Hatfield Chase is a low-lying area in South Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, England. It was often flooded. Hatfield chase was a royal hunting ground until Charles I tried to have it drained. He hired a Dutch engineer to drain the water in 1626. The engineer's name was Cornelius Vermuyden. He also changed the courses of the rivers Don, Idle and Torne. This included making drainage channels. But the project was not completely successful. More work was done in the 1760s to see to the problem of winter flooding. Modern pumps now work to drain the area. The history of Hatfield chase goes back to the end of Roman Britain.