Waterland

Waterland Summary | Chapter 1 Summary

Waterland begins with the first of many view points concerning the Fens and its elemental geography. Three hundred years of attempts to drain parts of the Fens for farmland or other commercial developments created a series of artificial canals and waterways, many of which were regulated by "sluice-gates," barriers designed to regulate the flow of water and to guard against flood. Henry Crick, Tom's father, is the lock keeper of the Atkinson Lock on the River Leem, a slow moving, turgid waterway that empties in the Great Ouse, a major east England waterway which ultimately drains into a bay of the North Sea called the Wash. Henry is responsible for both the monitoring of the sluice as well as the safe passage of boats along this portion of the river.

The Cricks are an old family of river men - so linked are the Cricks to the water that Tom Crick describes their smell as sometimes half men, half fish. His father, a veteran of World War I, tells stories, some of which involve the stars in the sky as seen from the broad Fens. Henry is very particular about his eel traps, a chief activity in his life on the River Leem. Tom's mother is dead, and the three Crick's Tom (age 14 or 15 in July, 1943), his older brother Dick, and father Henry lived together in the Lock masters cottage. The discovery of the dead body of Freddie Parr is briefly noted here.