Following the re-routing of the rivers in the region by Cornelius Vermuyden and his Adventurers in the 1650s, to more effectively drain the Fens, the peaty soils began to dry out and shrink.

The gang was managed by a Head Ganger, and a team of three men worked a train of five boats, each around 36 by 8.5 feet (11.0 by 2.6 m), and capable of holding 8 tons of gault (Kimmeridge) clay.

Gaulters ceased to be employed by the Burnt Fen District after 1920, when responsibility for the river banks passed to the newly formed Ouse Drainage Board.

[7] Parts of the area were declared a Site of Special Scientific Interest in June 2008, in recognition of their geology and wetland habitat,[8] and in the absence of a planning application by the owner, an enforcement notice was issued by East Cambridgeshire District Council, preventing further work being carried out.

An appeal against the notice was rejected by the Planning Inspectorate on 14 November 2008, with the outcome that sections where work has been carried out will have to be returned to their previous state.

[10] A major intervention in 2020 by a private philanthropist saw the purchase from the Environment Agency of the smaller lake pit and its surrounding woodland habitat, together with the larger reed bed to its north east which has witnessed the return of breeding bittern, marsh harrier and Chettis Warbler.