Imbanking Commissioners.

Commissioners for imbanking fen lands and low grounds within the Parishes of Chatteris, Doddington and Wimblington, also known as the ‘Imbanking Commissioners’

In 1791 an Act of Parliament was enacted for the “Imbanking and Draining certain Fen Lands and Low Grounds, within the Parishes of Chatteris and Dodington, and Hamlet of Wimblington, in the said Parish of Dodington, in the Isle of Ely, and County of Cambridge; and for dividing, alotting and inclosing the Commons and Waste Lands within the said Hamlet of Wimblington.”

This Act and the Imbanking Commissioners pre-dated the first Middle Level Act (1810) and subsequent legislation that established the Middle Level Commissioners and what we now know as Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs). They also pre-dated any form of Local Authority or Highways Authority. The Act has never been repealed.

In summary, the purpose of the Act was to protect low grounds north of the Forty Foot Drain from Carters Bridge to the junction of the Sixteen foot drain, northwards along the Sixteen Foot drain to Boots Bridge and then along the road to Wimblington and then following the Turnpike Road back to Carters Bridge. Today this area located within the Middle Level Commissioners’ district and also within the district of Cuff & Wimblington Combined IDB.

At the time the banks of the Forty Foot and Sixteen Foot were “in so ruinous state, that the Fen Lands and Low Grounds to the said Banks are in part overflowed and the remainder of the said lands and grounds are in imminent danger of being in the same state, to the great prejudice and hazard of the owners and occupiers thereof.”

In short, they were empowered to maintain the banks of the Forty Foot and Sixteen Foot for that area. Within the Act they also had powers to ensure Roads/Droves were not dug up (Turf cutting for fuel was problematic and widespread at the time). As part of the Act, they were giver power to enclose 10 acres of land to provide an income from rental.

In terms of ‘membership’, the original Act still holds, and we hold an annual meeting of the Commissioners immediately after the Curf & Wimblington Combined IDB– generally assuming the elected members for Curf Pumping Station District within the IDB qualify as Commissioners.

They own and rent this land today, drawing a modest income that they struggle to use as the Act places restrictions as to what the funds can be used for based on circumstances relevant in 1791.