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Earith Bulwark

History of Earith Bulwark

Schedule Monument:

The Bulwark was strategically placed to command an important river crossing at the western end of the fen causeway which linked Huntingdon to the the Isle of Ely; and to control traffic on both the River Great Ouse, and the earlier of the two artificial navigations (the Old Bedford River), constructed by the engineer Vermuyden in the 1630’s. The monument includes the fieldwork with its square inner enclosure, corner bastions, perimeter defences and outworks; and a small steel-domed gun emplacement positioned within the earlier fortifications during World War II.

The Bulwark, Earith (Royal Commission of Historical Monuments)

After the Battle of Dunbar (1650) Scottish prisoners were quartered in the fort while digging the New Bedford River.

See extensive description:

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1013282?section=official-listing

See also:

Mike Osborne, Defending Cambridgeshire

Royal Archaeological Institute 1967 p.12 notes that the designer of the bulwark is undocumented but there are advanced ideas behind the plan and it evidences the influence of the the Dutch School of fortification. As such it is an important example of fortification.

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