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. Divisions and environs South Yorkshire is divided into four local government districts they are the City of Sheffield, the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland AC = "according to the Annales Cambriae " The Battle of Hatfield (O Events By Place Europe Oswald of Bernicia becomes Bretwalda. Osric becomes king of Deira. It was a royal hunting ground until Charles I appointed the Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden to drain it in 1626. Charles I, (19 November 1600 &ndash 30 January 1649 was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution. Sir Cornelius Vermuyden (born Tholen, Netherlands, 1590 died London, October 1677 was a Dutch Engineer who introduced Dutch reclamation methods This changed the whole nature of a wide swathe of land including the Isle of Axholme and caused legal disputes for the rest of the century. The Isle of Axholme is part of North Lincolnshire, England. It is the only part of Lincolnshire west of the River Trent.

History of the Drainage

Original watercourses and the drainage scheme

Hatfield Chase lay above the confluence of three rivers, the Don, the Torne and the Idle, which meandered into the Trent near its entrance to the Humber. This article is about the river in South Yorkshire England For other rivers with the same name see Don River (disambiguation. The River Idle is a River in Nottinghamshire, England. Its source is the confluence of the River Maun and River Meden, near The River Trent is one of the major rivers of England. Its source is in Staffordshire between Biddulph and Biddulph Moor. The whole of this area, apart from the Isle of Axholme, is less than 10 feet above sea level and was therefore subject to frequent flooding. Although the area included some common land it was unlawful to take fish or game though many locals gained their livelihood by fishing and fowling ^[1] the area which was unsuitable for agriculture. Fowling is a term which is perhaps better known in The Fens of eastern England than elsewhere

The circumstances of Charles' appointment of Vermuyden to drain this area in 1626 are obscure. A story that he had accompanied an earlier royal hunting party is almost certainly fictional. ^[2] But the king was keen to make his assets profitable and the contract divided the land into three parts, one for the king, one for the adventurers who would drain the land and the remainder for those locals who had interests in the land. An adventurer or adventuress is a term that usually takes one of three meanings One whose travels are unusual and often exotic though not so unique as to qualify

Vermuyden brought over a number of Walloon partners, known as the Participants, who took shares and performed the drainage work, including a number of Huguenot families fleeing from religious persecution who settled at Sandtoft^[3]. The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France (or French Calvinists) from the sixteenth to the eighteenth The work was substantially completed by 1628 at a cost of £400,000^[4].

The eastern branch of the Don river was blocked and the banks of the northern branch into the River Aire were raised^[5]. The River Aire is a major River in Yorkshire, England of length 114km (71m The River Idle was blocked and its waters were diverted into the River Trent at Stockwith along the Bycar Dyke. West Stockwith is a village within the Bassetlaw district of Nottinghamshire, England. The Torne was straightened by cutting a drain which emptied via a sluice into the Trent at Althorpe. A sluice is a water channel that is controlled at its head by a gate Althorpe is a small village lying on the A18 west of Scunthorpe, in North Lincolnshire in England. Additional drains were also dug which also emptied into the Trent here. In 1629, a Court of Sewers for the Level of Hatfield Chase was established by Royal Warrant.

The drainage transformed the whole area, creating rich agricultural land where there had previously been swamps though it was still subject to periodic flooding.

Many local people were not very happy with the outcome. Those entitled to common rights, mainly from the Isle of Axholme, claimed they had been allotted the worst land. There were complaints of flooding from those further down the Don in the villages of Fishlake, Sykehouse and Snaith. The Civil parish of Sykehouse is an administrative area of the metropolitan borough of Doncaster (part of South Yorkshire, England) on Snaith is a town in the East Riding of Yorkshire local government area of England. Recrimination against foreign settlers was encouraged by those who had lost their fishing and other livelihood.

The most significant change was the diversion of the Don into the River Ouse at Goole in 1633 which Vermuyden had to pay for. The River Ouse (pronounced "ooze" is a river in North Yorkshire, England. Goole is a Town, Civil parish and port located approximately inland on the River Ouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire, This eventually became the wide Dutch River after several drains were swept into one following a great flood.

After various lawsuits and petitions, locals took action during the confusion of the Civil War and flooded Hatfield Chase by raising floodgates and damaging banks and sluices. The English Civil War (1642-1651 was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists. Riots broke out when the courts finally ruled against them in 1650. Peace was restored, but lawsuits continued for the rest of the century and were not finally resolved until 1719. Year 1719 ( MDCCXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a

The Court of Sewers continued until the 19th century when it became the Hatfield Chase Corporation and this survived until 1941 when it was incorporated into the Trent River Catchment Board. Today the watercourses of Hatfield Chase are managed by the Corporation of the Level of Hatfield Chase Internal Drainage Board. An Internal Drainage Board (IDB is a type of Operating authority which occur in areas of special Drainage need in England and Wales with permissive powers

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