WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.819 Welcome to the deep dive I am I'm so thrilled 00:00:03.819 --> 00:00:06.379 you are joining us today because we have a truly 00:00:06.379 --> 00:00:08.679 Incredible one lined up for you. We really do. 00:00:08.699 --> 00:00:11.240 It's a fascinating topic Yeah, if you are a lover 00:00:11.240 --> 00:00:14.820 of UK travel deep history or honestly just someone 00:00:14.820 --> 00:00:17.859 who appreciates Bizarre and surprising facts. 00:00:18.440 --> 00:00:21.070 You're gonna love this We are exploring a tiny, 00:00:21.469 --> 00:00:23.690 seemingly unassuming English settlement that 00:00:23.690 --> 00:00:27.230 is actually a treasure trove of architectural 00:00:27.230 --> 00:00:31.070 genius, brutal history, and linguistic quirks. 00:00:31.129 --> 00:00:33.409 Which is saying a lot for a place so small. Right. 00:00:33.869 --> 00:00:36.229 We are talking about Eli, Cambridgeshire. Yeah. 00:00:36.310 --> 00:00:38.049 And we're going to be basing this off a really 00:00:38.049 --> 00:00:40.570 comprehensive historical and geographical profile 00:00:40.570 --> 00:00:42.549 of the city. Exactly. We're going to dig into 00:00:42.549 --> 00:00:44.450 the sources to truly understand how this place 00:00:44.450 --> 00:00:47.670 evolved from essentially a muddy hill and a swamp. 00:00:47.850 --> 00:00:50.990 into a massive medieval powerhouse. So our mission 00:00:50.990 --> 00:00:54.049 for this deep dive is to unpack how a tiny 85 00:00:54.049 --> 00:00:56.509 -foot mountain of clay. And I use the word mountain 00:00:56.509 --> 00:00:59.770 very loosely here. Very loosely. How this little 00:00:59.770 --> 00:01:02.590 bump of clay surrounded entirely by treacherous 00:01:02.590 --> 00:01:06.209 swamp managed to shape British history, define 00:01:06.209 --> 00:01:08.950 an entire era of architecture, and even invent 00:01:08.950 --> 00:01:11.349 a word that you probably use in your everyday 00:01:11.349 --> 00:01:14.969 vocabulary. It is a wild ride. It really is. 00:01:15.349 --> 00:01:19.030 And to fully grasp Ely's story, you have to start 00:01:19.030 --> 00:01:20.750 by setting the scene geographically. You have 00:01:20.750 --> 00:01:23.750 to completely erase the modern image of tidy 00:01:23.750 --> 00:01:25.650 English farmlands. Which is what it looks like 00:01:25.650 --> 00:01:29.590 today. Right. But picture a 23 square mile island 00:01:29.590 --> 00:01:32.590 made of solid Kimmeridge clay. This is dense 00:01:32.590 --> 00:01:35.349 marine clay laid down millions of years ago during 00:01:35.349 --> 00:01:38.409 the Jurassic period. And before the massive draining 00:01:38.409 --> 00:01:40.629 of the surrounding fens in the 17th century, 00:01:40.849 --> 00:01:43.640 Ely was literally an island. And while, you know, 00:01:43.819 --> 00:01:45.599 85 feet above sea level might not sound like 00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:47.099 a soaring mountain peak to you. Sounds like a 00:01:47.099 --> 00:01:50.579 mild hill. Yeah, exactly. But in the completely 00:01:50.579 --> 00:01:53.239 flat, waterlogged fenland, it is the absolute 00:01:53.239 --> 00:01:55.500 highest point of land. OK, let's unpack this. 00:01:55.920 --> 00:01:59.140 Because the name Ely itself has this fantastic, 00:01:59.700 --> 00:02:02.319 slightly gross, but mostly fascinating origin 00:02:02.319 --> 00:02:05.790 story. The history books and place name scholars 00:02:05.790 --> 00:02:07.930 have debated this for centuries. No, absolutely. 00:02:07.989 --> 00:02:10.169 It's a huge point of debate. But the most famous 00:02:10.169 --> 00:02:12.030 theory comes from the eighth century scholar 00:02:12.030 --> 00:02:15.090 Bede. He wrote the name down as Elge. That's 00:02:15.090 --> 00:02:17.349 right. And historians and linguists generally 00:02:17.349 --> 00:02:20.310 agree that Elge translates to the district of 00:02:20.310 --> 00:02:22.789 Eels or the Isle of Eels. Light of Eels. Which 00:02:22.789 --> 00:02:24.729 makes perfect sense when you look at the environment 00:02:24.729 --> 00:02:27.830 of the time. Before those fens were drained, 00:02:28.030 --> 00:02:31.370 this area was a vast, almost impenetrable network 00:02:31.370 --> 00:02:35.159 of freshwater marshes. reed beds, and these shallow 00:02:35.159 --> 00:02:37.699 lakes called mirrors. Just totally waterlogged. 00:02:37.800 --> 00:02:40.879 Yeah. It was an absolute paradise for eel fishing. 00:02:41.199 --> 00:02:43.719 I mean, the eel economy wasn't just a side hustle 00:02:43.719 --> 00:02:46.000 for the locals. It was the backbone of their 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:48.400 entire society. The numbers from the historical 00:02:48.400 --> 00:02:51.680 records absolutely blew my mind. During the Domes 00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:54.020 Day survey. Which was the ultimate 11th century 00:02:54.020 --> 00:02:57.099 tax audit. Right. Ordered by William the Conqueror. 00:02:57.479 --> 00:03:00.060 The local villages literally paid their annual 00:03:00.060 --> 00:03:03.740 rents to the Abbott in eels. Not coins, eels. 00:03:04.080 --> 00:03:06.500 It's hard to even picture. The village of Scuntney 00:03:06.500 --> 00:03:11.659 was worth 24 ,000 eels. Littleport paid 17 ,000 00:03:11.659 --> 00:03:14.780 eels. Can you imagine the sheer logistics of 00:03:14.780 --> 00:03:18.259 counting and delivering 24 ,000 slippery, wriggling 00:03:18.259 --> 00:03:20.900 fish to your landlord. It's a staggering image. 00:03:21.020 --> 00:03:23.219 You just have carts overflowing with them. The 00:03:23.219 --> 00:03:25.439 smell must have been unbelievable. Just a nightmare 00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:27.939 for the tax collector. Absolutely. Now, it is 00:03:27.939 --> 00:03:29.580 worth noting there are a couple of other historical 00:03:29.580 --> 00:03:31.960 theories about the name and the sources. Some 00:03:31.960 --> 00:03:34.039 scholars point to the old Celtic word helig. 00:03:34.270 --> 00:03:37.229 Which means? It means willows, which also grew 00:03:37.229 --> 00:03:39.530 abundantly in those marshy conditions. That's 00:03:39.530 --> 00:03:41.849 a bit more poetic than eels. It is. And there's 00:03:41.849 --> 00:03:44.150 another wonderful, highly romantic theory that 00:03:44.150 --> 00:03:46.870 the name comes from the Latin word Elysium, meaning 00:03:46.870 --> 00:03:50.349 paradise. Wow. Yeah, a medieval chronicler once 00:03:50.349 --> 00:03:52.909 described the island as a place of great spiritual 00:03:52.909 --> 00:03:55.969 importance, a veritable paradise surrounded by 00:03:55.969 --> 00:03:59.650 dangerous, unnavigable swamps. I love the Elysium 00:03:59.650 --> 00:04:01.810 theory, I really do. But I'm sticking with the 00:04:01.810 --> 00:04:04.259 eels. It's just too good. But wait, speaking 00:04:04.259 --> 00:04:07.039 of things found in the mud around Ely, I was 00:04:07.039 --> 00:04:09.020 looking at the geographical data and it threw 00:04:09.020 --> 00:04:12.439 in this amazing prehistoric curveball about the 00:04:12.439 --> 00:04:15.250 Roswell pits. What exactly were they digging 00:04:15.250 --> 00:04:19.069 up there? Yes. So in the 19th and 20th centuries, 00:04:19.350 --> 00:04:21.709 locals were quarrying those Jurassic Kimmeridge 00:04:21.709 --> 00:04:24.509 clays at the Roswell pits, mostly to make pottery 00:04:24.509 --> 00:04:27.149 and to maintain the local riverbanks. This mundane, 00:04:27.370 --> 00:04:30.430 everyday stuff. Exactly. But because that clay 00:04:30.430 --> 00:04:33.209 is a prehistoric marine deposit, they didn't 00:04:33.209 --> 00:04:36.189 just find standard rocks. They dug up massive 00:04:36.189 --> 00:04:39.370 fossils of ammonites and incredibly an almost 00:04:39.370 --> 00:04:41.970 complete specimen of a pliosaur. A pliosaur, 00:04:42.029 --> 00:04:46.100 just a giant apex predator marine reptile from 00:04:46.100 --> 00:04:48.439 the time of the dinosaurs just hanging out in 00:04:48.439 --> 00:04:50.360 the Cambridger clay. Right under their feet. 00:04:50.439 --> 00:04:51.939 And if we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:04:51.980 --> 00:04:53.740 it all comes down to the idea that geography 00:04:53.740 --> 00:04:56.779 dictates destiny. Because Ely sat on that elevated 00:04:56.779 --> 00:04:59.480 solid marine clay, it wasn't waterlogged like 00:04:59.480 --> 00:05:01.519 the rest of the fens. And the fens were massive, 00:05:01.720 --> 00:05:03.959 right? Yeah, huge. To give you an idea of the 00:05:03.959 --> 00:05:06.639 sheer scale of those waters, the fens were the 00:05:06.639 --> 00:05:09.620 drainage basin for an area of 6 ,000 square miles. 00:05:10.120 --> 00:05:12.730 It took in water from 13 different counts. That 00:05:12.730 --> 00:05:15.750 is an unbelievable amount of water. It is. So 00:05:15.750 --> 00:05:19.149 Elia was this secure, isolated haven rising out 00:05:19.149 --> 00:05:21.569 of a massive, treacherous wetland. And when you 00:05:21.569 --> 00:05:24.389 have an isolated, highly secure haven, people 00:05:24.389 --> 00:05:26.110 are eventually going to build incredible things 00:05:26.110 --> 00:05:31.319 on it. Which brings us to the year 673 AD. Queen 00:05:31.319 --> 00:05:33.439 Ethel Dreda, the daughter of an East Anglian 00:05:33.439 --> 00:05:35.839 king, founded an abbey right there on the top 00:05:35.839 --> 00:05:37.939 of the island. Which had a pretty rough start. 00:05:38.019 --> 00:05:40.100 Yeah, it was totally destroyed by Danish invaders 00:05:40.100 --> 00:05:43.240 in the year 870. But it bounced back so hard 00:05:43.240 --> 00:05:45.899 that by that 1086 doomsday survey we just talked 00:05:45.899 --> 00:05:48.680 about with the eels, it was officially the second 00:05:48.680 --> 00:05:51.180 richest monastery in all of England. Second richest 00:05:51.180 --> 00:05:54.060 in the entire country. And that immense wealth 00:05:54.060 --> 00:05:57.870 funded an absolute architectural marvel. In 1083, 00:05:58.290 --> 00:06:01.129 the first Norman bishop, a man named Simeon, 00:06:01.410 --> 00:06:03.990 started building Ely Cathedral. And it took forever. 00:06:04.370 --> 00:06:06.850 Right. Oh, over a century. It officially opened 00:06:06.850 --> 00:06:09.930 in 1189. But the most fascinating part of the 00:06:09.930 --> 00:06:12.089 cathedral story actually happened out of sheer 00:06:12.089 --> 00:06:16.829 disaster. A collapse. Yes. On February 22, 1322, 00:06:17.389 --> 00:06:19.870 the original center of the church, the main nave 00:06:19.870 --> 00:06:23.290 crossing it, completely collapse. Just a total 00:06:23.290 --> 00:06:25.449 catastrophe. Decades of work, hundreds of tons 00:06:25.449 --> 00:06:28.230 of stone just crashing to the floor. But the 00:06:28.230 --> 00:06:30.990 guy in charge of the repairs, a sacrist named 00:06:30.990 --> 00:06:33.910 Alan of Walsingham, he didn't just rebuild a 00:06:33.910 --> 00:06:36.569 boring standard square tower to patch the hole. 00:06:36.850 --> 00:06:39.089 I want to make sure we really capture how insane 00:06:39.089 --> 00:06:42.329 his solution was. He decided to turn this gaping 00:06:42.329 --> 00:06:45.660 ruined void into an enormous octagon. It was 00:06:45.660 --> 00:06:47.860 a monumental triumph of medieval engineering, 00:06:48.139 --> 00:06:49.439 especially when you consider they were working 00:06:49.439 --> 00:06:52.240 without any modern machinery. To span that massive 00:06:52.240 --> 00:06:54.779 octagonal space, Walsingham couldn't use stone. 00:06:54.939 --> 00:06:56.800 Because it would just fall again. Exactly. It 00:06:56.800 --> 00:06:58.379 would have been far too heavy for the swampy 00:06:58.379 --> 00:07:01.199 foundations and collapsed again. So he used massive 00:07:01.199 --> 00:07:04.860 oak trees. Oak trees. Huge ones. They constructed 00:07:04.860 --> 00:07:07.079 a breathtaking wooden lantern that essentially 00:07:07.079 --> 00:07:10.379 hangs in midair, suspended by a complex web of 00:07:10.379 --> 00:07:13.699 timber framing. It supports something like 400 00:07:13.699 --> 00:07:16.319 tons of wood. and lead glass above the center 00:07:16.319 --> 00:07:19.040 of the church. That is just mind -blowing. 400 00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:22.959 tons suspended in the air. The renowned architectural 00:07:22.959 --> 00:07:25.839 historian Nicholas Pevsner described this octagon 00:07:25.839 --> 00:07:29.040 as a delight for anyone who feels for space as 00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:31.800 strongly as for construction. In fact, he called 00:07:31.800 --> 00:07:34.920 it the greatest individual achievement of architectural 00:07:34.920 --> 00:07:38.339 genius at Eli Cathedral. And because the cathedral 00:07:38.339 --> 00:07:41.060 is built on that 85 -foot elevation of solid 00:07:41.060 --> 00:07:44.220 clay, its profile is completely unique. It earned 00:07:44.220 --> 00:07:46.730 the brilliant nickname the ship of the fins. 00:07:46.829 --> 00:07:49.269 Which is such a great image. It really is. For 00:07:49.269 --> 00:07:51.129 over 800 years, if you were wandering through 00:07:51.129 --> 00:07:53.410 the flat misty marshes or rowing a boat through 00:07:53.410 --> 00:07:55.970 the reeds, you would look up and see this massive, 00:07:55.990 --> 00:07:59.009 majestic stone ship dominating the skyline for 00:07:59.009 --> 00:08:02.069 miles in every direction. It served as a beacon. 00:08:02.410 --> 00:08:05.689 But that towering presence also begs the question 00:08:05.689 --> 00:08:08.810 of who actually held the power in this isolated, 00:08:08.949 --> 00:08:12.269 wealthy fortress. The historical records detail 00:08:12.269 --> 00:08:15.110 a unique legal arrangement called the Liberty 00:08:15.110 --> 00:08:18.310 of Eli. The Liberty of Eli. Right. Because the 00:08:18.310 --> 00:08:20.689 abbey and the island were so strategically and 00:08:20.689 --> 00:08:23.689 economically vital, the bishops of Eli were granted 00:08:23.689 --> 00:08:28.009 incredible sweeping powers. They operated what's 00:08:28.009 --> 00:08:30.389 historically known as a county palatine. Which 00:08:30.389 --> 00:08:32.269 basically means they weren't just spiritual leaders 00:08:32.269 --> 00:08:34.370 giving sermons on Sunday. They were essentially 00:08:34.370 --> 00:08:37.690 ruling monarchs of their own territory. Precisely. 00:08:38.049 --> 00:08:40.789 For anyone not deeply steeped in medieval law, 00:08:41.070 --> 00:08:43.429 a county palatine means the bishop had the same 00:08:43.429 --> 00:08:46.450 absolute legal and judicial power in that specific 00:08:46.450 --> 00:08:49.549 territory as the sovereign king or queen of England 00:08:49.549 --> 00:08:51.970 did. That is wild. They collected their own taxes, 00:08:52.090 --> 00:08:54.029 appointed their own judges, and essentially ran 00:08:54.029 --> 00:08:56.389 a kingdom within a kingdom. Bishop kings. And 00:08:56.389 --> 00:08:58.889 they held on to those massive powers for centuries. 00:08:59.230 --> 00:09:01.549 The royal privilege of the liberty of Eli wasn't 00:09:01.549 --> 00:09:04.289 fully extinguished until 1837. That's a very 00:09:04.289 --> 00:09:08.169 long run. It is. But having absolute unchecked 00:09:08.169 --> 00:09:11.529 power in an isolated swamp, that sounds like 00:09:11.529 --> 00:09:13.950 a recipe for some pretty dark chapters. Here's 00:09:13.950 --> 00:09:17.070 where it gets really interesting and a little 00:09:17.070 --> 00:09:19.740 grim. It certainly does. The historical record 00:09:19.740 --> 00:09:22.820 for Ely isn't just soaring architecture and wealthy, 00:09:22.919 --> 00:09:25.919 benevolent bishops. It was a deeply turbulent 00:09:25.919 --> 00:09:29.179 era of religious upheaval. During the Marian 00:09:29.179 --> 00:09:31.919 persecutions in the mid 16th century, when Queen 00:09:31.919 --> 00:09:34.419 Mary the First was aggressively enforcing strict 00:09:34.419 --> 00:09:37.320 Catholic laws across England, Ely became a site 00:09:37.320 --> 00:09:40.500 of severe religious executions. The records note 00:09:40.500 --> 00:09:43.779 that in 1555, two Protestant men from Wisbeck, 00:09:44.080 --> 00:09:46.360 William Woolsey and Robert Pygett were accused 00:09:46.360 --> 00:09:48.370 of harassing regarding the sacrament of mass. 00:09:48.850 --> 00:09:50.590 They were condemned by the bishop's chancellor 00:09:50.590 --> 00:09:53.289 and burned at the stake. And this likely happened 00:09:53.289 --> 00:09:55.629 right on Palace Green. Just a stone throw from 00:09:55.629 --> 00:09:57.230 the front doors of that beautiful cathedral. 00:09:57.490 --> 00:10:00.370 It is a stark, jarring contrast to the romantic 00:10:00.370 --> 00:10:04.250 idea of Ely as an untouched Elysium. And the 00:10:04.250 --> 00:10:06.529 intense religious and political tension continued 00:10:06.529 --> 00:10:09.350 right into the next century with Ely's most famous 00:10:09.350 --> 00:10:12.850 resident. Albert Cromwell. Exactly. He inherited 00:10:12.850 --> 00:10:15.070 St. Mary's Vicarage from his uncle and lived 00:10:15.070 --> 00:10:19.009 in Ely from 1636 to 1646. Cromwell is obviously 00:10:19.009 --> 00:10:21.679 a massive Highly polarizing figure in British 00:10:21.679 --> 00:10:24.120 history, leading the parliamentarian armies against 00:10:24.120 --> 00:10:26.840 King Charles I. But during his decade in Ely, 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:29.320 he was living a surprisingly bureaucratic life. 00:10:29.799 --> 00:10:32.100 He worked as a local tax collector and served 00:10:32.100 --> 00:10:34.539 as a governor for a local charity. And amazingly, 00:10:34.759 --> 00:10:37.179 that charity still exists today, providing grants 00:10:37.179 --> 00:10:39.379 to local applicants. That's so cool. You can 00:10:39.379 --> 00:10:41.120 actually still have ended his family home in 00:10:41.120 --> 00:10:43.000 Ely, right? Yeah, it's currently the Tourist 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:45.850 Information Center. The irony of a fiercely Puritan 00:10:45.850 --> 00:10:47.889 revolutionary's home becoming a place to pick 00:10:47.889 --> 00:10:51.049 up postcards isn't lost on historians. Not at 00:10:51.049 --> 00:10:53.549 all. But the dark side of Ely's autonomy didn't 00:10:53.549 --> 00:10:57.269 stop with Cromwell's era. If we look at the 18th 00:10:57.269 --> 00:11:00.409 century, we have the bishop's jail or jail. Oh, 00:11:00.409 --> 00:11:02.870 this was horrifying. Because the bishop owned 00:11:02.870 --> 00:11:05.289 the prison under those special Palatine powers, 00:11:05.769 --> 00:11:08.370 oversight was basically nonexistent. When the 00:11:08.370 --> 00:11:10.850 famous prison reformer John Howard visited, he 00:11:10.850 --> 00:11:12.690 found conditions that sound like a horror movie. 00:11:12.830 --> 00:11:15.570 The jailer didn't receive a regular state funded 00:11:15.570 --> 00:11:18.549 salary, so he had to run the prison as cheaply 00:11:18.549 --> 00:11:21.549 as humanly possible. To prevent escapes without 00:11:21.549 --> 00:11:25.009 hiring guards, he used an incredibly cruel method. 00:11:25.049 --> 00:11:27.629 It's awful. He would chain the prisoners down 00:11:27.629 --> 00:11:30.409 flat on their backs to the stone floor, lay heavy 00:11:30.409 --> 00:11:33.570 iron bars across their bodies and fasten iron 00:11:33.570 --> 00:11:35.590 collars with sharp spikes around their necks 00:11:35.590 --> 00:11:37.509 so they couldn't even move their heads. Just 00:11:37.509 --> 00:11:40.710 absolutely brutal. It really paints a picture 00:11:40.710 --> 00:11:43.600 of a city that had fallen incredibly far from 00:11:43.600 --> 00:11:46.639 its medieval golden age. In fact, a major turning 00:11:46.639 --> 00:11:49.399 point for Ely's downfall. was the dissolution 00:11:49.399 --> 00:11:51.700 of the monasteries. When Henry VIII stepped in. 00:11:51.720 --> 00:11:53.759 Right. When he decided to break from the Catholic 00:11:53.759 --> 00:11:56.580 Church in 1539 and disband the monasteries to 00:11:56.580 --> 00:11:59.259 take their immense wealth, Ely went into a massive 00:11:59.259 --> 00:12:02.240 economic slump. The abbey's wealth was gutted, 00:12:02.519 --> 00:12:05.080 the monks were dispersed, and the city lost its 00:12:05.080 --> 00:12:08.120 primary economic engine. And the historical reviews 00:12:08.120 --> 00:12:10.220 left by writers and journalists from the centuries 00:12:10.220 --> 00:12:13.320 that followed are frankly hilarious in how incredibly 00:12:13.320 --> 00:12:15.659 harsh they are. They did not mince words at all. 00:12:15.789 --> 00:12:19.309 No, they didn't. In 1607, the surveyor William 00:12:19.309 --> 00:12:23.129 Camden visited and just wrote that Ely was unwholesome 00:12:23.129 --> 00:12:25.190 because of the fens. Basically calling the whole 00:12:25.190 --> 00:12:28.470 city a stinky swamp. Exactly. And then Daniel 00:12:28.470 --> 00:12:30.830 Defoe, the famous writer of Robinson Crusoe, 00:12:30.889 --> 00:12:34.629 visited in 1722. He took one look at that magnificent 00:12:34.629 --> 00:12:37.049 cathedral and joked that it tottered so much 00:12:37.049 --> 00:12:39.470 in the wind and looked so close to decaying that 00:12:39.470 --> 00:12:41.409 the only surprising thing about it would be that 00:12:41.409 --> 00:12:43.529 it hadn't completely fallen down a hundred years 00:12:43.529 --> 00:12:47.500 sooner. Such a burn. and William Cobbett in 1830 00:12:47.500 --> 00:12:49.940 delivered perhaps the bluntest assessment of 00:12:49.940 --> 00:12:52.919 all, calling it a miserable little town, poor 00:12:52.919 --> 00:12:55.820 and mean, claiming that everything was in decline 00:12:55.820 --> 00:12:58.100 specifically because the clergy were the masters. 00:12:58.320 --> 00:13:00.820 Poor and mean. Poor and mean. You have to love 00:13:00.820 --> 00:13:03.620 the brutal honesty of 19th century travel writers. 00:13:03.950 --> 00:13:06.389 So what does this all mean? How does a miserable, 00:13:06.730 --> 00:13:09.350 poor, and mean town bounce back from centuries 00:13:09.350 --> 00:13:11.909 of decline? Well, it turns out Ely's is a city 00:13:11.909 --> 00:13:15.009 of incredible cultural quirks that echo far beyond 00:13:15.009 --> 00:13:17.450 its borders. Yeah, I saw a note in the historical 00:13:17.450 --> 00:13:20.210 profile about local markets actually shaping 00:13:20.210 --> 00:13:22.529 the English dictionary, specifically the word 00:13:22.529 --> 00:13:26.149 tawdry. How does a medieval swamp market give 00:13:26.149 --> 00:13:29.049 us a word we still use today? This is one of 00:13:29.049 --> 00:13:31.909 my absolute favorite linguistic quirks. It all 00:13:31.909 --> 00:13:34.389 ties back to Queen Ethel Dreta, the original 00:13:34.389 --> 00:13:36.370 founder of the Abbey we mentioned earlier. She 00:13:36.370 --> 00:13:38.649 was also known as St. Audrey. St. Audrey, okay. 00:13:39.210 --> 00:13:43.149 Starting way back in 1189, Ely hosted a massive 00:13:43.149 --> 00:13:45.490 seven -day annual event called St. Audrey's Fair. 00:13:45.970 --> 00:13:48.470 Okay, so people are traveling from all over to 00:13:48.470 --> 00:13:50.700 attend this fair. What are they buying? Among 00:13:50.700 --> 00:13:53.379 other things, vendors sold these brightly colored, 00:13:53.720 --> 00:13:56.279 very cheaply made silk lace necklaces. They called 00:13:56.279 --> 00:13:59.440 them St. Audrey's Lace. Over time, as people 00:13:59.440 --> 00:14:01.799 spoke quickly and accents shifted, the words 00:14:01.799 --> 00:14:04.179 St. Audrey got mashed together. Like they do. 00:14:04.419 --> 00:14:06.919 Right. St. Audrey became Sam Tawdry and eventually 00:14:06.919 --> 00:14:09.899 just Tawdry, Tawdry Lace. That is amazing. Tawdry 00:14:09.899 --> 00:14:12.899 is literally a linguistic corruption of St. Audrey. 00:14:13.299 --> 00:14:15.019 And that is exactly where the modern English 00:14:15.019 --> 00:14:18.039 dictionary gets the word meaning something cheap. 00:14:18.250 --> 00:14:20.950 gaudy and low quality. A word we throw around 00:14:20.950 --> 00:14:23.889 today was born from cheap souvenirs in a medieval 00:14:23.889 --> 00:14:26.629 Fenland market. What's fascinating here is how 00:14:26.629 --> 00:14:29.730 the extreme physical isolation of the island 00:14:29.730 --> 00:14:33.750 bred these unique microcultures and highly specific 00:14:33.750 --> 00:14:36.429 local trades. Another great example from the 00:14:36.429 --> 00:14:39.750 historical profile is Babylon ware. Babylon where? 00:14:40.450 --> 00:14:43.029 Yes. Ely was a major center for pottery production 00:14:43.029 --> 00:14:47.250 for over 700 years, utilizing that same Kimmeridge 00:14:47.250 --> 00:14:49.850 clay that held the Playasaur. But around the 00:14:49.850 --> 00:14:52.269 year 1200, the routing of the River Graydouse 00:14:52.269 --> 00:14:55.570 was changed, and it physically cut off a specific 00:14:55.570 --> 00:14:58.009 group of potters from the main city center. They 00:14:58.009 --> 00:15:00.250 were marooned in their own city. The river just 00:15:00.250 --> 00:15:02.750 bypassed them. And by the 17th century, this 00:15:02.750 --> 00:15:05.230 totally cut off area became known locally as 00:15:05.230 --> 00:15:08.090 Babylon, and the distinctive pottery they made 00:15:08.250 --> 00:15:10.590 Babylon where? That's brilliant, but their isolation 00:15:10.590 --> 00:15:12.190 actually got even worse centuries later, right? 00:15:12.230 --> 00:15:15.590 It did. In 1847, a new railway line was built 00:15:15.590 --> 00:15:18.250 right through the area, cutting them off so thoroughly 00:15:18.250 --> 00:15:20.490 that the residents could only cross into central 00:15:20.490 --> 00:15:23.590 Ely by taking a boat. That railway actually highlights 00:15:23.590 --> 00:15:26.929 a wonderful modern paradox about Ely. Today, 00:15:27.169 --> 00:15:29.909 the parish population is just over 20 ,000 people, 00:15:30.450 --> 00:15:32.669 making it one of the absolute smallest official 00:15:32.669 --> 00:15:36.360 cities in all of England. And yet, its railway 00:15:36.360 --> 00:15:39.419 station, originally built in 1845, turned this 00:15:39.419 --> 00:15:42.820 tiny place into a massive, crucial transportation 00:15:42.820 --> 00:15:46.539 hub. It punches far above its weight. Five major 00:15:46.539 --> 00:15:49.000 railway lines converge at that small station 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:51.559 connecting London, Norwich, Peterborough, and 00:15:51.559 --> 00:15:54.259 the North. It became the vital beating heart 00:15:54.259 --> 00:15:56.980 of East Anglian transport. It's the little city 00:15:56.980 --> 00:16:00.500 that could. And despite its small size, its pop 00:16:00.500 --> 00:16:03.450 culture footprint is surprisingly huge. If you've 00:16:03.450 --> 00:16:05.730 ever read the classic children's book Tom's Midnight 00:16:05.730 --> 00:16:08.049 Garden, parts of it are directly set in Eli, 00:16:08.309 --> 00:16:09.870 including those beautiful scenes of ice skating 00:16:09.870 --> 00:16:11.629 on the frozen river all the way down to Cambridge. 00:16:11.950 --> 00:16:13.710 Right. Or if you visit Palace Green today, you'll 00:16:13.710 --> 00:16:15.629 find an actual Russian cannon captured during 00:16:15.629 --> 00:16:18.190 the Crimean War in the 1850s, given to the people 00:16:18.190 --> 00:16:21.350 of Ely by Queen Victoria herself. And the musical 00:16:21.350 --> 00:16:24.029 connections are equally notable. For fans of 00:16:24.029 --> 00:16:26.629 classic rock, the iconic album cover for Pink 00:16:26.629 --> 00:16:30.250 Floyd's 1994 record, The Division Bell, was photographed 00:16:30.250 --> 00:16:33.120 right there in Eli. Really? Yeah. The designer, 00:16:33.379 --> 00:16:37.259 Storm Sorgerson, erected two massive facing metal 00:16:37.259 --> 00:16:39.879 head sculptures in a waterlogged field with the 00:16:39.879 --> 00:16:42.419 majestic ship of the Fens looming clearly in 00:16:42.419 --> 00:16:45.279 the background. It perfectly captures that moody, 00:16:45.279 --> 00:16:47.860 isolated Fenland atmosphere. Oh, and for sports 00:16:47.860 --> 00:16:50.759 fans, the world famous Oxford -Cambrid boat race 00:16:50.759 --> 00:16:53.440 is almost exclusively held on the River Thames 00:16:53.440 --> 00:16:55.960 in London. But twice in its long history, it 00:16:55.960 --> 00:16:58.519 had to be moved. Due to some pretty extreme circumstances. 00:16:58.919 --> 00:17:01.320 Exactly. Once in 1944, because it was too dangerous 00:17:01.320 --> 00:17:03.700 in London during World War II, and again in 2021 00:17:03.700 --> 00:17:06.400 due to the COVID -19 pandemic. Both times. Where 00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:08.579 did they go? They raced on the River Great House, 00:17:08.839 --> 00:17:11.359 right on the outskirts of E. It is genuinely 00:17:11.359 --> 00:17:14.640 incredible how many disparate threads of history, 00:17:15.140 --> 00:17:18.000 engineering, and culture run through this one 00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:21.700 small 85 foot hill. Which brings us back to you 00:17:21.700 --> 00:17:25.059 listening. Why does ELE matter to your understanding 00:17:25.059 --> 00:17:28.359 of the world? Ultimately, ELE is a masterclass 00:17:28.359 --> 00:17:31.200 in how geography shapes human settlement, endurance, 00:17:31.559 --> 00:17:35.150 and innovation. It really is. A simple bump of 00:17:35.150 --> 00:17:38.529 dense marine clay rising out of a massive treacherous 00:17:38.529 --> 00:17:41.750 swamp became a sanctuary from invaders. That 00:17:41.750 --> 00:17:44.230 sanctuary birthed an architectural wonder that 00:17:44.230 --> 00:17:46.609 pushed the absolute limits of medieval engineering. 00:17:46.950 --> 00:17:49.730 And that wonder created an independent fiefdom 00:17:49.730 --> 00:17:52.950 of bishop kings who wielded absolute power. And 00:17:52.950 --> 00:17:54.910 the culture of that island anchored new language, 00:17:55.269 --> 00:17:57.609 unique art, and eventually highly resilient modern 00:17:57.609 --> 00:18:00.049 infrastructure. Ely proves that you do not need 00:18:00.049 --> 00:18:02.369 to be a sprawling global metropolis. to leave 00:18:02.369 --> 00:18:04.549 a massive permanent footprint on human history. 00:18:04.849 --> 00:18:07.029 And that leads to a fascinating inflection point 00:18:07.029 --> 00:18:09.609 in Ely's history. During the 17th century, a 00:18:09.609 --> 00:18:11.750 wealthy nobleman named Francis Russell, the Earl 00:18:11.750 --> 00:18:14.509 of Bedford, decided he wanted to conquer the 00:18:14.509 --> 00:18:16.589 swamp. Big ambition. He financed the draining 00:18:16.589 --> 00:18:19.609 of the fens, bringing in a brilliant Dutch engineer 00:18:19.609 --> 00:18:23.230 named Cornelius Vermijden. Together, they systematically 00:18:23.230 --> 00:18:26.869 drained 6 ,000 square miles of water, rerouting 00:18:26.869 --> 00:18:29.509 rivers and turning the impenetrable swamps into 00:18:29.509 --> 00:18:32.890 incredibly flat, fertile farms. land. Practically 00:18:32.890 --> 00:18:35.150 overnight, Ely ceased to be an island. Which 00:18:35.150 --> 00:18:37.329 leaves you with a final lingering thought for 00:18:37.329 --> 00:18:40.210 the day. That massive Dutch engineering project 00:18:40.210 --> 00:18:42.809 transformed the landscape. But it wasn't permanent 00:18:42.809 --> 00:18:45.109 magic. It requires constant pumping to keep the 00:18:45.109 --> 00:18:47.390 water at bay. It's an ongoing battle. Today, 00:18:47.390 --> 00:18:49.829 with global climate change accelerating and sea 00:18:49.829 --> 00:18:52.509 level steadily rising, low -lying areas like 00:18:52.509 --> 00:18:55.170 the Fens are facing an existential threat. If 00:18:55.170 --> 00:18:57.650 the rising tides eventually overwhelm those centuries 00:18:57.650 --> 00:19:00.029 -old drainage systems, could the waters return? 00:19:00.220 --> 00:19:02.980 Might Ely one day find itself cut off from the 00:19:02.980 --> 00:19:05.539 world again, returning to its roots as an isolated 00:19:05.539 --> 00:19:08.640 Isle of Eels, with its majestic ship of the Fens 00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:11.619 once again accessible only by boat? Something 00:19:11.619 --> 00:19:13.420 to mull over. Thanks for diving deep with us 00:19:13.420 --> 00:19:13.640 today.