History
The Isle of Axholme lies to the west of the River Trent and to the east of Hatfield Chase, a vast area of low-lying land which was described as a badly drained swamp in the 1620s. It was recorded as Axeyholme, with the three syllables Ax-ey-holme meaning water-island-island being contributed by successive groups of Celts, Angles and Danes. In the reign of King Charles I, the Dutch drainage engineer Cornelius Vermuyden set about draining Hatfield Chase, containing some 70,000 acres (280 km2) of wetland, in 1626. The River Don, River Torne and River Idle were re-routed and re-channelled, and although there were some flaws in the initial scheme, and considerable social unrest, including damage of the drainage works, the unrest was finally resolved in 1719, and the agriculture of the area prospered. The Stainforth and Keadby Canal cut across the region in 1802, providing some transport facilities, but the coming of the railway age resulted in calls for railways to be built to carry the agricultural produce to market.
Read more about this topic: Axholme Joint Railway
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Let it suffice that in the light of these two facts, namely, that the mind is One, and that nature is its correlative, history is to be read and written.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized—the question involuntarily arises—to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“All objects, all phases of culture are alive. They have voices. They speak of their history and interrelatedness. And they are all talking at once!”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)