Mereton Reed Sessions

The twice-yearly open assembly of the fen's eleven holms, the nearest thing the wet country has to a government. Anyone from the holms may speak in a fixed order, the ferrylords last; a reeve reads the book but has no vote. It reallocates reed-cutting and causeway obligations and publicly asks about unlit staithes.

The fen's assembly and court, which hears the holms' business, including Sarkholme's, and agrees the local hire of bounty men. It keeps the reed sessions book.

Named with it

• Reeve Martha Thurlby (keeps the book
• The Mereton Reed Sessions, a Book of Proceedings)
• Reeve Obadiah Feltwell · A Reading of the Old Sessions Book
• Reed-Master Judith Clenchwarton
• Ferrylord Stephen Wiggenhall

Ties

• the priory attends but does not preside
• the ferrylords speak last
• not recognised by the Harrowgate Assize
• the ferrylords sit or speak there

At the table

It has no legal standing but its decisions are almost never appealed; its sanction is public naming and the quiet cooperation of neighbours. A standing item records lights on the water, bounty payments, unhallowed ground and outdoor deaths—making the sessions the most useful two days in the March for a company. The Spirit War of the Three Fens is recited before any vote on cutting a no-cut ground. Its dispute rulings are severe. A stranger can win standing there by walking the burial islands with the holms, which otherwise takes a decade. The fen pays in eel, peat, passage and lodging rather than coin.