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Holme Fen pole, 1929

Holme Fen post

History of Holme Fen post

When Whittlesey Mere was drained, John Lawrence took a cast-iron column that had been removed from Crystal Palace, and drove it into the clay leaving the top flush with the ground as it was in 1851. As the peat shrunk the pole was revealed. By 1955 the soil had dropped 12ft.

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This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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Capturing Cambridge makes accessible thousands of photos and memories of Cambridge and its surrounding villages and towns. It is run by the Museum of Cambridge which, though 90 years old, is one of the most poorly publicly funded local history museums in the UK. It receives no core funding from local or central government nor from the University of Cambridge.

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Museum of Cambridge