Draining the Swamp: National and Local Regulation of Drainage in a 1396 English Sewer Commission Report

Abstract

A recently rediscovered record from late medieval England shines light on the discomfort which arose from the expansion of royal bureaucracy to promote and maintain regional aquatic infrastructure. The record contains the proceedings of a 1396 inquest made by a commission of sewers to investigate claims of clogged drainage canals and consequent flooding of farmland. For the late medieval Sussex landowners named in the record, the commission purportedly represented an unwanted incursion, a violation of traditional rights and obligations. In contrast, for the government agents conducting the inquest, the encounter with local interests raised important questions about authority, precedent, and the limits of supposed tradition. Today, read through the lens of environmental history, this conflict underscores that the written records of medieval Europe, long a source of qualitative data, provide a unique vantage point from which to observe the symbiotic relationship between human culture—in this case law, tradition, agriculture, and infrastructure, and natural contexts.