Cornelius Vermuyden
Encyclopedia
Sir Cornelius Wasterdyk Vermuyden (Sint-Maartensdijk, 1595 – London
, 11 October 1677) was a Dutch engineer
who introduced Dutch reclamation methods to Britain, and made the first important attempts to drain The Fens
of East Anglia
.
in Zeeland
, Netherlands.
After training in the Netherlands, Vermuyden's first known activities in England were on the Thames, repairing a sea wall at Dagenham and the reclamation of Canvey Island
, Essex
, between 1621 and 1623, financed by the Dutch haberdasher Joas Croppenburg to whom he was related by marriage.
This, or perhaps work at Windsor
, brought him to the notice of Charles I
, who commissioned him in 1626 to drain Hatfield Chase
in the Isle of Axholme
, Lincolnshire
, as the King was Lord of the four principal manors there: Hatfield, Epworth, Crowle and Misterton, as well as 13 of the adjacent manors. Vermuyden was to receive one third of the drained land, most of which had previously been common, as recompense for his investment, and to finance the draining he sold shares in this land to other investors, including some fellow Dutchmen; some French
and Walloon
Protestant refugees also settled in the area as landowners or tenants. The King also intended to enclose one third of the common fen in his right of "improvement" as the Lord of the Manor, leaving only one-third for those who had common rights of pasturage in the fens.
The local people were upset by the procedure, particularly those of the Manor of Epworth whose lord had already enclosed part of the commons in the 14th century and then signed a legal document giving up all subsequent rights of enclosure within the manor. As with other fen drainage schemes at the time, the locals did not hate drainage per se, but were very angry about the large enclosures of their common pasture and turbary fens and the threat this posed to their common rights. Right from 1627, the richer members of the community brought a series of legal challenges and lawsuits, even as large groups of commoners (not necessarily poor people, but including some substantial farmers) rioted against the works and the enclosures. Particularly because the legal position of the commoners of Epworth was so unique, the legal debate over the drainage and enclosures lasted even into the eighteenth century.
Vermuyden was knighted in 1629 and became a British citizen in 1633.
The work on Hatfield Chase was only partially successful as the straightening of the river Don and outlet into the Aire
caused flooding in Fishlake
, Sykehouse
and Snaith
. As a result of a lawsuit in 1633, he dug the Dutch River which provided a direct route from the Don to the River Ouse at Goole
, depleting most of the land that he had acquired in the Chase, though the same year he bought 4000 acres (16.2 km²) of land in Sedgemoor
on the Somerset Levels
and Malvern Chase
in Worcestershire
and entered into a partnership in the lead mines in Wirksworth
which he drained by means of a sough
.
Contrary to popular belief, Vermuyden was not involved with the draining of the "Great Fen
" in Cambridgeshire
and Norfolk
in the 1630s, but only became involved with the second phase of construction in the 1650s. This area of marshland was drained by a labyrinth of rivers which had been inadequately maintained since before the dissolution of the monasteries in 1537, the monasteries having had most of the responsibility for keeping the channels clear. The initial plan for the drainage was based on a proposal by John Hunt in 1604 – 1605, to construct a new river 21 miles (33.8 km) long from Earith
to Denver
, shortening the length of the River Great Ouse by many miles. It would eventually be named the Bedford River (subsequently Old Bedford River) after Francis, Earl of Bedford
who was the chief Adventurer. Eight other channels were also either created or improved. The operation was judged as substantially complete in 1637, but attracted criticism partly because of its limited aim to provide "summer lands", leaving the winter floods still to occupy the land.
The adventurers had been offered 95000 acres (384.5 km²) as the reward for their work, but this was thrown into confusion first by the riots which erupted against the enclosures (and which would continue periodically into the 1650s), and then by the king who had the granting of Bedford's contract reversed and himself declared as the chief undertaker taking 52000 acres (210.4 km²) and leaving the other parties with only 40000 acres (161.9 km²). It was at this time that Vermuyden became involved with the Great Level, as in 1637 he wrote a "Discourse Touching the Draining of the Great Fennes" for the king, though it was not published until 1642. In this discourse, he proposed two new innovations to the drainage scheme: washes – areas of land allowed to flood in periods of bad weather to absorb the extra water which could not find its way to the sea – and a catchdrain around the eastern edge of the fen. The first would be constructed as part of the second phase of drainage in the 1650s, but the latter would not be dug until the twentieth century.
Charles I appointed Vermuyden as his own agent for the draining on 19 September 1639, but it was not until 5 August that Vermuyden received approval for his drainage plan. The Crown was in a precarious position with all three of its kingdoms and lacked both sufficient funds and attention to pay to the works in the Great Level, but Vermuyden did begin works there, widening the River Nene below Horseshoe Sluice, banking the north side of Morton's Leam (and beginning on the south), setting a new sluice Shire Drain and cutting a new channel at the mouth of the Nene through the salt marshes to the sea. Vermuyden was still working in the Great Level as of May 1642, but was now responding to the House of Lords, rather than the beleaguered king, and, having received perhaps less than £5000, was continually in arrears for the wages of his workmen.
During the Civil War
, the drainage appears to have been halted by the chaos of war, and the original drainers – now headed by Bedford's heir William
– began to seek an Act of Parliament to overturn the King's overturning of their undertaking and restore them to all of the 95000 acres (384.5 km²) first awarded in January 1630/31. By 29 May 1649, a few months after the King's execution, they had succeeded and an Act of Parliament was passed (later known as "The Pretended Act") which restored them to the undertaking and gave their claim to the enclosures the force of law.
Before this time, Vermuyden's activities are not clear; there is some inconclusive evidence that one of his nephews may have acted as a colonel of horse in the parliamentary army, alongside Oliver Cromwell
in the Eastern Association
army. But with the beginning of the second phase of Bedford-led construction, Vermuyden was again appointed as the director of the works in January 1649/50.
This second phase included continuing the work of both the first and the king's (1.5 phase), as well as the digging of the New Bedford River
(with a large area of wash between it and the Bedford River) and the Forty Foot Drain
. It also established Denver Sluice to stop tides and flood water from depositing silt into the Great Ouse to the east of Ely. However, it did not include his projected "cutoff channel" which was designed to take flood water from the southern rivers, the Wissey
, Little Ouse and Lark
, away from Denver and this proved an ongoing cause of flooding, not finally cured till the early 1960s. Due to the high cost of labour, and the continuing unpopularity of the project among the local inhabitants, both Scottish and Dutch prisoners of war (after the Battles of Dunbar
and the start of the war with the Dutch respectively) were used as labourers in this phase of construction.
Vermuyden's relationship with the other adventurers was never easy and by 1655 they had parted company altogether. Several other initiatives came to nothing including a proposal for a treaty between England and the States-General of the Netherlands
made to Cromwell, and efforts to drain his areas of Sedgmoor and Malvern Chase. He had 13 children and his son Cornelius became a founding member of the Royal Society
in 1663 and the Royal African Company
.
Despite the initial success of the reclamation, the drying of the land caused the peat
to shrink greatly, lowering the land below the height of the drainage channels and rivers, and the reclaimed farmland became susceptible to flooding once again. By the end of the 17th century, much of the reclaimed land was sporadically underwater, and would remain so until the advent of steam-powered pumps in the early 19th century. An excellent example of this fall in land can be seen at the pumps near Ramsey Forty Foot
, where animal-powered pumps, steam pumps and now fossil-fuel pumps are all co-located, at different heights, giving an example of both the development of technology and the fall in land levels.
on Canvey Island is named after him, as is a pub (the Vermuyden Hotel) in Goole
.
His family crest and motto ("Nothing Without Work") is the official motto of South Cambridgeshire District Council
.
Vermuyden and his work are mentioned in a negative context in the Lincolnshire
legend of the Tiddy Mun
.
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, 11 October 1677) was a Dutch engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
who introduced Dutch reclamation methods to Britain, and made the first important attempts to drain The Fens
The Fens
The Fens, also known as the , are a naturally marshy region in eastern England. Most of the fens were drained several centuries ago, resulting in a flat, damp, low-lying agricultural region....
of East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
.
Life
Cornelius was the son of Giles Vermuyden and Sarah Werkendet and was born in 1595 on the Isle of TholenTholen
Tholen is a municipality in the southwest of the Netherlands. The municipality of Tholen has lent its name from the town of Tholen, which is the largest population center in the municipality....
in Zeeland
Zeeland
Zeeland , also called Zealand in English, is the westernmost province of the Netherlands. The province, located in the south-west of the country, consists of a number of islands and a strip bordering Belgium. Its capital is Middelburg. With a population of about 380,000, its area is about...
, Netherlands.
After training in the Netherlands, Vermuyden's first known activities in England were on the Thames, repairing a sea wall at Dagenham and the reclamation of Canvey Island
Canvey Island
Canvey Island is a civil parish and reclaimed island in the Thames estuary in England. It is separated from the mainland of south Essex by a network of creeks...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, between 1621 and 1623, financed by the Dutch haberdasher Joas Croppenburg to whom he was related by marriage.
This, or perhaps work at Windsor
Windsor, Berkshire
Windsor is an affluent suburban town and unparished area in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is widely known as the site of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the British Royal Family....
, brought him to the notice of Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
, who commissioned him in 1626 to drain Hatfield Chase
Hatfield Chase
Hatfield Chase was a low-lying area in South Yorkshire, England which often flooded and is chiefly known from the Battle of Hatfield Chase in 633. It was a royal hunting ground until Charles I appointed the Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden to drain it in 1626...
in the Isle of Axholme
Isle of Axholme
The Isle of Axholme is part of North Lincolnshire, England. It is the only part of Lincolnshire west of the River Trent. It is between the three towns of Doncaster, Scunthorpe and Gainsborough.- Description:...
, Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
, as the King was Lord of the four principal manors there: Hatfield, Epworth, Crowle and Misterton, as well as 13 of the adjacent manors. Vermuyden was to receive one third of the drained land, most of which had previously been common, as recompense for his investment, and to finance the draining he sold shares in this land to other investors, including some fellow Dutchmen; some French
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
and Walloon
Walloons
Walloons are a French-speaking people who live in Belgium, principally in Wallonia. Walloons are a distinctive community within Belgium, important historical and anthropological criteria bind Walloons to the French people. More generally, the term also refers to the inhabitants of the Walloon...
Protestant refugees also settled in the area as landowners or tenants. The King also intended to enclose one third of the common fen in his right of "improvement" as the Lord of the Manor, leaving only one-third for those who had common rights of pasturage in the fens.
The local people were upset by the procedure, particularly those of the Manor of Epworth whose lord had already enclosed part of the commons in the 14th century and then signed a legal document giving up all subsequent rights of enclosure within the manor. As with other fen drainage schemes at the time, the locals did not hate drainage per se, but were very angry about the large enclosures of their common pasture and turbary fens and the threat this posed to their common rights. Right from 1627, the richer members of the community brought a series of legal challenges and lawsuits, even as large groups of commoners (not necessarily poor people, but including some substantial farmers) rioted against the works and the enclosures. Particularly because the legal position of the commoners of Epworth was so unique, the legal debate over the drainage and enclosures lasted even into the eighteenth century.
Vermuyden was knighted in 1629 and became a British citizen in 1633.
The work on Hatfield Chase was only partially successful as the straightening of the river Don and outlet into the Aire
River Aire
The River Aire is a major river in Yorkshire, England of length . Part of the river is canalised, and is known as the Aire and Calder Navigation....
caused flooding in Fishlake
Fishlake
Fishlake is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster. It has a population of 628.-References:...
, Sykehouse
Sykehouse
The civil parish of Sykehouse is a civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England, on the border with the East Riding of Yorkshire. It had a population of 438 in 2001.-Geography:...
and Snaith
Snaith
Snaith is a town in the East Riding of Yorkshire local government area of England. It is situated approximately west of Goole on the A1041 road at its junction with the A645 road...
. As a result of a lawsuit in 1633, he dug the Dutch River which provided a direct route from the Don to the River Ouse at Goole
Goole
Goole is a town, civil parish and port located approximately inland on the confluence of the rivers Don and Ouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England...
, depleting most of the land that he had acquired in the Chase, though the same year he bought 4000 acres (16.2 km²) of land in Sedgemoor
Sedgemoor
Sedgemoor is a low lying area of land in Somerset, England. It lies close to sea level south of the Polden Hills, historically largely marsh . The eastern part is known as King's Sedgemoor, and the western part West Sedgemoor. Sedgemoor is part of the area now known as the Somerset Levels...
on the Somerset Levels
Somerset Levels
The Somerset Levels, or the Somerset Levels and Moors as they are less commonly but more correctly known, is a sparsely populated coastal plain and wetland area of central Somerset, South West England, between the Quantock and Mendip Hills...
and Malvern Chase
Malvern Chase
Malvern Chase occupied the land between the Malvern Hills and the River Severn in Worcestershire and extended to Herefordshire from the River Teme to Cors Forest....
in Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...
and entered into a partnership in the lead mines in Wirksworth
Wirksworth
Wirksworth is a small market town in Derbyshire, England, with a population of over 9,000.The population of the Wirksworth area including Cromford, Bolehill and Middleton-by-Wirksworth is about 12,000. Wirksworth is listed in the Domesday Book in 1086. Within it is the source of the River...
which he drained by means of a sough
Sough
A sough is an underground channel for draining water out of a mine. Its ability to drain a mine depends on the bottom of the mine being higher than a neighbouring valley...
.
Contrary to popular belief, Vermuyden was not involved with the draining of the "Great Fen
The Fens
The Fens, also known as the , are a naturally marshy region in eastern England. Most of the fens were drained several centuries ago, resulting in a flat, damp, low-lying agricultural region....
" in Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
and Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
in the 1630s, but only became involved with the second phase of construction in the 1650s. This area of marshland was drained by a labyrinth of rivers which had been inadequately maintained since before the dissolution of the monasteries in 1537, the monasteries having had most of the responsibility for keeping the channels clear. The initial plan for the drainage was based on a proposal by John Hunt in 1604 – 1605, to construct a new river 21 miles (33.8 km) long from Earith
Earith
Earith is a village in the Fens of Cambridgeshire, England, south of Chatteris and east of Huntingdon. At Earith, two artificial diversion channels of the River Great Ouse, the Old Bedford River and the New Bedford River, leave the river on a course to Denver Sluice near Downham Market, where they...
to Denver
Denver, Norfolk
Denver is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is located on the River Great Ouse, 1 mile south of the small town of Downham Market, 14 miles south of the larger town of King's Lynn, and 37 miles west of the city of Norwich.The civil parish has an area of...
, shortening the length of the River Great Ouse by many miles. It would eventually be named the Bedford River (subsequently Old Bedford River) after Francis, Earl of Bedford
Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford
Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford PC was an English politician. About 1631 he built the square of Covent Garden, with the piazza and church of St. Paul's, employing Inigo Jones as his architect...
who was the chief Adventurer. Eight other channels were also either created or improved. The operation was judged as substantially complete in 1637, but attracted criticism partly because of its limited aim to provide "summer lands", leaving the winter floods still to occupy the land.
The adventurers had been offered 95000 acres (384.5 km²) as the reward for their work, but this was thrown into confusion first by the riots which erupted against the enclosures (and which would continue periodically into the 1650s), and then by the king who had the granting of Bedford's contract reversed and himself declared as the chief undertaker taking 52000 acres (210.4 km²) and leaving the other parties with only 40000 acres (161.9 km²). It was at this time that Vermuyden became involved with the Great Level, as in 1637 he wrote a "Discourse Touching the Draining of the Great Fennes" for the king, though it was not published until 1642. In this discourse, he proposed two new innovations to the drainage scheme: washes – areas of land allowed to flood in periods of bad weather to absorb the extra water which could not find its way to the sea – and a catchdrain around the eastern edge of the fen. The first would be constructed as part of the second phase of drainage in the 1650s, but the latter would not be dug until the twentieth century.
Charles I appointed Vermuyden as his own agent for the draining on 19 September 1639, but it was not until 5 August that Vermuyden received approval for his drainage plan. The Crown was in a precarious position with all three of its kingdoms and lacked both sufficient funds and attention to pay to the works in the Great Level, but Vermuyden did begin works there, widening the River Nene below Horseshoe Sluice, banking the north side of Morton's Leam (and beginning on the south), setting a new sluice Shire Drain and cutting a new channel at the mouth of the Nene through the salt marshes to the sea. Vermuyden was still working in the Great Level as of May 1642, but was now responding to the House of Lords, rather than the beleaguered king, and, having received perhaps less than £5000, was continually in arrears for the wages of his workmen.
During the Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
, the drainage appears to have been halted by the chaos of war, and the original drainers – now headed by Bedford's heir William
William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford
William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford KG PC was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 until 1641 when he inherited his Peerage and sat in the House of Lords...
– began to seek an Act of Parliament to overturn the King's overturning of their undertaking and restore them to all of the 95000 acres (384.5 km²) first awarded in January 1630/31. By 29 May 1649, a few months after the King's execution, they had succeeded and an Act of Parliament was passed (later known as "The Pretended Act") which restored them to the undertaking and gave their claim to the enclosures the force of law.
Before this time, Vermuyden's activities are not clear; there is some inconclusive evidence that one of his nephews may have acted as a colonel of horse in the parliamentary army, alongside Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
in the Eastern Association
Eastern Association
The Eastern Association of counties was a Parliamentarian or 'Roundhead' army during the English Civil War. It was formed from a number of pro-Parliamentary militias in the east of England in 1642, including a troop of cavalry led by Oliver Cromwell...
army. But with the beginning of the second phase of Bedford-led construction, Vermuyden was again appointed as the director of the works in January 1649/50.
This second phase included continuing the work of both the first and the king's (1.5 phase), as well as the digging of the New Bedford River
New Bedford River
The New Bedford River, also known as the Hundred Foot Drain because of the distance between the tops of the two embankments on either side of the river, is a man-made cut-off or by-pass channel of the River Great Ouse in the Fens of Cambridgeshire, England. It provides an almost straight channel...
(with a large area of wash between it and the Bedford River) and the Forty Foot Drain
Forty Foot Drain
In the drainage schemes of The Fens of Eastern England, some of the principal drainage channels are each known as The Forty Foot or Forty Foot Drain, the name being qualified when there is a need to distinguish between them...
. It also established Denver Sluice to stop tides and flood water from depositing silt into the Great Ouse to the east of Ely. However, it did not include his projected "cutoff channel" which was designed to take flood water from the southern rivers, the Wissey
River Wissey
The River Wissey is a river in Norfolk, eastern England. It rises near Bradenham, and flows for nearly to join the River Great Ouse at Fordham...
, Little Ouse and Lark
River Lark
The River Lark is a river in England, which crosses the border between Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. It is a tributary of the River Great Ouse, and was extended when that river was re-routed as part of drainage improvements. It is thought to have been used for navigation since Roman times, and...
, away from Denver and this proved an ongoing cause of flooding, not finally cured till the early 1960s. Due to the high cost of labour, and the continuing unpopularity of the project among the local inhabitants, both Scottish and Dutch prisoners of war (after the Battles of Dunbar
Battle of Dunbar (1650)
The Battle of Dunbar was a battle of the Third English Civil War. The English Parliamentarian forces under Oliver Cromwell defeated a Scottish army commanded by David Leslie which was loyal to King Charles II, who had been proclaimed King of Scots on 5 February 1649.-Background:The English...
and the start of the war with the Dutch respectively) were used as labourers in this phase of construction.
Vermuyden's relationship with the other adventurers was never easy and by 1655 they had parted company altogether. Several other initiatives came to nothing including a proposal for a treaty between England and the States-General of the Netherlands
States-General of the Netherlands
The States-General of the Netherlands is the bicameral legislature of the Netherlands, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The parliament meets in at the Binnenhof in The Hague. The archaic Dutch word "staten" originally related to the feudal classes in which medieval...
made to Cromwell, and efforts to drain his areas of Sedgmoor and Malvern Chase. He had 13 children and his son Cornelius became a founding member of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
in 1663 and the Royal African Company
Royal African Company
The Royal African Company was a slaving company set up by the Stuart family and London merchants once the former retook the English throne in the English Restoration of 1660...
.
Despite the initial success of the reclamation, the drying of the land caused the peat
Peat
Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter or histosol. Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and peat swamp forests. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world...
to shrink greatly, lowering the land below the height of the drainage channels and rivers, and the reclaimed farmland became susceptible to flooding once again. By the end of the 17th century, much of the reclaimed land was sporadically underwater, and would remain so until the advent of steam-powered pumps in the early 19th century. An excellent example of this fall in land can be seen at the pumps near Ramsey Forty Foot
Ramsey, Cambridgeshire
Ramsey is a small Cambridgeshire market town and parish, north of Huntingdon and St Ives. For local government purposes it lies in the district of Huntingdonshire within the local government county of Cambridgeshire....
, where animal-powered pumps, steam pumps and now fossil-fuel pumps are all co-located, at different heights, giving an example of both the development of technology and the fall in land levels.
Trivia
Cornelius Vermuyden School and Arts CollegeCornelius Vermuyden School and Arts College
Cornelius Vermuyden School and Arts College is a Foundation, comprehensive school for boys and girls ages 11–16 with a specialism in the arts. Located in Canvey Island, Essex, the school is named after the famous Dutch land engineer Sir Cornelius Vermuyden who was famous for reclaiming large areas...
on Canvey Island is named after him, as is a pub (the Vermuyden Hotel) in Goole
Goole
Goole is a town, civil parish and port located approximately inland on the confluence of the rivers Don and Ouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England...
.
His family crest and motto ("Nothing Without Work") is the official motto of South Cambridgeshire District Council
South Cambridgeshire District Council
South Cambridgeshire District Council is the local authority for the district of South Cambridgeshire in Cambridgeshire, England. Based in Cambourne, it forms the lower part of the two tier system of local government in the district, below Cambridgeshire County Council...
.
Vermuyden and his work are mentioned in a negative context in the Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
legend of the Tiddy Mun
Tiddy Mun
Tiddy Mun was a bog spirit worshipped in Lincolnshire, England, who supposedly had the ability to control the waters and mists of the Fens.-Legend:...
.