Cambridgeshire sea level

[mi-mi]

I have been told that littleport, and ely are under sea level. If that is the case then all of cambridgeshire would be below sea level right? Please help as I have not been able to find out.

[Sqad]

No....if you travelled west from Ely, the ground rises, hence the rest of Cambidgeshire would be above sea level.

[redcrx]

why would all of Cambs be under sea level if one or two towns are? and why just Cambs and not suffolk?
Ely itself is above sea level and was an island until the fens were drained

[Sqad]

redcrx....I may be wrong...but the town of Ely is below sea level, but Ely Cathedral is above sea level.....built on a hill.

[Sqad]

zac...what is OD?

[pbeach]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordnance_Datum

[Sqad]

pbeach....right ...thanks.

[redcrx]

the name ELY comes from eel Island.

[Sqad]

redcrx...never knew that. So it must be above sea level UNLESS, the ground has subsided.

[redcrx]

lol perhaps the catherdral is too heavy, sqad?

i still dont understand why the poster thinks the whole of cambridgeshire is below sea level.

[fredpuli47]

I can assure you,mi-mi, that I live in Cambridgeshire and we are not all below sea-level ! I once lived on Wandlebury Hill, which is a dizzy 74 metres above sea level.It's in the Gog Magog Hills, a few miles south of Cambridge. The hills are the highest in the county proper (the actual highest point is in hills on the borders of an adjacent county). Most of the Fens, in the north of the county, are below sea level though, the lowest point there being 2.75m below, and the highest point about 8m above, sea level. The Fens were drained in the C17.A curious result is that you find drainage ditches which are very much higher than the surrounding countryside, because the soil is peaty. When it was drained it dried out and shrank so it's now far below the level of the drains.

[mi-mi]

I was not sure as to wat areas would be below or above sea level, hence the question........ Thanks everyone for the help....

[rov1200]

This environment agency flood plain map gives the area you are interested in

http://maps.environment-agency.gov.uk/wiyby/wi ybyController?x=554500.0&y=280500.0&topic=floo dmap&ep=map&scale=4&location=Ely, Cambridgeshire&lang=_e&layerGroups=default&textonly=off

[Bert]

Just because a place is below sea level, it does not mean that the place will be flooded by the sea. The surface of the Dead Sea is below 'sea level', and so is Death Valley, USA. If someone were to dig a channel from the coast (Hunstanton, for instance) to any of the places in Cambridgeshire that are below sea level, then the sea would flow along the channel to the place in Cambridgeshire. But it would just make a sort of salty pond there, since the areas that are below sea level are not all interconnected.

[Bert]

I'm sorry, mi-mi. I have given an answer to something that was not actually your question.
Even if Littleport and Ely were below sea level, why should that imply that all of Cambridgeshire would be below sea level? Where is the logic in that?