In its industrial heyday, Thorne Moors was the most extensive commercial peat operation in Britain. It became closely tied to nearby Hatfield Moors, and at both the methods of exploitation were essentially the same. Although much of Thorne Moors is situated in Yorkshire, the eastern extent lies in Lincolnshire. Recognizable differences in scale and methodology existed between the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire parts. After regional drainage in the 1620-30s, there was increased trade in the peat of Thorne Moors along the River Don. A succession of uses included unrefined and refined fuel, products from carbonization and distillation, and moss litter for working horses. From the mid-19th century, companies were formed to exploit the new uses, especially moss litter, and export became increasingly focused on railways. In 1896, the British Moss Litter Co. Ltd was set up (restructured 1899) to assume the Thorne/Hatfield interests of several smaller companies, including the Anglo-Dutch Griendtsveen Moss Litter Co. Ltd. The British Moss Litter Co. was acquired by Fisons Ltd in 1963. Following a contextual history, descriptions are given of both muscle-powered peat winning and transportation methodologies. These comprise exploitation in the 17th and 18th centuries, an examination of the 19th century writings of William Casson, and written allusions spanning 1863-1963. Information is imparted on the Griendtsveen Moss Litter Co. In addition to creating a 'Dutch' peat canal system, this company introduced an immigrant Dutch workforce, proficient in their native methods and intended inter alia to retrain local workers looking for employment with Griendtsveen. Dutch methodology persisted alongside the local methods for c.60 years. Accounts are also presented of the evolutionary limit of indigenous peat winning, and the use of narrow gauge railways. Finally the transition to mechanisation of peat cutting and narrow gauge haulage is outlined.

This thesis examines 'improvement' of wetland commons in early modern England as a contested process of rapid environmental change. As a flagship project of agrarian improvement, drainage sought to alchemise pastoral fen commons into arable enclosed terra firma and promised manifold benefits for crown, commoners, and commonwealth alike. In practice, however, improvement schemes generated friction between the political and fiscal agendas of governors and projectors and local communities' customary ways of knowing and using wetland commons, provoking the most sustained and violent agrarian unrest of the seventeenth century. This thesis situates the first state-led drainage project in England, in the northern fens of Hatfield Level, in the context of the local politics of custom, national legal and political developments, and international movements of capital, expertise, and refugees; all of which intersected to reshape perceptions and management of English wetlands. Drawing on the analytic perspectives of environmental history, this thesis explores divergent ideas and practices generating conflict over the making of private property, reorganisation of flow, and reconfiguration of lived environments. This thesis argues that different 'environing' practices - both mental and material - distinguished what was seen as an ordered or disordered landscape, determined when and how water was understood as a resource or risk, and demarcated different scales and forms of intervention. Rival visions of the fenscape, ways of knowing land and water, and concepts of value and justice were productive of, and produced by, different practices of management, ownership, and use. Drainage disputes therefore crossed different spheres of discourse and action, spanning parliament, courtroom, and commons to bring improvement into dialogue with fen custom and generate a contentious environmental politics. In seven substantive chapters, this thesis investigates how improvement was imagined, legitimised, and enacted; how fen communities experienced and navigated rapid environmental transformation; and how political, social, and spatial boundaries were reforged in the process. By grounding improvement in the early modern fenscape, this thesis reintegrates agency into accounts of inexorable socio-economic change, illuminates ideas at work in social contexts, and deepens understandings of environmental conflict.