A monk named Guthlac came to what was then an island in the Fens to live the life of a hermit and he dwelt at Croyland between 699 and 714.
People of Market Deeping, Deeping Gate and Deeping St James, together with other villages along the River Welland, presented a petition to Elizabeth I, requesting that the fens should be drained, as the banks of the river and of the neighbouring River Glen were in a poor state of repair.
While broadcasting as 'Star Fens' the station also covered the Ely and Littleport areas as well, until the 107.1 frequency was taken over by Star 107.9 (Cambridge) - their sister station.
Ligularia sibirica, a perennial herbaceous plant species native to fens and damp grassy meadows in Siberia, Central and Eastern Europe
Much of the Prickwillow area lies below sea level so, in order to ensure that the land remained arable, a series of steam pumping engines were installed at the base of the newly dug drain, linked to the River Lark.
The main job of the Drain is to gather the waters pumped from the Kesteven Fens, the Holland Fens and the Weir Dyke, a soak dike in Bourne North Fen, alongside the Bourne Eau and River Glen, northwards and eastwards to the Black Sluice at Boston, where they are discharged to the tidal waters of The Haven.
In the 1820s, several wharves were built on the Fens Branch, to serve the developing collieries near Kingswinford, and the company considered applying for a new Act of Parliament in 1829, to give them powers to build extra lines in this area, but they did not proceed.
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A separate company built the Stourbridge Extension Canal from the Fens Branch to Shut End (in Kingswinford) thus opening up another part of the coalfield to development.