The fen blow

by REX NEEDLE

PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETER SHARPE

GALES swept through the Bourne area throughout Saturday 20th March 2004 causing damage in and around the town, notably a roof collapse at Sainsburys in Exeter Street, power cuts, blocked roads, toppled trees and the displacement of a security fence at the new Hereward Meadow housing development. Many home owners also reported some damage, mainly to gardens and sheds.

The high velocity winds were at their most intense in the flat farming areas of the fens around the town, particularly in the south, where a phenomenon known as the fen blow was observed by several people. This occurs as the result of a combination of conditions, high winds and dry top soil which is whipped off the land and into a dust cloud that rolls across the countryside.

There have been many extreme manifestations of this, notably the dust bowl disaster in the Great Plains region of North America in the 1930s, particularly Oklahoma, that suffered excessive wind erosion as the result of drought and poor farming practice on once fertile soil. Similar, though less serious occurrences have been recorded in the fens in recent years, usually during dry summer months, but are comparatively unknown at this time of the year.

On Saturday, Guy Cudmore, one of our town councillors, emailed at 3.13 pm to say:

I have just driven home from the Deepings through the gales. There is a huge dust storm blowing across towards the gravel beds on Baston Fen. It is the middle of March and even after all the rain we have had, the soil is still dry enough to blow away like this. It raises many questions. Are we in a dust bowl age? What are the implications for farmers? They have removed lots of trees and hedges which would have been a windbreak. Is the good soil for which the fens are famous all being blown away leaving the unproductive clay behind? Is this global warming at work, or modern farming practices, the effect of the way the European Union disburses support to agriculture, and what are the longer term implications?

A few minutes later, Peter Sharpe, a Bourne resident, sent a message saying that a serious soil blow was occurring along the Tongue End road. "Very scary", he said. "like something out of a horror film. I have just dropped a girl off at Tongue End bridge so that she can walk through it back to Bourne, along the banks of the Bourne Eau."

Later that evening, he emailed these dramatic pictures saying; "In the few moments that I opened my car window, I was sand blasted. The girl who I dropped off at Tongue End bridge was not amused. She said she thought she was going to die at one point as she could not open her eyes and the soil was getting into her lungs. She said it took her about four hours to make her way back along the Bourne Eau with her face covered, feeling her way with her camera tripod, and she lost her wallet on the way."

WRITTEN 20th MARCH 2004