In rediscovering Georgian Peckover and the bustling, prosperous town of eighteenth century Wisbech, old maps, books and letters have played their part. The town that is revealed brings a great many surprises, as well as feeling comfortably familiar.

Wisbech, with its role in a fast developing Britain, has told many of its secrets. Not all though; there will always be mysteries, making it all the more fascinating. Although she loves to travel around England and abroad, home is and probably always will be, Fenland.

Bronze Age fishermen, Roman engineers, Saxon Christians, Norman nobles - Fenland has been home to them all. And without exception, whether noble or villein, bishop or serf, they've all had to cope with life in this marshy, rebellious land.

This book is not really about nobles or bishops, though they make more than their fair share of appearances. It is about the ordinary Fenland folk and the many challenges that faced them in early times.

As the small town of Wisbech rose from its humble Saxon origins to prominence as a medieval assize town, it withstood years of flood,...