much of the coastline where estuarine flats offered the possibility of crop production.

On the Norfolk coast, for example, grazing marshes at Snettisham and Dersingham, under grass since being reclaimed from the Wash, were drained using pumping engines, the straightening of ditches, infilling of old creeks and the laying of concrete roads. On the North Wootton marshes on the Castle Rising estate and at Sandringham it was a similar story, and the marshes were ploughed. Between King’s Lynn and Great Yarmouth much of the alluvial grassland was planted with potatoes, and other areas were converted to more productive grassland. In the Norfolk Broads the CWAEC exerted pressure on the internal drainage boards, dating from the 1930s, to carry out work enabling farmers to increase productivity from the marshes. New roads and walls were built to improve access and alleviate flooding, although pumping was too often reliant on private, and elderly, machinery. Private ownership of the dykes also meant that not everyone kept abreast of maintenance requirements.