Pipeline through the Fens

Even in Britain's most rural corners you can't be sure what's underfoot. 33 miles of gas pipeline laid in 12 weeks? Weld done!

Sweeping fields of agricultural farmland as far as the eye can see. Yet hidden beneath a 33-mile stretch of the Fens in eastern England is a dirty great pipeline pumping gas to a society of guzzlers. Giant machines like mechanical dinosaurs with human handlers wrestle with the earth, tearing a great gash across the landscape before sewing it neatly back up. The fact that the three-foot pipe was laid through marshy fields, roads and rivers in just 12 weeks is impressive, whatever your view on its necessity.