The position of The Fens in eastern England.^[1]

The Fens, also known as the Fenland(s), are a naturally marshy region in eastern England. Most of the fens were drained several centuries ago, resulting in a flat, damp, low-lying agricultural region.

A fen is the local name for an individual area of marshland or former marshland and also designates the type of marsh typical of the area, which has neutral or alkaline water chemistry and relatively large quantities of dissolved minerals, but few other plant nutrients.

The Fenland primarily lies around the coast of the Wash; it reaches into two of the nine official regions of England (the East of England and the East Midlands), four ceremonial counties (Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and a small area of Suffolk), eleven District Councils and six postcode areas (LN, PE, CB, IP, NR and NG). The whole occupies an area of nearly 1,500 sq mi (3,900 km²).^[2]

Most of the Fenland lies within a few metres of sea-level. As with similar areas in the Netherlands, much of the Fenland originally consisted of fresh- or salt-water wetlands, which have been artificially drained and continue to be protected from floods by drainage banks and pumps. With the support of this drainage system, the Fenland has become a major arable agricultural region in Britain for grains and vegetables. The Fens are particularly fertile, containing around half of the grade 1 agricultural land in England.

The Fens have been referred to as the "Holy Land of the English" because of the churches and cathedrals of Ely, Ramsey, Crowland, Thorney and Peterborough.^[3][4] Other significant towns in the Fens include Cambridge, Boston, Spalding, Wisbech and King's Lynn.

Introduction[link]

A windpump at Wicken Fen

The Fens are very low-lying compared with the chalk and limestone uplands that surround them – in most places no more than 10 m above sea level. Indeed, as a result of drainage and the subsequent shrinkage of the peat fens, many parts of the Fens now lie below mean sea level. Although one writer in the seventeenth century described the Fenland as all lying above sea level (in contrast to the Netherlands),^[5] the area is now home to the lowest land point in the United Kingdom, Holme Fen in Cambridgeshire, at around 2.75 metres below sea level.^[6] Within the Fens there are a few hills, which have historically been called "islands" as they remained dry when the low-lying fens around them were flooded. The largest of the fen-islands is the Isle of Ely, on which the cathedral city of Ely was built; its highest point is 39 m above mean sea-level.^[7]

Without artificial drainage and flood protection, the Fens would be liable to periodic flooding, particularly in winter due to the heavy load of water flowing down from the uplands and overflowing the rivers. Some areas of the Fens were once permanently flooded, creating small lakes or meres, while others were only flooded during periods of high water. In the pre-modern period arable farming was limited to the higher areas of the surrounding uplands, the fen islands and the so-called Townlands, an arch of silt ground around the Wash where the towns had their arable fields. Though these lands were lower than the peat fens before the peat shrinkage began, the more stable silt soils were reclaimed by medieval farmers and embanked against any floods coming down from the peat areas or from the sea. The rest of the Fenland was dedicated to pastoral farming, fishing, fowling and the harvesting of reeds or sedge, for example for thatch. In this way, the medieval and early modern Fens stood in contrast to the rest of southern England, which was primarily an arable agricultural region.

Since the advent of modern drainage in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Fens have been radically transformed, so that today arable farming has almost entirely replaced pastoral and the economy of the Fens is heavily invested in the production of crops such as grains, vegetables and some cash crops such as rapeseed or canola.

Drainage in the Fenland consists of both river drainage and internal drainage of the land between the rivers. The internal drainage was organized by levels or districts, each of which includes the fen parts of one or several parishes. The details of the organization vary with the history of their development, but the areas include:

• The Great Level of the Fens is the largest region of fen in eastern England: including the lower drainage basins of the River Nene and the Great Ouse, it covers approximately 500 sq mi (1,300 km²). It is also known as the Bedford Level, after Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford, who headed the so-called adventurers (investors) in the seventeenth century drainage in this area; his son became the first governor of the Bedford Level Corporation. In the seventeenth century, the Great Level was divided into the North, Middle and South Levels for the purposes of administration and maintenance. In the twentieth century, these levels have gained new boundaries, and include some fens which were never part of the jurisdiction of the Bedford Level Corporation.
  • The South Level lies to the southeast of the Ouse Washes and surrounds Ely, as it did in the seventeenth century.
  • The Middle Level currently lies between the Ouse Washes and the Nene, but historically lay between the Ouse Washes and Morton's Leam, a fifteenth century canal which runs north of the town of Whittlesey.
  • The North Level now includes all of the fens in Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire between the Nene and the River Welland, but originally included only a small part of these lands, including those of the ancient parishes of Thorney and Crowland, but excluding most of Wisbech Hundred and Lincolnshire, which were under their own local jurisdictions.^[8]
• Deeping Fen, in the southern part of Lincolnshire, lies between the River Welland and the River Glen with its tributary the Bourne Eau.
• The Black Sluice District, much of which was known as the Lindsey Level when it was first drained in 1639, extends from the Glen and Bourne Eau to Swineshead. Its water is carried through to the Haven at Boston.

The above were all re-drained at one time or another after the Civil War(1642-1649).

• The Witham Commission Fens:
  • First District: from Washingborough to Billinghay Dales;
  • Second District: Blacksluice – Holland Fen;
  • Third District: north of the River Witham above Bardney;
  • Fourth District: East, West and Wildmore Fens and the Townland from Boston to Wainfleet;
  • Fifth District: Kyme Eau to Billinghay Skirth;
  • Sixth District: Blacksluice – Helpringham Eau to Kyme Eau.

These were drained in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.^[9]

Formation and geography[link]

At the end of the most recent glacial period, known in Britain as the Devensian, ten thousand years ago, Britain and continental Europe were joined by the ridge between Friesland and Norfolk. The topography of the bed of the North Sea indicates that the rivers of the southern part of eastern England flowed into the Rhine, hence through the English Channel. From the Fens northward along the modern coast, the drainage flowed into the northern North Sea basin. As the ice melted, the rising sea level drowned the lower lands, leading ultimately to the present coastline.^[10]

These rising sea levels flooded the previously inland woodland of the Fenland basin, and over the next few thousand years led to extensive development of both salt-water and fresh-water wetlands. Silt and clay soils were deposited by marine floods in the salt-water areas and along the beds of tidal rivers, while organic soils, or peats, developed in the fresh-water marshes. Fenland water levels peaked in the Iron Age; earlier Bronze and Neolithic settlements were covered by peat deposits, and have only recently been found.^[10] During the Roman period, water levels fell once again, and settlements were possible on the new silt soils deposited near the coast. Though water levels rose once again in the early medieval period, by this time artificial banks protected the coastal settlements and the interior from further deposits of marine silts, though peats continued to develop in the freshwater wetlands of the interior fens.^[10]

The wetlands of the fens have historically included:

• Washes: these are places such as tidal mud flats and braided rivers, which are sometimes exposed and at other times covered with water.
• Salt marsh: this is the higher part of a tidal wash, on which salt-adapted plants grew.
• Fen: this is a broad expanse of nutrient-rich shallow water in which dead plants do not fully decay, resulting in a flora of emergent plants growing in saturated peat.
• Moor: this developed where the peat grew above the reach of the land water which carried the nutrients to the fen. Its development was enabled where the fen was watered directly by rainfall. The slightly acidic rain washed the hydroxide ions out of the peat, making it more suitable for acid-loving plants, notably Sphagnum species. This is exactly the same as bog, but the word moor was applied to this acid peatland occurring on hills. These moors disappeared in the nineteenth century, and it had been thought that the Fenland did not have this kind of peat, until archeological and documentary evidence demonstrated that it did until the early nineteenth century.
• Waters: these have included:
  • tidal creeks, which reached from the sea into the marsh, the Townlands and in some places, the fen, and seem to have been named only if big enough to be regarded as havens;
  • meres, or shallow lakes which were more or less static but aerated by wind action;
  • many rivers, both natural and (from Roman times on) artificial.

Major areas for settlement were:

• the Townlands, a broad bank of silt (the remains of the huge creek levees that developed naturally during the Bronze and Iron Ages), on which the settlers built their homes and grew their vegetables;
• the fen islands: areas of higher land which were never covered by the growing peat;
• the fen edges: uplands surrounding the fens.

In general, of the three principal soil types found in the Fenland today, the mineral-based silt resulted from the energetic marine environment of the creeks, the clay was deposited in tidal mud-flats and salt-marsh, while the peat grew in the fen and bog. The peat produces black soils, which are directly comparable to the American muck soils. A roddon, the dried raised bed of a watercourse, is more suitable for building than the less stable peat.

Since the 19th century, all of the acid peat in the Fens has disappeared; drying and wastage of peats has greatly reduced the depth of the alkaline peat soils and reduced the overall elevation of large areas of the peat fens.

History[link]

Pre-Roman settlement[link]

There is evidence of human settlement near the Fens from the Mesolithic on. The evidence suggests that Mesolithic settlement in Cambridgeshire was particularly along the fen edges and on the low islands within the fens, to take advantage of the hunting and fishing opportunities of the wetlands.^[11]

Roman farming and engineering[link]

The Romans constructed the Fen Causeway, a road across the Fens to link what later became East Anglia with what later became central England; it runs between Denver and Peterborough. They also linked Cambridge and Ely, but generally their road system avoided the Fens except for minor roads designed for exporting the products of the region, especially salt, beef and leather. Sheep were probably raised on the higher ground of the Townlands and fen islands, then as in the early nineteenth century. The Roman period also possibly saw some drainage efforts, including the Car Dyke along the western edge of the Fenland between Peterborough and Lincolnshire, but most canals were constructed for transportation.^[12]

How far seaward the Roman settlement extended is unclear owing to the deposits laid down above them during later floods.

Early post-Roman settlements[link]

The early post-Roman settlements were made on the Townlands. It is clear that there was some prosperity there, particularly where rivers permitted access to the upland beyond the fen. Such places were Wisbech, Spalding, Swineshead and Boston. All the Townlands parishes were laid out as elongated strips, to provide access to the products of fen, marsh and sea. On the fen edge, parishes are similarly elongated to provide access to both upland and fen. The townships are therefore often nearer to each other than they are to the distant farms in their own parishes.

The Dark Ages and Middle Ages[link]

After the end of Roman Britain, there is a break in written records. It is thought some of the Iceni may have moved west into the Fens to avoid the Angles, who were migrating across the North Sea from Angeln (modern Schleswig) and settling what would become East Anglia. Surrounded by water and marshes, the Fens provided a safe area that was easily defended and not particularly desirable to invading Anglo-Saxons.

A minority believes that the names of West Walton, Walsoken and Walpole hint at the native British population, the Wal- coming from the Old English walh, meaning "foreigner".^[13] However, the villages are in close proximity to the old Roman sea wall, so the wal- element is more probably from wal or weal, meaning "wall". Walton is generally believed to mean "wall-town",^[14] Walsoken to mean "the district under particular jurisdiction by the wall"^[14] and Walpole to mean simply "wall-pole" (Old English wal and pal)^[15][16] or perhaps "well pool" (Old English welle and pol).^[17]

When written records resume in Anglo-Saxon England, the names of a number of peoples of the Fens are recorded in the Tribal Hidage and Christian histories. They include North Gyrwe (Peterborough and Crowland), South Gyrwe (Ely), the Spalda (Spalding), and Bilmingas (part of south Lincolnshire).

In the early Christian period of Anglo-Saxon England, a number of Christians sought the isolation that could be found in the wilderness that the Fens had become. These saints, often with close royal links, include Guthlac, Etheldreda, Pega, and Wendreda. Hermitages on the islands became centres of communities which later became monasteries with massive estates. In the Life of Saint Guthlac – a biography of the East Anglian hermit who lived in the Fens during the early 8th century – it is stated that Saint Guthlac was attacked on several occasions by people he believed were Britons living in the Fens at that time. However, Bertram Colgrave, in the introduction to one edition, doubts it because of the lack of evidence of British survival in the region and the fact that British place names in the area are "very few".^[18]

Monastic life was disrupted by Danish raids and settlement, but was revived in the mid-10th century monastic revival. In the 11th century the whole area was incorporated into a united Anglo-Saxon England. It remained a place of refuge and intrigue. It was here that Alfred Aetheling was brought to be murdered and here where Hereward the Wake based his insurgency against Norman England.

Fenland monastic houses include the so-called Fen Five (Ely Cathedral Priory, Thorney Abbey, Croyland Abbey, Ramsey Abbey and Peterborough Abbey)^[19] as well as Spalding Abbey. As major landowners, the monasteries played a significant part in the early efforts at drainage of the Fens.

The Royal Forest[link]

During most of the twelfth century and the early thirteenth century, the south Lincolnshire fens were afforested. The area was enclosed by a line from Spalding, along the River Welland to Market Deeping, then along the Car Dyke to Dowsby and across the fens to the Welland. It was deforested in the early thirteenth century. There is little agreement as to the exact dates of the establishment and demise of the forest, but it seems likely that the deforestation was connected with the Magna Carta or one of its early thirteenth century restatements, though it may have been as late as 1240. The forest would have affected the economies of the townships around it and it appears that the present Bourne Eau was constructed at the time of the deforestation, as the town seems to have joined in the general prosperity by about 1280.

Though the forest was about half in Holland (Lincolnshire) and half in Kesteven, it is known as Kesteven Forest.^[20]

Draining the Fens[link]

Drainage engine museum at Prickwillow

Early modern attempts to drain the Fens[link]

Though some signs of Roman hydraulics survive, and there were also some medieval drainage works, land drainage was begun in earnest during the 1630s by the various investors who had contracts with King Charles I to do so. The leader of one of these syndicates was the Earl of Bedford, who employed Cornelius Vermuyden as engineer. Contrary to popular belief, Vermuyden was not involved with the draining of the Great Fen in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk in the 1630s, but only became involved with the second phase of construction in the 1650s.^[21] The scheme was imposed despite huge opposition from locals who were losing their livelihoods in favour of already great landowners.

Two cuts were made in the Cambridgeshire Fens to join the River Great Ouse to the sea at King's Lynn – the Old Bedford River and the New Bedford River, the latter being known also as the Hundred Foot Drain. Both cuts were named after the Fourth Earl of Bedford who, along with some gentlemen adventurers (venture capitalists), funded the construction and were rewarded with large grants of the resulting farmland. The work was directed by engineers from the Low Countries. Following this initial drainage, the Fens were still extremely susceptible to flooding, so windpumps were used to pump water away from affected areas.

However, their success was short-lived. Once drained of water, the peat shrank, and the fields lowered further. The more effectively they were drained, the worse the problem became, and soon the fields were lower than the surrounding rivers. By the end of the 17th century, the land was under water once again.

Though the three Bedford Levels together formed the biggest scheme, they were not the only ones. Lord Lindsey and his partner Sir William Killigrew had the Lindsey Level inhabited by farmers by 1638, but the onset of the Civil War permitted the destruction of the works until the 1765 Act of Parliament that led to the formation of the Black Sluice Commissioners.^[22]

Many original records of the Bedford Level Corporation, including maps of the Levels, are now held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies Service at the County Record Office in Cambridge.

Modern drainage[link]

Stretham Old Engine,
alongside the River Great Ouse

The major part of the draining of the Fens was effected in the late 18th and early 19th century, again involving fierce local rioting and sabotage of the works. The final success came in the 1820s when windpumps were replaced with powerful coal-powered steam engines, such as Stretham Old Engine, which were themselves replaced with diesel-powered pumps and, following World War II, the small electric stations that are still used today.

The dead vegetation of the peat remained undecayed because it was deprived of air (the peat being anaerobic). When it was drained, the oxygen of the air reached it, since when the peat has been slowly oxidizing. This, together with the shrinkage on its initial drying and the removal of soil by the wind, has meant that much of the Fens lies below high tide level. As the highest parts of the drained fen are now only a few metres above mean sea level, only sizeable embankments of the rivers, and general flood defences, stop the land from being inundated. Nonetheless, these works are now much more effective than they were. The question of rising sea level under the influence of global warming remains.

The Fens today are protected by 60 miles (97 km) of embankments defending against the sea and 96 miles (154 km) of river embankments. Eleven internal drainage board (IDB) groups maintain 286 pumping stations and 3,800 miles (6,100 km) of watercourses, with the combined capacity to pump 16,500 Olympic-size swimming pools in a 24-hour period or to empty Rutland Water in 3 days.^[23]

Modern farming and food manufacturing in the Fens[link]

As of 2008, there are estimated to be 4,000 farms in the Fens involved in agriculture and horticulture, including arable, livestock, poultry, dairy, orchards, vegetables and ornamental plants and flowers. They employ about 27,000 people in full-time and seasonal jobs. In turn, they support around 250 businesses involved in food and drink manufacturing and distribution, employing around 17,500 people.^[23]

Over 70% of the Fens is involved in environmental stewardship schemes, under which 270 miles (430 km) of hedgerow and 1,780 miles (2,860 km) of ditches are managed, providing large wildlife corridors and habitat for endangered animals such as the water vole.^[23]

Restoring the Fens[link]

In 2003, the Great Fen Project was initiated to return parts of the Fens to their original pre-agricultural state. The periodic flooding by the North Sea, which renewed the character of the Fenlands, was characterized conventionally by the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica as "ravaged by serious inundations of the sea". The modern approach is to allow a little farmland to be flooded again and turned into nature reserves. By introducing fresh water, the organizers of the project hope to encourage species such as the snipe, lapwing and bittern. Endangered species such as the fen violet will be seeded.

The Fens Waterways Link is a scheme to restore navigation to some of the drainage works. It is planned to bring the South Forty-Foot Drain and parts of the Car Dyke into use as part of a route between Boston and Cambridge.

Fen settlements[link]

Many historic cities, towns and villages have grown up in the fens, sited chiefly on the few areas of raised ground. These include:

• Bourne, a market town;
• Boston, port and administrative centre of the Borough of Boston;
• Chatteris, a market town;
• Crowland, one of the Fen Five monasteries; also a medieval triangular bridge;
• Ely (meaning "Isle of Eels"), whose cathedral – one of the Fen Five monasteries – is known as the "Ship of the Fens"; administrative centre of the East Cambridgeshire District Council;
• Holbeach, a market town;
• Littleport, a large village approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Ely;
• Little Thetford, settled on a boulder clay island within the fens since the Bronze Age, 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Ely;
• Long Sutton, a market town and home to UK's largest food cannery;
• March, a market town and administrative centre of the Fenland District;
• Market Deeping, a market town;
• Peterborough, the largest of the many settlements along the fen edge and sometimes called the "Gateway to the Fens"; its cathedral is one of the Fen Five monasteries; administrative centre of the Peterborough Unitary Authority;
• Ramsey, a market town; one of the Fen Five monasteries;
• Spalding, a market town, administrative centre of South Holland, and famed for its annual Flower Parade;
• Thorney, one of the Fen Five monasteries; later model village and agricultural estates of the Dukes of Bedford;
• Whittlesey, a market town; annual Straw Bear Festival;
• Wisbech ("capital of the fens"^[24]), a market town.

Ancient sites include:

• Flag Fen, a Bronze Age settlement.

Setting in fiction[link]

Some authors have featured the Fens repeatedly in their work. For example:

• John Gordon, adolescent fiction writer and author of The Giant Under The Snow, has drawn inspiration for many of his supernatural fantasies from the Fens. His books with Fenland themes include: Ride The Wind, Fen Runners and The House On The Brink, which is based on Peckover House in Wisbech.
• Peter F. Hamilton sets a number of his science fiction novels in the Fens, including Mindstar Rising and A Quantum Murder.
• Bill Hussey set two horror books, Through a Glass Darkly and The Absence, in the Fens.
• Jim Kelly set both The Water Clock and The Moon Tunnel in the Fens.
• Philippa Pearce, a children's author, set many of her books in the Fens, for example Tom's Midnight Garden.
• Gladys Mitchell, prolific writer of detective fiction, took her eccentric sleuth, the psychiatrist Mrs Lestrange Bradley, to the Fens in several books, notably The Worsted Viper, Wraiths and Changelings and The Mudflats of the Dead.
• Nick Warburton has written a series of radio plays entitled On Mardle Fen, one of the longest running series of plays on BBC R4.^[25]
• G.A. Henty's book Beric the Briton mentions some sections in the Fens.

The following novels, or substantial portions of them, are set in the Fens:

• Sabine Baring-Gould: Cheap Jack Zita;
• Penelope Fitzgerald: The Bookshop;
• Hal Foster: Prince Valiant;
• Martha Grimes: The Case Has Altered, set in and around Algarkirk, Lincolnshire;
• Charles Kingsley: Hereward the Wake;
• Louis L'Amour: Sackett's Land;
• Simon Marriott Woller
• Sile Rice: The Saxon Tapestry, about Hereward the Wake;
• Dorothy Sayers: The Nine Tailors;
• Graham Swift: Waterland (made into a film, listed below);
• Robert Westall: Futuretrack 5.
• Philip Pullman: Northern Lights

Some films have large portions set in the Fenlands:

• Dad Savage (1998), starring Patrick Stewart, was set and filmed around the King's Lynn area.
• Waterland (1992), directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal, is based on Graham Swift's book with the same title. Many of its scenes were filmed at Holbeach Marsh on the edge of the Wash.

At least one video game has also been set in the Fens:

• "The Bedford Level" appears in the video game Tom Clancy's EndWar as a possible battlefield.^[26]

See also[link]

• Fen skating, a sport for which the Fens are famous
• Gilbert Heathcote's tunnel, a drainage project in the 1630s
• Hereward the Wake, who led Saxon resistance to the Norman Conquest from the fens
• High Fens, between Belgium and Germany
• Pinchbeck Engine, a museum of fen drainage based around the longest-working beam engine and scoopwheel
• Somerset Levels, a similar area of wetlands in the southwest of England
• Wicken Fen, one of the few remaining undrained fens, owned by the National Trust

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Dugdale, William (1662). History of Imbanking and Drayning of Divers Fens and. Marshes. London. 
• Wells, Samuel A. (1830). A history of the drainage of the Great Level of the Fens called Bedford Level. 2. Fleet Street, London: R.Pheney.  archived online: Volume 1, Volume 2
• Wheeler M.Inst.C.E, William Henry (1896). A History of the Fens of South Lincolnshire, being a description of the rivers Witham and Welland and their estuary, and an account of the Reclamation, Drainage, and Enclosure of the fens adjacent thereto. (2nd ed.). Boston, Lincolnshire: J.M.Newcombe. 
• Page, William; Proby, Granville; Inskip Ladds, S., eds. (1936). A History of the County of Huntingdon. Victoria County History. 3. pp. 249–290: "The Middle Level of the Fens and its reclamation". http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66187. Retrieved 30 December 2010. 

External links[link]

Drainage boards[link]

• Ely Internal Drainage Board
• Middle Level Commissioners
• North Level District Internal Drainage Board
• Black Sluice Internal Drainage Board
• Witham First District Internal Drainage Board
• Witham Third District Internal Drainage Board
• Witham Fourth District Internal Drainage Board

Other[link]

• Flag Fen Archaeology Trust official website
• The Great Fen Project official website
• Thorney Heritage Museum official website
• Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve (National Trust educational site)
• Geograph covering map of the Fens (clickable map linking to photo galleries)
• "Powte's Complaint" (17th century protest song about Fen drainage, at Literary Norfolk)

Coordinates: 52°29′18″N 0°13′52″W / 52.48838°N 0.23118°W / 52.48838; -0.23118

Mark Grist is a poet and battle rapper based in Peterborough, UK, who rose to prominence when his Don't Flop rap battle against Mancunian MC Blizzard became an internet sensation.^[1]

History[link]

After growing up in Unst, Grist studied American and English literature at the University of East Anglia before becoming an English teacher.^[2] Grist began using rap techniques to teach his students about poetic devices and other elements of the English language, inspiring them to take a stronger interest in the subject.^[3] Grist formed Dead Poets, a double act that fused spoken-word poetry with hip-hop, with fellow Peterborough MC Mixy in 2008, touring the United Kingdom and performing at the Edinburgh Festival in 2010.^[4] After deciding to try out rapping in the Don't Flop battle league, Grist's battle against MC Blizzard received coverage in the British media,^[5][6][7][8] garnering 2 million internet views in the process.

Grist is set to perform at the Edinburgh Festival again in 2012.^[9]

References[link]

Midnight Syndicate is an American musical group that has been working mainly in the genre of gothic music since 1997 and is based out of Chardon, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. The band refers to their CDs as "soundtracks for the imagination" or "soundtracks to imaginary films." Most of the songs on their thirteen albums are characterized by a blend of instrumental music and sound effects and are commonly used to provide atmosphere during the Halloween season, in haunted attractions, and in the role-playing game industry.

History[link]

Formation and Early years (1996-1998)[link]

Composer/filmmaker Edward Douglas formed Midnight Syndicate in 1996 shortly after releasing a micro-budget, direct-to-video horror film called The Dead Matter (1996)^[1] which he directed and scored and would later remake.^[2] Midnight Syndicate's self-titled debut album was released the following year.^[3] A majority of music on the album was written, arranged, and performed by Edward Douglas. Contributors included Scott Angus, Mark Rakocy, Dennis Carleton, Jamie Barbour, Ray Portler, the rap act Dark Side, and Christopher Robichaud. Douglas coined the term cine-fusion to describe the album. Cine-fusion is described in the album's liner notes as

"a blending of movie soundtrack music and pop music... a compilation of soundtracks to movies that do not exist. The goal of the music is to stimulate the imaginations of listeners so that they are able to transport themselves to worlds or movies of their own creation."

Musically, the album contained an eclectic blend of styles including everything from dark instrumental music (of which three tracks appeared on future releases), rock,^[4] rock-a-billy, techno, rap, new age, humor-pop, jazz, and space. Movie-style sound effects were employed in some tracks. In March 1998, a multimedia show was produced by Douglas and his company, Entity Productions, to support the album. The show included a blending of original short films, live music, animation, and stage performers.^[5]

Breakout (1998-2000)[link]

In 1998, Douglas teamed up with gothic fantasy artist Joseph Vargo, and the two decided to create an exclusively dark-themed instrumental Midnight Syndicate album. Vargo developed the storyline and concept of a musical journey through a haunted castle, with the music reflecting his gothic artwork.^[6][7][8] Composer Gavin Goszka, formerly a solo artist in a project called Lore, also joined Douglas and Vargo in the new Midnight Syndicate line-up. Together, they created Born of the Night, a groundbreaking album that appealed to fans of gothic music, the horror genre, and haunted attractions. Douglas and Goszka wrote and performed the music on the album while Vargo served as executive producer and creative director of the project, as well as writing and performing the vocals and narrations, and designing the cover art and packaging. The album and songs were also titled after several of Vargo's most popular paintings. Born of the Night was independently released in September 1998 through Vargo's Monolith Graphics and Douglas' Entity Productions, hitting the horror market just in time for the Halloween season. It was Midnight Syndicate's first critically acclaimed gothic-horror soundtrack and proved to be an instant success,^[9] establishing Midnight Syndicate's trademark sound.

In March 2000, Realm of Shadows followed suit with the same flavor of dark instrumental music and another gothic setting. Douglas and Goszka wrote all of the music for this album while Vargo wrote and performed the opening narration and theme story. Again, the songs were titled after Vargo's artworks. Both albums were featured as official soundtracks for Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights, and used in several other major theme parks during Halloween, such as Busch Gardens, Cedar Point and Thorpe Park's Fright Nights event.^[10] The heavy metal band King Diamond also featured tracks from Born of the Night as opening music for their 2000 US tour. Afterwards, Vargo and Midnight Syndicate chose to work separately of one another on future projects.^[11]

Rise (2001-2006)[link]

Midnight Syndicate's third gothic horror soundtrack, Gates of Delirium, was released in 2001. This time Douglas and Goszka teamed up with two members who worked on the first Midnight Syndicate CD, Mark Rakocy (graphic design) and Christopher Robichaud (vocals). Set in a Victorian haunted mental institution called Haverghast Asylum, Gates of Delirium was the first Midnight Syndicate disc to feature the fictitious Haverghast family,^[4] a theme the band would revisit on future discs such as The 13th Hour. Gavin Goszka has since called Gates of Delirium "a personal favorite" from the Midnight Syndicate library.

During the 2001 Halloween weekend, six of the band's mp3 singles were in the Top 20 for all of MP3.com (#1, #2, #7, #10, #12, and #19) registering over 100,000 listens in three days. The title track from Born of the Night remained at #1 for over a week with two tracks from Gates of Delirium maintaining their positions in the Top 40 as well.^[12]

In August 2002, the band released their fifth studio album Vampyre. The vampire-themed disc was the first Midnight Syndicate disc to feature a cover designed by fantasy artist Keith Parkinson.

By this time, the band's popularity with role-playing gamers who used their discs as background for their sessions had grown to where they were exhibiting at gaming conventions. It was at one of these conventions that the band was approached by designers from Wizards of the Coast.^[13] The result was 2003's Dungeons & Dragons: Official Role-playing Soundtrack, the first officially-licensed soundtrack to the classic roleplaying game of the same name. The album (whose fantasy themes were a departure from previous releases) was generally well-received by music critics and the gaming community and helped the band build their following in Europe.^[14] Some of the tracks were later used in computer games Baldur's Gate - Dark Alliance II and Shadowbane expansions Rise of Chaos and Throne of Oblivion.

In August 2005, the band returned to darker themes with their seventh CD entitled The 13th Hour. Featuring vocal effects by Lily Lane of the horror-rock band Lazy Lane and cover art by Keith Parkinson the disc is set in a haunted Victorian mansion and features tracks like: Fallen Grandeur, Grisly Reminder, and Family Secrets. Out of the Darkness (Retrospective: 1994–1999) was released in 2006 and featured re-recorded versions of tracks from Midnight Syndicate, Born of the Night, and Realm of Shadows, along with some of Edward Douglas’ early horror film scores including The Dead Matter (1995). Fantasy artist Rob Alexander designed the cover.^[8]

[edit] The Rage and The Dead Matter (2007-2010)

In early 2007, the band temporarily shifted from creating "soundtracks to imaginary films" to composing music for actual projects when they completed the score to Robert Kurtzman's, The Rage and wrote music for Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights 17's Carnival of Carnage. The Rage: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released in February 2008.^[15]

In September 2007, Douglas returned to filmmaking as director, co-producer, and composer of an updated remake of his 1995 horror film, The Dead Matter.^[16] During this time, Gavin Goszka started a solo project called Parlormuse which featured Victorian era songs re-recorded in a modern folk rock style.^[17]

In August 2008, the band released The Dead Matter: Cemetery Gates, a CD of music inspired by the themes from the new The Dead Matter movie. Midnight Syndicate's first two music videos were made for the songs Dark Legacy and Lost from the disc. In the finale of the music video for Dark Legacy, Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka are shown playing on stage at the historic Phantasy Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio. It marked the first time they had played together live.^[18]

On July 30, 2010 The Dead Matter movie was released on DVD along with a Midnight Syndicate "greatest hits-style" compilation CD called Halloween Music Collection and an EP entitled The Dark Masquerade featuring gothic artist Destini Beard performing operatic vocals and lyrics to various Midnight Syndicate recordings. The Dead Matter: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was also released on July 30. The CD featured the score by Edward Douglas, other music that appeared in the film, and several remixes of Midnight Syndicate tracks by other artists.^[19]

Recent projects (2011-present)[link]

In August of 2011, the band released its fourteenth studio album, entitled Carnival Arcane. The theme of the CD surrounds a fictional turn of the century traveling circus called The Lancaster Rigby Carnival. The CD was inspired by research into carnivals of that time period and Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. ^[20] In 2012, the album won the Best CD category in the 2012 Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards.^[21]

In December of 2011, Jeff Miller of Kinetic Filmworks announced that Edward Douglas and Midnight Syndicate would be scoring their upcoming film, Bunyan. ^[22]

Impact in Halloween music and the Haunted Attraction industry[link]

Some say Midnight Syndicate's music has become synonymous with the celebration of Halloween. The music is commonly used as atmosphere for Halloween-themed events, stores, and parties (including Hugh Hefner's), as well as home decorating for trick-or-treating. Many credit them as helping to legitimize the genre of Halloween music (music for the Halloween holiday), elevating standards in the genre, and inspiring other musicians to create similar projects.^{[8][23][24][25]} On September 11, 2009, AOL Radio released a list of the Top 10 Best Halloween Music CDs as ranked by AOL/CBS Radio listeners. Three of the ten CDs were Midnight Syndicate discs (Born of the Night #8, Realm of Shadows #4, and Vampyre #3), ranking behind Danny Elfman's The Nightmare Before Christmas and John Carpenter's Halloween soundtrack.^[26]

Midnight Syndicate's music has been a standard of the haunted attraction industry worldwide for many years and they are credited with being the first company to produce soundtracks of quality specifically for that industry.^[8][27] In 2005, Leonard Pickel, editor of Haunted Attraction Magazine estimated that "75-90% of the attractions in the industry had at least one Midnight Syndicate CD." The music is also used by amusement parks like Universal Orlando, Busch Gardens, Kings Island, Six Flags, and Cedar Point that hold Halloween-themed events such as Halloween Horror Nights, Howl-O-Scream, and Fright Fest.^[8][24][28]

Impact in the role-playing game industry[link]

Midnight Syndicate's reputation and following in the role-playing game community rivals its following in the horror community.^[24][29] Their Dungeons & Dragons CD which reportedly broke previous sales records for gaming soundtracks in its first month, established them as the leading supplier of music to the hobby game industry.^[17] Their The 13th Hour CD won the Origins Award for Best Gaming Accessory presented by the Academy of Adventure Game Art & Design, marking the first time a role-playing soundtrack or music CD had won the award.^[30] In 2007, Midnight Syndicate teamed up with Goodman Games to produce Cages of Delirium a Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure based on Gates of Delirium which came packaged with the CD.

Self-distribution[link]

When record labels and distributors rejected the band's first two CDs, Douglas began building his own distribution network by selling CDs out of his van with Goszka and cold-calling hundreds of stores.^[24][31] Today Midnight Syndicate's CDs are self-distributed to thousands of retailers worldwide through Entity Productions, Inc. and its partners, making them one of the largest distributors of Halloween-themed music.^[27][32] Entity Productions also distributed the 2010 version of The Dead Matter movie.^[33]

Midnight Syndicate in television and film[link]

In addition to The Rage and The Dead Matter, Midnight Syndicate's music has been featured in television programs such as Barbara Walters' 10 Most Fascinating People of 2002, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Today Show, Monday Night Football, NBA on TNT, Syfy's The Possessed and Halloween-themed specials on the Travel Channel.^[24][34] The music has also been used as theme music in independent horror films like Dead & Rotting, Revamped, Witchouse 3: Demon Fire and Song of the Vampire (AKA Vampire Resurrection).^[34]

It is also used in the now-discontinued The Byron Chronicles.

Influences[link]

Douglas has cited film composers such as Danny Elfman, James Horner, John Carpenter, Hans Zimmer, heavy metal acts King Diamond and Black Sabbath, radio dramas, and horror films as primary influences for Midnight Syndicate. Goszka has cited similar influences in addition to bands such as Dead Can Dance and early Genesis.^{[35][36][37][38]}

Discography[link]

• Midnight Syndicate (1997)
• Born of the Night (1998)
• Realm of Shadows (2000)
• Gates of Delirium (2001)
• Vampyre (2002)
• Dungeons & Dragons (2003)
• The 13th Hour (2005)
• Out of the Darkness (Retrospective: 1994–1999) (2006)
• The Rage: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2008)
• The Dead Matter: Cemetery Gates (2008)
• The Dark Masquerade with Destini Beard (2010)
• The Dead Matter: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2010)
• Halloween Music Collection (2010)
• Carnival Arcane (2011)

Film[link]

• The Dead Matter (2010)

See also[link]

• Nox Arcana

References[link]

1. ^ Interview with Edward Douglas, FEARnet, October 2008.
2. ^ Michael Gingold, "The Dead Matter: From Midnight music to a movie", Fangoria Magazine (New York, NY), August, 2010, Pg.6.
3. ^ US Copyright office Midnight Syndicate album © date 1997-09-17
4. ^ ^{a b} Interview with Gavin Goszka, Federico Marongiu, "Midnight Syndicate", Music Extreme (Argentina), 2001.
5. ^ Charles Cassady, "On Fright Night and Beyond the Spookiest Sounds", West Life, October 25, 2006, Pg.11B.
6. ^ Radio Interview with Joseph Vargo, Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka Station WERE 1300, (Cleveland, OH.), October 1998.
7. ^ Interview with Edward Douglas, Paragon Magazine, October 2003.
8. ^ ^{a b c d e} Cover story on Midnight Syndicate Leonard Pickel, "Midnight Syndicate: Setting the Mood for an Industry", Haunted Attraction Magazine (Charlotte, NC), June 2006, Pg. 24-28, 38-41
9. ^ John Soeder, "Gothic Horror Rock Featured This Weekend", The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH), March 2, 2000.
10. ^ Jeff Niesel, "Soundbites", Scene Magazine (Cleveland, OH), October 14, 1999.
11. ^ Interview with Midnight Syndicate Peter Iorillo, "Something Wicked This Way Comes", Dark Realms Magazine (Cleveland, OH.), Issue 1, January 2001, Pg. 20-23.]
12. ^ Midnight Syndicate News
13. ^ "Welcome". Utter Trash. http://www.uttertrash.net/index.html. Retrieved 2007-09-23. 
14. ^ Bernard Van Isacker, "Midnight Syndicate: Success Comes From Within Yourself", Side-Line (Bruxelles, Belgium, July, 2005.
15. ^ Midnight Syndicate News Archives July 30, 2007
16. ^ IMDB.com listing for The Dead Matter
17. ^ ^{a b} Carl E. Feather, "Syndicate Ready for Halloween", Star Beacon (Ashtabula, OH), October 8, 2008, Sec. B, Pg. B1.
18. ^ Midnight Syndicate Video Shoot Update Gregory Burkhart, FEARnet News, March 12, 2010
19. ^ Midnight Syndicate Spec-Ed DVD Gregory Burkhart, FEARnet News, May 27, 2010
20. ^ FEARnet "Carnival Arcane" Gregory Burkart, August 15, 2011
21. ^ Rondo Award Winners David Colton, April 3,2012
22. ^ “Bunyan” Trailer Stomps Online” Michael Gingold, December 19, 2011
23. ^ Heather Adler, "Haunted Harmonies", Rue Morgue (Toronto, ON), Issue 50, Pg. 131
24. ^ ^{a b c d e} Scream Kings Jason Bracelin, Scene Magazine (Cleveland, OH), May 25, 2005, Pg. 10-13.
25. ^ Trevor Tuminski, "Hymns from the House of Horror", Rue Morgue (Toronto, ON), Issue 100, Pg.49.
26. ^ Best Halloween Music CDs Sara Anderson, AOL Radio Blog
27. ^ ^{a b} John Horton, "Scary Music Writers Accomplish Their Ghouls", The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH), October 17, 2006, Sec. A, Pg. A1.
28. ^ Jim Vickers, "Scream Songs", Cleveland Magazine (Cleveland, OH), October 2006, Pg. 30.
29. ^ Jeffrey Lee, "Background Music for Role-playing Games," Examiner, August 5, 2009
30. ^ The Origins Awards
31. ^ Jennifer McKevitt, "Art of Darkness", News Herald (Mentor, OH), October 29, 2006, Sec. E, Pg.E1.
32. ^ Carl E. Feather, "A little night music", Star Beacon (Ashtabula, OH), October 30, 2006, Sec. B, Pg. B1.
33. ^ Mark Koestner, "Dawn of his Dead", News Herald (Mentor, OH), July 30, 2010, Pg. C10.
34. ^ ^{a b} IMDB.com listing for Midnight Syndicate
35. ^ Halloween Blues interview with Gavin Goszka, October, 2010
36. ^ Sci-Fi Bookshelf interview with Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka, October 19, 2010.
37. ^ FEARnet interview with Edward Douglas, October 31, 2008.
38. ^ Dr. Gore's Funhouse interview with Edward Douglas, March 10, 2010.

External links[link]

• Midnight Syndicate band website
• The Dead Matter official website

Lynn Paul King (November 28, 1907 – May 11, 1972) was a Major League Baseball player from 1935-1936 and in 1939. King was born in Villisca, Iowa and died in Atlantic, Iowa.

External links[link]

• Baseball-Reference

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