Our speaker for 28th July was our own Peter Tatum with his talk entitled, The Fens and Fenmen. For centuries, the Fenmen lived in a world shaped by water. Before the great drainage schemes of the 17th century, the region was a mosaic of meres, reed beds and shifting channels. Life demanded skill and adaptability: fishing, wildfowling, sedge cutting and peat digging formed the backbone of a culture deeply attuned to the rhythms of the marsh. The arrival of Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden changed the Fens forever. His ambitious drainage works straightened rivers, carved new channels and transformed vast areas of wetland into farmland. Villages grew, agriculture flourished and the character of the region shifted dramatically. Yet the spirit of the Fenmen — practical, resilient and quietly determined — endured.