JanJen

By JanJen

May challenge - mad (ness)

This is the Stretham Old Pump, near Ely in Cambridgeshire. It was built in the Victorian times and its function was to pump water out of the fens by steam engines, hence the tall chimney. It was seen as MADness trying to drain the water from the Fens as far back as the 15 th century. However a Dutchman - Cornelius Vermuyden came to the rescue and constructed the new Bedford river and the sluices which help prevent the flooding in the winter. The pumps in those days were windmills and in Victorian times steam engines. Latterly electric engines are used to keep the water flowing.

A little enhancement to sepia, I think, gives a better impression of a defunct industrial building.

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