History and background of the Welney Washes
Statistics
The washland area between the rivers is 32 kilometres (20 miles) long and about 1 kilometre (0.62 miles) wide. It acts as a floodplain during the winter and, increasingly, also in the summer.
The area between the outer barrier banks of the two artificial rivers covers about 1,900 hectares (4,700 acres).
As the peat underlying the Fens has dried out through drainage, it has shrunk and lowered the level of the washlands. This makes flooding more frequent.
The Washes and its banks have a total area of 2,400 hectares (5,900 acres). Newly created wet grasslands next to the washes increase the total area to 2,750 hectares (6,800 acres). About 10% of the area is open water, but most of the habitat is grassland. Reed canary-grass is in the wettest locations. This transitions through reed sweet-grass and to the creeping bent that dominates in the drier areas.
