The Multiple Fenland Village Collecting Society

The MFVCS is a group set up by people who pursue the hobby of Multiple Fenland Village collecting. Since the Fens happen to be in the East Midlands/East Anglia, this is also where we concentrate our activities. Multiple Fenland Village collecting is great both due to the satisfaction visiting 145 near featureless places can bring, and because it allows you to make observations about the area. The MFVCS is open to all people who are able to claim any Full award in the Full Fenland table or alternatively a 5% Fenland. Your Full Fenland Percentage can be calculated using theFull Fenland Percentage calculator. Visiting all the Tattershalls would suffice or alternatively Gedney Drove End, Gedney Dawsmere and Gedney Dyke would do, it is as easy as that! To join just request membership when you claim an award from the MFVCS executive board. Clearly you must appreciate the Fens fully before you can consider being a member. Unfortunately, it has become evident that there are certain individuals who want to prevent us from achieving a Full Fenland. They have seemingly unlimited resources, being able to get hundreds of people to drive their cars, lorries, tractors or buses slowly infront of us. This leads us to the conclusion it must be the richest man in the world hindering our scheme.

Awards Available

While technically you do not have to contact the MFVCS to gain any of the awards, it does give their completion more worth, considering they were devised by us, to officially claim them. Current awards on offer in order of prestige:

Full Fenland
Half Fenland
Barebones Fenland
Partial Fenland
Full Gedney
Full Holbeach
Full Sutton
Full Moulton
Full Deeping
Full Walpole
Full Tydd
Full Ramsey
Half Gedney
Full Toynton
Full Leverton
Full Tilney
Full Whaplode
Full Bicker
Half Holbeach
Half Sutton
Half Moulton
Full Gosberton
Full Wiggenhall
Full Pinchbeck
Full Wainfleet
Half Deeping
Half Walpole
Half Tydd
Half Ramsey
Partial Gedney
Full Wrangle
Full Thorpe
Full Donington
Full Leake
Full Kirton
Full Runcton
Half Toynton
Half Wiggenhall
Half Leverton
Half Tilney
Half Whaplode
Half Gosberton
Half Bicker
Partial Holbeach
Partial Sutton
Partial Moulton
Half Pinchbeck
Half Wainfleet
Partial Deeping
Partial Walpole
Partial Tydd
Partial Ramsey
Full Tattershall
Full Friskney
Full Surfleet
Half Wrangle
Half Thorpe
Half Donington
Half Leake
Half Kirton
Half Runcton
Partial Toynton
Partial Leverton
Partial Tilney
Partial Whaplode
Partial Bicker
Half Tattershall
Half Friskney
Half Surfleet
Partial Gosberton
Partial Wiggenhall
Partial Pinchbeck
Partial Wainfleet
Partial Wrangle
Partial Thorpe
Partial Donington
Partial Leake
Partial Kirton
Partial Runcton
Partial Tattershall
Partial Friskney
Partial Surfleet

In addition, people can send in the settlements they gain and their Group and Partial Points towards a Full Fenland will be calculated and put on the claimants table.

Remember it is extremely pointless lying about your village collecting exploits. The greatest award gained from their collection is the personal sense of achievement. If you lie and get away with it and get your name in the claimant board you'll still have the same low self-esteem you always had. Also remember however good you think you are at multiple fenland village collecting you will never be as good as us.

Definitions of Awards

Full

This requires gaining every settlement within a settlement group, therefore gaining 100 associate points. In the case of a Full Fenland, 100 group points must be gained.

Half

This requires gaining 50 associate points within the specified settlement group. Collecting half the number of places in a settlement group does not necessarily count as they may have low weightings, for instance gaining Gedney Fen, Gedney, Gedney Broadgate and Gedney Dyke would only give you 40 associate points and would not be sufficient for a Half Gedney, despite 4 out of the 7 counting places having been visited. The Half Fenland requires 50 or more group points to be gained.

Partial

This is similar to the Half award except that at least 25 associate points must be gained in order to achieve it, or 25 group points in the case of the Partial Fenland

Barebones Fenland

This requires visiting at least one eligible place from every single settlement group. It is possible to gain a Barebones Fenland without having gained a single Full award or even Half award.

MFVCS History

July 20th is an important date for all Fenland village collectors. It was on this day in 1999 that the first conscious act of village collecting was carried out, through the three people who would later form the executive committee of the MFVCS cycling to Gedney Hill. At this time it was essentially for the prestige of visiting Gedney Hill itself, but soon this developed into a component of gaining a 'Full Gedney' and from this the present Full Fenland resulted. The 30 or so mile cycle ride, conducted on a Tuesday evening is chronicled in greater detail at the Gedney Hill Expedition Site.

The first ever Full Gedney was claimed, by Andrew Titman after he visited all the Gedneys by bicycle. The ride was 56 miles in total and took less than 3 and a half hours. While it threatened to rain the entire afternoon, he got away without any. The conditions were slightly unfavourable in that it was head wind on the 28 mile return leg, but nothing too awful.

The first car trip of the MFVCS one which incorporated all the Gedneys and hence allowed James Pepper to claim his Full Gedney. The day was particularly notable for the huge number of tractors, presumably placed by Bill Gates to get in our way, as well as the fighter plane at Gedney Drove End that repeatedly tried to bomb us as we walked on the marsh and almost succeeded in bursting our eardrums.

The first mandatory award was gained after a seemingly normal lift home became a 30 mile excursion to the king of the Gedneys, Gedney Hill!

A seemingly normal shopping trip to Peterborough was extended considerably by a trip to all the Gedneys on the way home. While Daniel Felton delighted on gaining his Full Gedney, Richard Mariner was displeased at going on the trip against his best wishes and therefore was awarded the first ever Mandatory Full Gedney.

The MFVCS executive committee made their first non-Gedney related trip, gaining a Full Holbeach, Whaplode and Moulton in the process. The highlights of the day were the criminal speeding postman on the B1168 between Saturday Bridge and Holbeach, the miracle car which some how managed to squeeze around an inconsiderately parked car which shall remain nameless at the Wash near Holbeach St Matthew, and the lorry which had almost toppled over at Holbeach Hurn.

A low key trip by bicycle of 35 miles in order to visit Sutton St Edmund and its associate Common was conducted by Andrew Titman. The trip produced the fact that one sign into Sutton St Edmund has Sutton St on the top line and Edmund beneath, while another has Sutton on the top and St Edmund below.

After the winter recess, the first trip to Gedney Hill of the season was conducted and this established the names of the three pubs as well as a few other interesting observations.

Bill Gates and his goons manage to foil our planned trip to the Wiggenhalls, Suttons, Tydds, Tilneys and Walpoles. However, Bill Gates ends up being the one who loses out as if the trip had been conducted then we would have gone 120 miles and missed the Runctons as the MFVCS research was incomplete at the time and this would have made the task of gaining a Full Fenland much harder.

The planned trip was carried out successfully and 28 points towards the Full Fenland were gained in just one outing. The highlight of the trip had to be visiting the island in the Wash. The low points were the lack of any signs to Wiggenhall St Germans which led to use going through it on no less than four occasions. As usual Bill Gates was up to his normal tricks, along with the usual tractor or two, he also managed to hire a bus to delay us on two occasions, seven hours and about 8 miles apart.

Yet another successful and long trip was carried out. This time all the Pinchbecks, Gosbertons, Doningtons, Bickers, Kirtons and Tattershalls were gained taking the executive board's points total to 78! Unlike the previous trip this one did not include any long walks. However we did have time to take down the numbers of various phone boxes which should come in handy at a later date. We also put up some advertising in various fen-edge places for the MFVCS. The villagers of Aslackby were also given a lesson in eloquence by way of a sign on a sign...Azelby my arse! Bill Gates' goons didn't figure too heavily although a kamikaze goon in a truck did try to kill us by overtaking someone very slowly while our nameless driver was travelling quite fast on the B1192 straight towards him. Thankfully a head on collision at a scarily high combined speed was avoided. Having drunk a little too much weak lemon drink from my flask I requested we stop off a Bourne Woods for a call of nature.

A fairly short trip for once, though lengthened a bit through the need to avoid Whittlesey and to get the Gedney Hill phone box number. The trip took in all the Ramseys, giving only 5 more points, but they are essential for the Full Fenland. The highlight of the trip was probably conversing with some cultured youths of Gedney Hill via telephone. The trip took just over 3 hours in all and sets us up for a marathon final run up to the middle of Lincolnshire which will give us a Full Fenland! Just 33 more places to visit.

An historic day without a doubt. A lovely day awaited us, mild and sunny. After thirty miles of driving we reached Leverton and the first points of the day, the Leakes, Wrangles, Wainfleets and Thorpes as well as the first three Toyntons were gained without too much hassle. We then stopped in Snipedales for lunch and also went to the Winceby battlefield before heading on to the final two Toyntons. At 2.01pm we reached Low Toynton, not much of a Fenland setting for the final village, but it was the final village and there was a sign! A commemorative photo was in order. We then continued the celebrations by heading for the Belmont mast, the tallest structure in the UK at 385 metres high. The question now is will anyone else ever gain a Full Fenland?

A trip of around 55 miles in order to properly get pictures of three minor places that were so indistinct they couldn't be identified from the photos taken originally and the added task of creating a photo tour for the fen's best village. This trip can be regarded as the turning point of when village collecting became an extreme sport. This is because this trip involved being driven by someone who's had no practice for six months in a car which has already broken down in the previous few days and has no seat belts provided in the back. The trip also included visiting a triangulation point down a bumpy road 4 miles from anywhere else.

In what could well be the MFVCS Executive Board's final trip, the Full Fenland award was slightly modified to include Surfleet after it was decided Surfleet Cheal existed. The trip also included a visited to Quadring Eaudike's famous Chapel of Unrest as well as a quick trip to Pinchbeck's Engine Museum.

It was the first MFVCS trip of the 21st century and the Executive Board ensured it lived up to this in significance. The proper business of the trip was to visit the Friskneys with the plan to include them in the Full Fenland table. This was done and so January 2nd 2001 goes down as the day the board gained the Revisied Full Fenland though their achievement of March 19th 2000 will still be recognised as the day they gained a Full Fenland. Anyway, the trip also included a visit to the boat that has run aground blocking the River Nene at Sutton Bridge and the essential port of Wisbech! The other highlight of the trip was the erratic driving that seems to have become a trademark of the trips. However the involuntary 7 metre long skid mark set this trip out as being particularly special on that front.

At a lose end with regards to what to do now that a Full Fenland has been well and truly achieved, the MFVCS diversify into Triangulation point collecting. It was the height of the foot and mouth crisis however so we had to limit ourselves to roadside trig points. The first trip took us deep into the Lincolnshire Wolds and the second to the unchartered territory of Leicestershire, Northants and Rutland. Both trips made us highly aware of the phenomenon of disappearing triangulation points, an issue Ordnance Survey really should look into. We rounded off April with another visit to the Island in the Wash. This time taking the extra long trek via Ongar Hill which took in a triangulation point on the way back. Norfolk County Council had kept the Wash Coastal Path open and so an interesting trip which thanks to long grass and light but persistent drizzle resulted in very wet feet by the end. As is customary we were treated to a spectatular air display courtesy of the RAF who were flying low directly above us as we walked out onto the island.

In our continuing quest for triangulation points we embarked on a trip into the south and west Fens, areas not all that widely frequented by the MFVCS due to their lack of multiple settlements. With foot and mouth out the way walking became a viable option too. After initial failures at Helpston and Horsey Hill, a number of good triangulation points were gained. Pidley, home of the Pidley Mountain Rescue Team was passed. However the humour was lost on the MFVCS as the terrain in the area seemed quite mountainous - over 30 metres in places! Highlights including the 0 metres above sea level one at Ramsey Mereside, the one in the field at Crimplesham and the ones on the banks at Guyhirn and Nordelph. Time constraints however prevented us going to the 1 metre below sea level point at Little Ouse, but that will no doubt feature on a future trip.

A subset of the Executive Board embarked on a multi-day trip to the North West of England. Highlights included a visit to Sellafield and Heysham Nuclear Power Station, a taste of the traditional seaside at Morecombe, plus a fleeting visit to Gretna Green and Hadrians Wall. We also claimed a particularly prestigous triangulation point through the ascent of Helvellyn, England's second highest peak and second highest triangulation point. The trip was rounded off by a visit to our friends at Menwith Hill plus a look at the Emley Moor transmitter - UK's tallest concrete structure - a shorter but arguably more impressive structure than Belmont.

Images from many of these historic days can been viewed in their full glory at the MFVCS Gallery and even more are avaliable at the MFVCS Photo Archive.

After a break of a full year since the previous MFVCS trip, the entire Executive board embarked on yet another hardly relevant trip to the Lake District. This time we even forgot to visit any nuclear power stations or secret listening stations. However we made up for this in part by claiming the highest triangulation point in England, Scafell Pike, through an ardous 8.5 mile hike, taking in over 1100 metres of vertical climbing. This was despite one of Bill Gates' hiking goons claiming Great Gable was Scafell Pike. Well he was either a goon, or just someone who couldn't read a map. The severity of the walk made us appreciate the flatness of the Fens even more, either that or just mechanised transportation.

An evil plan to thwart the MFVCS by deactivating their website was clever foiled by the MFVCS executive committee. We're back online and will try to log in at least once every four months!

The MFVCS Executive Board

The Executive Board has the ultimate power in deciding who gains an official award be it a Full Fenland, Full Gedney or a lowly Partial Wrangle. Obviously however, we cannot deprive people from claiming them in their minds and if people don't want to claim officially, that is their choice.

The Executive Board was initially composed of the first village collecting enthusiasts who went to Gedney Hill through their own toil. A prerequisite has now been set of needing to have official gained a Partial Fenland (note a Barebones Fenland and Partial Fenland with any part Mandatory will not suffice). Currently only those on the Executive Board have achieved this, however anyone who does achieve it and wants to be on the Board can apply and will be considered on their own merits. It must been seen that a real sacrifice has been made in achieving the Partial Fenland. If we feel it was mostly coincidental or none of it was done through cycling we may decline membership. The only definite way to get on the board is to achieve a Full Fenland.

The Board currently is
Andrew Titman
James Pepper
Daniel Felton

To claim any award send an email to The executive Board of the Multiple Fenland Village Collecting Society. Claims should include some original observations if possible which may be verified.

For more details of the exactaties of each award go to the Full Fenland page.