New for 2014

Hi all well its a long time since I did anything on this blog, which is not good but I have been busy and a lot has changed and a lot accomplished in the mean time. I have now decided to repeat the challenge for 4 Million Steps in a year.

Some of you will remember reading the blogs as I walked round Suffolk well this time I have decided to walk the long distance footpaths of Norfolk. I will start counting on January 1st and record the steps daily in my calendar. I will again use the same pedometer though out for consistency and have already checked this out to make sure it works OK and is as accurate as I can make it.

I will record the main walks on this blog as I did before probably better this time, as I walk the main footpaths of Norfolk Starting with the weavers way then Angles I suspect followed by Peddars then North Norfolk Coast finishing with Marriotts and then Boudica. I hope to fit also Wherryman walk also and any other smaller paths I can.

Its a tall order but not impossible something I am used to. Wish me luck and look out for teh blogs in the new year. I haven't yet decided to do this to raise money for a charity so may well do that I will see, seems odd not to really.

Bye for now

Richard

The enormous power of nature feeding and calming our souls

Today’s walk had to be shorter than normal as I had a very important meeting; I had to be on Southwold Pier by 11.00am to be photographed with a couple of my walking supporters Robert Gough who owns the Pier and Terry Hunt the Editor of the East Anglian Daily Times and Evening Star. Terry has been out for walks with me before at Ickworth, I remember as part of the National Trust Walking Festival. This was fantastic for me, as Director at the Trust, it meant I had a good excuse to walk for a week, meeting people to walk with at many of the Trusts locations. Now I do the same but for different reasons to help promote peoples general health and well-being and to help Healthy Ambitions with its One Million Steps Challenge which launched last Monday.

To begin today’s walk I left the car at Walberswick Church.  Walberswick is a lovely village nestling in the Suffolk Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and its called that for a reason, it is outstanding! Walberswick, I’m told its Saxon for wyk or sheltered harbour and Walbert from a notable or powerful chaps name of the time, probably the land owner. It is great looking into the history of the names of villages of the UK it is worth going into your local book shop to get a book on the history of place names, autumn and winter dark nights are coming, reading that and looking at maps in winter inspires you to look forward to spring and summer walking for the next year I hope.

Turning left into Palmers Lane you are treated to some beautiful old cottages and lovely gardens before vistas of the coast and Blythe valley no wonder this is the area of outstanding beauty.

Crossing the river by the footbridge and turning right brings you to the start of the Southwold Harbour walk. The Harbour Inn on the left is the site of many a meeting of friends. Its where the Powell family meets the Jones Family  after Christmas day for fish and chips and a bracing walk round Southwold so happy memories for today’s walk. I love this harbour walk. Always good to chuckle at the cars parked just that little bit too far forward as the tide comes in, no real damage just very wet feet when they want to get to the driver’s seat.  The wall of the Harbour Inn has marks to show the height of the tide in history a stark reminder about sea level rise and what the next mark could be! Walking east up the harbour road is a pleasure. The sights and  smells of boats and people are a pleasure to watch; the mix of a sailing cleat with a pair of Hunter wellies,  posh Guernsey in the local ships chandlers shop, see the old pitched shed or railway carriage selling fresh fish and produce - its all tremendous. The mix of buildings, sheds and lean-to’s reminds you of the gently eccentric British people and long may that last. Southwold means so much to so many people local and visitors alike.

Erosion and the power of the sea are never far away on this coast and the groynes, harbour walls and the like are under constant discussion and repair. Should we? Shouldn’t we? is a constant debate, economics versus peoples livelihoods are always at the fore with discussions taking place in village halls, council chambers and pubs all referring to this special piece of the Suffolk coast. Either way its a constant reminder of how we have to adapt to climate change and sea level rise, after all debate is healthy but a head in the sand attitude is not!

I walked past the lifeboat sheds, these brave people still braving their lives, in all weathers, true heroes with true grit these local people and so I take my hat off to them – or as my son would say ‘total respect man’.

For 10 years I was an auxiliary coastguard at Gorleston. I was ok, I stayed on land in the lookout or the Land Rover, these guys were the ones leaving the Harbour to a ship in distress, they faced the real challenge, manning the radio wasn’t quite in the same league. Do visit them when you are next near a lifeboat shed and pop a couple of quid at least in to the donations cairn.

Turning north along the beach was a joy, behind me this day was a front,  a bank of grey cloud coming up from the south. London I had seen that morning was in rain but I was in sun. It was fabulous to see the bank of grey cloud slowly creeping toward us, nothing you could do about it, the enormous power of nature makes you feel a little helpless. No real threat but I watched the cloud coming knowing what it brings, fascinating. Aren’t you always inspired by the natural world?

I reached the famous or is the infamous beach huts. The names make me smile as I walk past even though I have seen them all before and even though they are the cheesiest bunch of predictable names you can get, I love them. I imagine the hours of debate in a home over what they are going to call it discussing over the dinner table ‘dunroamin’ to ‘Ma’s bar’ just fabulous.

The pier looming and very busy for the time of year, I had assumed schools going back it would be quieter but no, instead full of those that holiday after the schools, although some of the conversations and antics in some of the open beach huts where, I have to say, very reminiscent of school children! A real reminder how we love to be by the sea and how the natural world feeds and calms our soul.

I met Robert Gough and Terry Hunt with our illustrious and champion photographer (and BBC Radio Presenter) Steph Mackentyre on the pier. I love the quirky atmosphere here, so totally British. I also love the coffee and the customer care on the Pier, an all-round enjoyable experience. I always think that so many memories have been formed here. My own children used to love visiting 'Nannies Caravan' at Church Farm near Aldeburgh, so many anchored memories in generations and so important for children to have some freedom too. A chance to do some roaming, getting wet and muddy, falling off the sea wall, climbing trees and even playing crazy golf, it all feeds later life and we need to re anchor children into the natural world for them to take on the reins of managing it for the future.

On the pier we talked business, tourism, walking, health and nature and it struck me how blessed we are in Norfolk and Suffolk to have such a natural world underpinning the economy and health of people. Central Birmingham I am sure is very nice and the people born and living there are I’m sure very proud of the place but aren’t we lucky here in Norfolk and Suffolk?

We were photographed with the lighthouse in the background. A lighthouse not only an icon for the town but the key lighthouse now as Orfordness has been decommissioned with Lowestoft being the northerly light now. These lights, all automatic now, like automated railway signals the old ways moving forward, soon no signal men pulling levers or lighthouse men cleaning the lamps, even some of the lights have gone LED rather than traditional bulbs saving property and energy. That’s life progress, it is important to move us forward and of course this region plays such an important part in the research and production of this new technology.

After the photographs, I walked through the centre of town, back past the water tower to the harbour, over the bridge and back to Walberswick church. A shorter walk but a good one nonetheless, as I returned  feeling all the better for it.

I have all but completed my walk round Suffolk, just a couple of bits to fill in one round Newmarket and shingle street to Felixstowe but I have done those before so I am relaxed about fitting them in this year having achieved my personal One Million Steps Challenge by August 13th. A lot of my challenge steps were done by walking to the station, walking to meetings, not using the car and going to the shops with a rucksack rather than the car so it is easy to increase your walking and your step count as part of your day and you don’t always need to do the 15 mile hikes I have been doing. I have now set my goal to achieve Two Million Steps by Christmas, with that in mind I am this autumn  planning to walk the Pedders way from Thetford to Kings Lynn and will write those up on for this blog, so do pop back and visit my blog if you can from time to time but for now may I say good walking, take care and get outside and walk you will feel so much better for it you will see some amazing stuff and it will do your health good too which can’t be bad. This final walk will also be summarised and featured in next Monday's East Anglian Daily Times and my thanks go to them for featuring some of my walks around Suffolk helping me to raise the profile of walking for well-being in Suffolk and Norfolk.

Regards Richard

An intoxicating walk of willow and marsh

This was always going to be a walk of willow and marsh and it did not disappoint, and there were some awesome other creatures and nature as well. Continuing my trip along the Angles way, to almost complete the whole trail. To do a walk round Suffolk I knew would entail key public transport at some point either to get back to my car or to do the walk entirely. I have to say it is much easier in the East of the county than the West. There is a big difference between these two sections of the county; In the West you have large numbers of single occupancy farmland or institutionally owned farmland , sparser villages altogether a more remote and distant land however  in the East there are smaller farms and it could also be that the East has a history of engagement maybe? There’s also the coast which leads to a greater Holiday industry too not to mention the Ports, rivers and trading therein and the staff needed to accommodate. Altogether a very a different feel between the two halves of the County from a walkers perspective anyway.

This walk I had planned to do by driving to Brundall in Norfolk, catching the train to Lowestoft. From there, boarding the train to Beccles and then walking back to Lowestoft. At the end of the walk, I would return to Brundall either by train, providing  times permitted as they only run every 2 hours, or there was the half hour service the X1 bus that would hopefully take me from Lowestoft to Acle and then the train back to Brundall. It sounds even more complicated when explained like this, however it actually worked like clockwork.

My train journey was actually slightly complicated and I mused the difference pre Beeching would have made. However it is a very picturesque journey to Lowestoft across the marshland. I then left Lowestoft and arrived at Beccles and jumped off the train ready to begin my walk. There’s an hourly service between the towns of Ipswich and Lowestoft now due to a new Beccles loop that has been opened allowing trains to pass. Beccles was a big station. It used to be the point where the trains from London would either go to Gt Yarmouth or Lowestoft. I tried to imagine in the Victorian and Edwardian times just how many people would have passed through this station. In those days factories would close for two weeks, unpaid of course and people would come by the train load to the sea side. There would be Yorkshire week, Scots week, Luton week etc. where shoe factories would charter special trains to go to Gt Yarmouth or Lowestoft. A huge industry which together with Fishing, Wood, Grain and exports made Gt Yarmouth and Lowestoft buzzing places.

Here at Beccles you can almost hear the ghosts of those past travellers in the air. As you leave the platform over the footbridge remember this use to go over several lines, so now it seems an odd shape. The station itself, now a furniture store, would have had porters, waiting rooms, warm fires in the winter and an efficient and punctual Station Master who would have lived in one of the bigger houses close by. If you look at the buildings as you leave the station you see what would have been the Station Hotel, a couple of pubs and a shop now all turned into houses their function lost or changed. I mused  the excited voices of times gone by, the bustling businesses  the steam and heaps of coal this scene in your, your mothers, or perhaps your

grandmothers life time.

Leaving my imagination and the ghosts I walked back towards the river on this edge of the town. Beccles and its sister market town Bungay just five miles away were centres of trade, agriculture, with important rivers. These were rich towns; look at the merchant’s houses and church in Beccles high street or Bungay high street for evidence of its past existence. All around the town you see evidence of what was the wool trade and an agricultural industry or wealthy blacksmiths, people mending boats, unloading cattle for sale etc. These market towns thrived as centres or hubs for the surrounding areas. Now of course the printers have almost gone the cattle markets and Wherries certainly have, and the two mighty market towns are now somewhat dormitory towns to that bigger hub Norwich. I know I generalise here and people will object to being called a dormitory town but deep down you know what I mean.

Arriving at the river I walked through a field of what was disturbed land. Evidence of this is the huge swathes

of Horseradish together with nettles and brambles. I must say isn’t it a great year for blackberries after that cold winter? It smelt wonderful as the sun warmed the leaves and as I walked through, the movement made the smell waft up to meet me wonderful for the nasal passages! It was here I also saw what I think was the prize view on the walk and I was only 15 mins into it. Flying past with speed was a Clouded Yellow Butterfly; such strong flyers it was hard to keep up with it, let alone photograph it.(Hence the reason for the stock photo below rather than my own) Basically a migrant  or immigrant arriving here in the 1940’s they say they now over winter and are able to breed but cold or wet winters take their toll.

I walked up the river wall, passed the great archaeological dig that has been carried out several times over the last five years. Wooden oak posts, 67 of them actually and a platform were uncovered in what would have been a landing stage or walk way. In ancient times 2000+ years ago the river would have been roughly where it is now but much less canalised and walled. The river would have gone out of the flooded river valley what is now Lake Lothing near Lowestoft. Ships would have come up here to Beccles easily and the fresh water, the grasslands, the trees and the higher ground made it ideal for settlement and trade, again showing what a strategic position many of our villages and towns in this part of the world originated from. Think of the trading which would have taken place from parts of Europe and the South, this would have been a thriving hub even back then. Don’t you just Love Norfolk and Suffolk?  As I walked on I also thought how we have become conditioned and hidebound by political boundaries.  Water, birds, butterflies in fact all natural capital isn’t aware of these boundaries.

The river wall carried on and for the stretch of the walk the river was tre- lined, only giving the occasional glimpse of the river itself. It was so quiet. I have noticed on some of these walks around Suffolk how you can get to places for a short time where the traffic is masked, the aircraft are gone and all you get is wildlife and natural sounds. This was the case as I walked up the river. It certainly was a scene of marsh and willow. Huge Crack Willows, as they are locally known, grow tall, split, fall over, regenerate and re grow leaving a knarled fibrous trunk that rots while the newly fallen section roots and grows its a great way to make sure you survive. The occasional Oak I spotted too but it was Willows and Alder for most of the way.

It was a hot day so the smell of the marshes was sweet. Hemp Agrimony in flower wafted in the air full of insects and bees, coupled with the general smell of the marsh which is intoxicating. I came across a building and like in the last blog on Breydon, this housed the drainage pump. Again from the stains of the ground this was once a diesel pump, now electric, showing the progress of time.

As I left the building I saw the tell-tale signs of blue engineering bricks. These hardened bricks are used in places where strength and support are needed. Classic signs of something big and probably Victorian. Getting closer it was the bridge supports for the old railway line to Gt Yarmouth. As I mentioned earlier, Beccles was where the line from Gt Yarmouth joined what is now the East Suffolk Line to London via Ipswich. Branch lines to Lowestoft and Bungay, then Harleston and Tivetshall, now just a crossing on the modern Norwich to London Line. This bridge was once the mainline to London from Gt Yarmouth, how things change.

Moving on I stopped again at one of the fishing platforms to look at the river and have a drink. A blue flash caught my eye. For a micro second I thought it was the reflection of my drink bottle in my glasses but quickly realised it was the flash of a kingfisher disappearing up stream. A great sight I love kingfishers. Most of their colour comes from the light refracting in the feathers, underneath the feathers are quite black. A great fisherman and a sign the life in the rivers which is good. Quite conscious now of the boat traffic I moved on

I had noticed along the bank from Beccles it was mown quite close. Looking at the re growth it looks like it was mown some time ago. I felt a bit annoyed as I calculated this might still have been in the breeding season for many birds and insects. Having spent 25 years managing land and landscapes I know these things have to be managed but its timing and methods that make the difference.

 I soon came up to a sign that said the path ahead was being mown and sure enough two great flails were cutting the bank and berm between the soak dyke and the river wall. Soak Dykes, so called as they soak away any water seeping through the river walls, sometimes called Borrow Dykes for the reason that the mud was borrowed to create the wall, are important for wildlife.

Now I know the Environment Agency is responsible for these walls and keeping them clear helps keep the wall from being damaged by vegetation and obviously  prevents flooding.  The drainage engineers will always say that prevention of flooding is the primary concern, to save life and limb. I wouldn’t want flooding for anyone but at times I do think we are a little obsessed with neatness.

We have been conditioned as humans and especially over the last 100 years or so that neat is good scruffy is bad, but this isn’t the case. We need that variety of height, species, and diversity of habitats to ensure nature or our natural capita survives. Our obsession with neatness comes with a heavy price for nature there has to be a balance surely? I hope that the case here is that the banks are cut every 3 to 5 years rather than annually and in stretches at different times so we achieve bank stability but also maximise nature’s chances of the nettles being the host to butterfly eggs and other life giving and essential insects.

I have to say though this was the most fantastic walk for dragonflies. I know timing is right, but  there were chasers, darters, hawkers all over the place and at least two species of blue damsel fly as well. Constantly around me dragonflies were flying eating and mating. So impressive to see two dragonflys mating on the wing, imagine the red arrows flying with that precision! Maybe my analogy is going wrong here about mating and flying and the red arrows I meant the precise flying, oh never mind you know what I mean J I wasn’t carrying my dragonfly book but ruddy darter, blue chaser and migrant hawkers were certainly around me.

Continuing on I said hello to two chaps who appeared to have walked from Lowestoft. They were looking for Barnby and one looked worse for wear! So I showed them where they were on the map which path to take and bade them farewell. The walk from here on the wall widened out and you could see a long way either side of the valley. You could also see in the very distance the tower and grain silos of Lowestoft port. Sometimes I like this because it gives you  a land mark or a focal point but also the devilish side in your brain says it shows how far you still have to walk as these silos are right by the train station in Lowestoft - at least 5 miles away!

The marshes were still grazed by cattle, a great thing for this part of Norfolk and Suffolk, huge beasts of many varieties great to see; natural marsh beef must be tastier and better for you than housed grain and silage fed cattle. It made me think about the Archers and the debate over the super dairies Brian Aldridge wanted to build. Economically sound I’m sure for a business accountant farmer, morally good? It’s a debate of our times as farming, industry and life becomes more industrial and efficient. I can see both cases but question if it’s good in the long run for people and natural capital, I do wonder if we don’t just need to stop and think occasionally.

I passed Castle Marshes, a Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserve, and continued to Carlton Marshes SWT reserve where I knew I had to get to for the turn back into Oulton Broad. As I turned inland on the footpath from the wall to skirt round the end of Oulton Broad, I noticed the first piece of arable land on the walk. Not the best crop I have seen, I did wonder how this stacked up economically I have to say. I always seem to be complaining about footpaths damaged by ploughing and this was again noticeable. I know having driven tractors all my life and ploughed many a field that it is not easy to always drop the plough where you want it if you are trying to finish a job but it is just lazy to just drop the plough over a footpath and carry on knowing the plough will cut into where people walk.

I walked up to Carlton Marshes nature reserve and popped in to make sure I was on the right path, a lovely lady made sure I knew which path to take and I carried on my way.

Oulton Broad hoved into view with its yacht stations, boats, parks, seats, and ice-cream all essential parts of Oulton. Essentially the most easterly of the peat diggings that formed the boards, it is separated from Lake Lothing and the sea by a lock. Fresh water it is part of the Broads scene. Busy in the east and quieter in the west. When I was a lad, as they say, we used to come here to watch power boat racing. Getting one of those Ice creams, I am so partial to a Mr Whippy (my son and I are on a life quest to find the best 99. Diamasco van at Great Yarmouth harbour hold the title at the moment served with a welcome by Richard, it is one of the most fabulous 99’s you will ever have. Closely followed by a Kelly’s 99 at the Welsh show last year!) Anyway back to the walk.

On the map there was a footpath going under the railway bridge and back to Lowestoft from the mini roundabout near the Wherry Hotel. I found it; it has to be the smallest footpath I have seen and the battered sign holding in there was a welcome direction. A section no wider than one and half people to me to the railway bridge and beyond.

I have to say I love the natural world, without a doubt it is where I am most comfortable but I do love heritage, buildings and our built history and archaeology. I am passionate about reading landscapes, interpreting them and that of course means the social and heritage parts as well as nature.

 I was part of and Chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund for the East of England for nearly 10 years. It was the most enjoyable exciting and challenging thing I have ever been appointed to. The HLF Team in this Region are absolute stars and a lot of the heritage grants, opportunities and delivery is down to that great team working with applicants to get the best for the money that you give from your lottery ticket as 4p in very pound goes to the Heritage Lottery. Without this money, buildings, museums, art,  history, market towns, nature, railway engines, life boats,  you name it Heritage is all around us, and HLF have been so key in increasing value to Tourism, and the economy as well as conserving, preserving, and enhancing our heritage and communities. Visit their website and see the great work they have done. I recommend it, you never know you might be eligible to apply for a grant for a project near you, they will soon tell you.

Back to the path and why I diverted into talking Heritage Lottery for a second, the path now takes you through some of our industrial past. Not only do you see Lake Lothing, a drowned valley we have spoken about in previous blogs in the Stour but one which has an interesting past. It is thought that the Danes and Vikings especially, exploited the drowned valleys and easy boat access to penetrate far into East Anglia especially, Norfolk and Suffolk. Again, as with the blog on Breydon water ,the Lake was open to the sea it is thought till at least medieval times before a sand bar covered the entrance. It was re-opened and trade continued when the route to Norwich was re-established and the New cut opened.

The footpath goes through boat yards and works sometime right in front  of the workshops, You can imagine

this was a shoreline before the concrete and the fencing, and boats were hauled up, being repaired by marine carpenters and experts, pitch and tar was boiling in vats to be painted onto the wood for sealing and repairs, a hive of industry and it is the SAE today, boats everywhere in various states of repair or construction fascinating array of winches, steel ropes oils rust and slipways - I love it.

From here the path crosses the railway again this time by bridge. You drop into what was clearly heathland of some kind at some point. Sandy soils, ferns and bracken, gorse and a pine tree, a real relic of landscapes past. The community and council have created a footpath system through what is now a community wetland. I saw several mothers with young children looking over the ponds, one with a net, pond dippin,. all at home in what some would call wasteland. I was heartened that people didn’t see this as scary and a no go place despite it being secluded over grown in places, and probably not where they want to be at night but during the day they could claim this as their own.

Emerging from here you walk along the main road alongside the docks, or what were the docks. Converted to shopping experiences here were warehouses and businesses with easy access to rail and boat. Things change but again the historic architecture is all around if you look up about the shop fronts or behind the new buildings often great examples of old workshops or warehouses can be seen. The rows of terrace houses were again another age, Victorian I suggest, now homes for many people some cutting hedges, polishing window’s and chatting as I passed, you could sense a  real community here I thought.

I arrived at the bus station from the high street; ‘left at O2’ someone told me and so I waited only 10 minutes to get the bus. The X1, a bus from Lowestoft to Peterbourgh via Kings Lynn. Wow what a trip to do on a bus! Hmm not sure that ‘great’ is the right superlative here; think of the communities villages and places it serves on the way. I jumped on with some trepidation, the X1 is not known for its friendly bus drivers, its reputation you hear however received is legendary, but that’s the challenge and I did get a smile from this bus driver, he was fine.

A bumpy old journey of nearly an hour got me back to Acle and a short walk to the station to catch the train to Brundall and finally my car. Yes I could have just gone from Acle to Lowestoft at the start but I wanted to experience different types of public transport to see if I could get them to work and they do in the majority of cases, you just need to plan and work out the journey times and connections. I enjoyed this walk. It was hot, I got though plenty of sun cream, but very enjoyable with lots to see and experience.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about this latest walk, I’ve now completed my own personal One Million Steps challenge walking around Suffolk, and so I've decided to keep going and aim for two million by Christmas!! I hope I’ve inspired some of you to take up the Healthy Ambitions One Million Steps #OMS challenge too – it all begins on Monday 16^th and that’s also the date you can see a précis of this walk featured in the East Anglian Daily Times. To see who is walking #OMS around Suffolk check out the website or follow their progress on Facebook 

Until next time, happy walking

Richard

Ancient County Borders and the Calorific Value of Mud!

After a period of walking in what I can only describe as lifeless prairie of West Suffolk and Newmarket, I then hit the wonderful heaths and forests of the Brecks and the start of the Waveney valley more on that later. The skies in West Suffolk were wonderful and villages and hospitality was great, it was just too lifeless for me. Industrial farming has taken its toll over the last 30 years. I know farmers are responding to society needs etc. but some more than others also put effort into margins, corners and hedges, creating a bit of a mosaic in the monoculture to give nature a chance and I thank them for it, this important part of farming and the European grants to enable this are essential.

So in this blog I decided to have a bit of a change and go to the other end of the Angles Way to the ancient Norfolk and Suffolk Border and South Breydon Water. In times past the border used to be the River Waveney and Yare confluence. South Breydon used to be Suffolk and North Breydon Norfolk. Many a battle of landowners, councils and merchants have been fought in words, taxes, levy’s and even fisticuffs on this border in the past.

Taxes on traffic using the River Yare to Norwich caused Lowestoft to be disgruntled and Norwich to be annoyed, Lake Lothing and the connection to the sea at Lowestoft were cut, deepened and changed and the ‘New Cut’ a canal from St Olives to Reedham in an attempt to take trade from Gt Yarmouth, successful but troublesome, always silting up and needing maintenance. Gorleston transferred to Norfolk in 1889 and Burgh Castle, Belton, Fritton, St Olives and Hopton finally in 1974.

So I am walking the ancient border of Suffolk I hope that counts! Starting at the old town wall tower in Gt Yarmouth (the North Tower) I walked to the Haven Bridge to get to the south of the town and what would

have been Suffolk! The current Haven Bridge completed and opened by the Prince of Wales in the 1930’s was the only road crossing till the 80’s when the new bridge was opened on the line of the old railway bridge taking goods and passengers to London via Belton , Beccles and the East Suffolk line.

Walking through what was Cobholm Island, now of course houses but originally a salt pan island separated from Gt Yarmouth by streams long since gone, however people from here still call themselves Cobholm Islanders. This was all once Suffolk. This is all a very old part of the two counties, people will remember the Herring industry, Yarmouth a major port for timber from Latvia, Estonia, and Georgia big three masters bringing the timber from the Baltic for use in building all over Suffolk and Norfolk. Gt Yarmouth of course was also the first English town bombed by a Graf Zepplin. Bombs fell near St Peters Church in the south of the town causing fatalities.

Eventually, after walking through Cobholm you emerge under the old railway line now the A12 onto a playing field and what was the old municipal dump now of course grassed over and landscaped.

The Angles Way takes you up the flood defences on the south of Breydon. Breydon Water is our most easterly estuary. It is internationally important for wintering wild fowl and waders. Some people look over

Breydon and see just one thing – mud! Yes there is a lot of it, its roughly 4 miles long and 1 mile wide but it is the biggest estuary between the Wash and the Thames so is vitally important for birds.

 Each square metre of mud has the calorie value to birds of 18 Mars Bars to us, full of worms, invertebrates and other food for birds. The value of Breydon has been decreasing over the last 30 years with the loss of soft backed crabs, rag worm and lung worm decline, plus the decline of shell fish, fish, eels and other food values.

A strange fish called the Smelt, used to have a ‘run’ into Breydon in the

late summer from the North Sea. A strange fish smelling of Cucumber when you pick it up, a white fish caught by local men and shipped in salted boxes straight to London as a delicacy, packed onto the train at night it was in the fish markets by morning, a lucrative addition to the household income before the WW2 that’s for sure; Smelt are still in the North Sea but numbers are small and have no real commercial value in these parts now.

The walk up the flood wall was stunning, sunny hot and a breeze blowing from the west. The channel on Breydon for boats is clearly marked by red and green posts. 7/8ths of the mud is an RSPB reserve. Breydon has a real history, one of the earliest declared nature reserves in 1888 a local nature reserve the first in Norfolk in 1968.

Arthur Patterson one of the mystical locals, born in the rows of Yarmouth was a peddler, salesman and then a truant officer. He wrote the first definitive guide to the site Wild Fowlers and Poachers in 1929. Strangely the book was typed and manuscripted  by the next generation of mystical naturalist of the Boards - Ted Ellis.

My first job when I left college was to work for Coypu Research helping to set up the Coypu eradication scheme in the early 80’s Coypu or Nutria were brought from South America for the fur trade and they took to the Broads as their home.

I was a ‘field worker’ and together with those wonderful companions Cyril Clarke my boss and Jenny Thomas my fellow trapper. We used to occasionally take Coypu to Ted Ellis for his dogs, but he was partial to the odd bit of coypu meat. Coypu are of course no more in the UK.

Back to the walk, as I could go on for hours about the history of this site. The sea walls have just been up graded across the whole of Broadland as part of a 20 year scheme to make a great vantage point for viewing the estuary.

Boats and holidaymakers constantly chugged by and reminded me of the great website called Literary Norfolk with writings and poems of Norfolk. I saw this one about Breydon and loved it I hope they don’t mind me repeating it here credit to them.

Breydon captured by Hugh Money-Coutts in his 1919 verse:

  

'On Breydon Water, when the tide is out,

 The channel bounds no sailorman can doubt.

 Starboard and port, the miry banks reveal

 Where safety lies beneath his cautious keel.

 But when the flood has wiped the water clean,

  - Hiding the muddy haunts where seagulls preen

 Their wings, and shake their heads - black pillars mark

 The channel's edge for each adventuring bark.

 Beware; the channel shifts, and now and then

 a post deceives the hapless wherrymen.'

I looked over the estuary to see the Norwich to Gt Yarmouth train via Reedham and I could see it stopping at Berney Marshes Halt the smallest station in England. Four trains a day stop here in the summer and the

walk from Berney to Gt Yarmouth on the north bank is equally as beautiful as the south. Gt Yarmouth is one of those rare sea side towns that boasts two railway lines; do we make enough of them I ask myself as I walk on, maybe we needn’t spend £78 million on a dual carriageway?

 On the left I overlook the Burgh Castle marshes, grazed by a mix of cattle. The collective name for all these marshes is Halvergate Marshes, a huge grassland complex which was once of course open to the sea - more about that later. The marshes produce some of the best beef. The grasses and herb-rich sward put good weights onto the cattle. Draining of the marshes was once the job of wind power and the wind drain pumps remain all over the sky line. One does wonder if the protests for these majestic mills was as loud as some today against modern wind turbines which you can also see from the wall.

Draining of water then turned diesel and finally electric, not only putting overhead cables into an open

landscape but also being so efficient shifting tonnes of water per minute, lowering the water tables. This of course meant some farmers thought the best thing was to plough and grow wheat, and so one of the biggest conservation battles ensued. The debate raged and national organisations such as RSPB and Friends of the Earth fought to keep the open grass landscapes. Some hundreds of acres were lost to the arable crops but the government scheme the Environmentally Sensitive Area or ESA’s were born here with payments to farmers not to plough but to graze and to keep water tables high.

Andrew Lees of Friends of the Earth and Dr Martin George, two of the stalwarts of the battle, were key figures in the success of the ESA, plus many others too many to mention, (maybe they should all come out in my memoirs?) fought hard to keep our Broadland marshes; one of those Andrew Lees, killed in the Far East, has his ashes scattered near Berney Marsh Mill.

Today, as the photo shows, wind drainage and pumping still exists. Pioneered by the RSPB and by a wonderful chap Mr Dave Barrett created these new-style wind pumps from a Dutch design. The first ones, using an old Ford Escort 1600cc gearbox, reenergised sustainable and green pumping on the Halvergate marshes and all these pumps are from Dave Barrett’s design, clearly a great wetland manger.

The journey continued to the confluence of the Yare and the Waveney. Great slow moving rivers but with a lot of water and consequently a good flow increased by the tidal influence, therefore not a point you would want to fall from your boat!

Here I saw a Marsh Harrier quartering over the reed bed and marshes. Is funny to think that in 1974 there were only one pair of Marsh Harriers left in UK and they were at Minsmere in Suffolk. Suffolk is a monumental place when it comes to rare birds and bringing them back from the brink of extinction; Avocets, Marsh Harriers Bearded Tit, Bitterns Stone Curlew to name a few, so Suffolk is very much a County that should be proud of its bird life.

The views from here show the huge vista which was the open estuary in Roman times. Great Yarmouth didn’t exist and the sea came into the River Bure Valley probably via Winterton about 15 miles away as well as what is not the Yare. Hence Burgh Castle a huge Roman fort, on one side of this vast Estuary with Caister, probably originally the other Roman fort on the north shore. Near Norwich the great Roman Town of Venta Icenorum the Roman capital of this part of the world now at Caistor St Edmund south of Norwich.

Some say it was serviced from the sea and the two forts described were there as protection from invaders.

Burgh Castle is a great place. Not only offering great views over the miles of grazing marshes but full of history and memories, worth a pause here to let your imagination flow and wander. You can almost hear the roman voices some Latin, and the boats unloading and loading their trade and the soldiers, plus the wind whipping around the cattle – it’s worth just standing for a moment to let it all sink in.

Leaving the fort I continued up the river Waveney passing reeds taller than I to my left with tantalising glimpses of Berney Mill. Passing the now holiday camps and the boat yards you eventually turn inland towards Fritton and another Forestry Plantation on what was originally heathland. After the First World War, when timber was scarce, lots of trees were planted on ‘wasteland’ or ‘sheep badlands’, the Brecks, North of Norwich, the Suffolk Coast and Fritton. This land has lovely windblown sand if you look at the base of the trees under the leaf litter and areas of erosion, dark grey glacial washed sand. Of course the next episode of this land is to be quarried for sand and gravel to feed the voracious house building machine.

I walked back along footpaths sheltered by trees across farmland to what was the little village of Belton, now a commuter village growing as they do. I found the Kings Head Pub with the bus stop to take me back to Yarmouth. Within 10 minutes the bus came along. I have to say I do like the fact you can text the code on the bus stop and you get a text back again with all bus times - a neat invention!

A great walk with a difference through so much history. Natural History, built history peoples history and peoples influence from Roman building, invasions, medieval building, wartime raids and changes to modern building and influencing. That’s why I love walking around Suffolk and Norfolk so much it charges your imagination, as there’s so much to see and so much to learn. I hope I’m inspiring you to also get out there and walk; trust me, it does you a world of good mentally and physically and inspires your grey matter and at my age that is no bad thing J

If you’d like to take up the Healthy Ambitions One Million Steps Challenge which starts on 16^th September you can find out more here http://www.healthyambitions.org.uk/onemillionsteps/l/ and sign up for your free Pedometre and Water Bottle. 

Bird list

Common gull

 Black headed gull

Herring Gull

Lesser Black backed gull

Common tern

Turnstone

Sanderling

Avocet

Shelduck

Curlew Sandpiper

Greenshank

Redshank

Hobby

Marsh Harrier

Green wood pecker

Gt Spotted Woodpecker

House sparrow

Great tit

Blue tit

Lapwing

Egret

Grey Heron

Meadow pipit

Sedge warbler

Swallow

Sand Martin

alvergate Marshes as the collect

Fame at last!

I'm delighted to write that my blog has been picked up by the East Anglian Daily Times, so they are to feature some of my walks in the East Anglian starting from next week - which I'm rather chuffed about. If you've already read my blog you will see I'm rather passionate about walking and also encouraging others to get out there and start enjoying the simple pleasures that walking on a regular basis does bring.

I'm the CEO of a charity - Healthy Ambitions.  We have created the One Million Steps Challenge for teams of 5 to walk a million steps over 4 weeks. This sounds a lot, it is but is surprisingly easy; it might be that getting off the bus a stop early or walking to work or a meeting and it becomes habit forming - you end up walking more and more each day. If you'd like to know more about the Healthy Ambitions One Million Steps Challenge click here.

Walking to me is very important. It allows me to get exercise, look at buildings and heritage, look at the clouds, listen to the birds, watch butterflies, smell the flowers or listen to music.  It increases my awareness of the natural world around and not only exercises our bodies but our minds as well. I hope you'll enjoy reading about my walks around Suffolk either here on my blog or via the East Anglian Daily Times and that I inspire at least some of you to go out there and start walking!

Until my next walk (and blog!)

Regards

Richard 

My sadness at 'sterile' fields and when silence is far from golden.

Day two of my Million Steps Challenge saw me catching the train to Manningtree Station to pick up from where I left off on dayone. The day was grey, but no hold ups on the train and I arrived in Manningtree at 08.55. I walked down from the station to the hedge-lined route across the grassland towards Flatford. I knew it was going to be a different type of route to day one, from the wide open estuary to the grasslands and meadows and farmland of the Stour Valley, however what I wasn’t prepared for was the real contrast in scenery  between the two days.  

Firstly was the butter cup filled area that was obviously a chunk of land used for draining the railway, and gloriously opposite was also butter cup rich meadow, Buttercups were a big feature of day two of my MSC (million steps challenge). I don’t know if was the cold wet winter that has made them thrive or just that I was fortunate to hit the right time of year but there was certainly a massively impressive, golden show. Instantly I was taken back to my childhood, do you remember putting a flower under your chin to see if you liked butter? I continued on the track when a horse box came passed from the local farm with a young labrador  puppy running after it and beseeching the driver to ‘wait for me’ or ‘take me with you please.’ Then the pup saw me come back into the road from standing aside and in true cartoon-style he screeched to a halt in total surprise and fear, legs akimbo then bolted back towards the farm, looking behind him as he ran, so, so funny. As I neared the farm gate he had regained his composure and started barking like the grown up dog he aspired to; which was fine till I turned round and took a step back towards him, you should have seen him turn tail and run! I could have happily played this game for ages but I had plenty more steps ahead of me so instead I left the ‘brave dog’ to his own devices.

Passing under the Railway, I came across several large Oaks and looking left, the broom was in full display on the railway track,  a truly impressive display it brought to mind the poem ‘Oh to be in England’ by Robert Browning.

Oh, to be in England

Now that April's there,

And whoever wakes in England

Sees, some morning, unaware,

That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf

Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,

While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough

In England - now!

And after April, when May follows,

And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!

Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge

Leans to the field and scatters on the clover

Blossoms and dewdrops - at the bent spray's edge -

That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,

Lest you should think he never could recapture

The first fine careless rapture!

And though the fields look rough with hoary dew

All will be gay when noontide wakes anew

The buttercups, the little children's dower

- Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower! Robert Browning 1812--1889

Musing this poem throughout my walk, I thought how spring this tear is at least 20 days late, its brought all of nature out in blossom together - an amazing sight, I wondered what Browning would have made of today’s vista. As I continued down the hedge lined route for the first ¾ mile it was a cacophony of sight and sound. Young rabbits darting across the path obviously living in the base of the huge thick hedgerows, the type where livestock have been grazing for years, cut back now but originally a well laid hedge giving it depth and structure before the invention of the flail. The birdsong was tremendous, white throat, blackcap, gold and chaffinch, blue and great tits, robin, and dunnock to name but a few.

Over the sound, and in the distance, the unmistakable sound of the Cuckoo, one of four I would hear this day. A bird, loved and loathed for its practice of laying eggs in others nests but imagine how hard this must be, as a cuckoo would have to lay about 8—10 eggs a whole clutch, in the right nest at the right time, too early and it would be ignored, too late it wouldn’t be incubated so it must surely be a stressful time, but what an excellent example of evolution and adaption. Imagine a spring without the cuckoo. They are suffering badly here and in the wintering grounds and subject of a big study by the British Trust for Ornithology. They are radio tagging birds and tracking them by satellite back to Africa and building up quite a picture which will be essential for their conservation. I wonder if one of the four I heard during my walk was a tagged bird. I recorded a bit of the cuckoo in the distance(click on the video above).

Today’s walk was all about birds and other wildlife, I was literally surrounded by them. The key formulae were all here. Hedges and vegetation, nesting habitat, grass, grazing animals, water, trees and essentially insects from all those mixed together. It was so striking, the sound and sight of nature, it really was a pleasure to walk.  Once I reached the sluces before Flatford I was treated to sight of a pair of Turtle Doves, a bird that had declined by 98% in the UK. Just think when was the last time you hear the distinctive call of the turtle dove? I bet it was a while ago, unless you were listening out for it I suspect.

I stopped at Flatford for a couple of reasons; one to look at the RSPB Flatford garden.

This was a project started when I was still Director of the Region for the RSPB. It was a legacy specifically for the RSPB, and the only choice was to make it something which I hoped complemented what the other organisations at Flatford were doing. At the time a climate change proof Suffolk garden seemed to fit the bill. I am pleased to report it looks fabulous and therefore a big well done to Mark Nowers and his team of jolly volunteers for making it such a success. I also met with Tim McGregor the Property Manager at National Trust Flatford. I suppose I am unique here having been Regional Director for both RSPB and National Trust. It was great to see Tim again and catch up on what is happening at Flatford and the area, a property which always has a special place in my heart.

Declining the offer of coffee, I felt I had only walked a short distance I strode out across the grass meadows towards Dedham. The cattle were interested to see me. I love cattle, I know some people aren’t fans but they are such great beasts, I love their eyes, their inquisitiveness and the smell and sound. Some stopped to look I stopped and wondered who was looking at who!  I got an investigatory lick from one. I love how if you touch their nose it is a delayed reaction before the move back, its great fun, touch their nose and count the seconds before you get a reaction.

Continuing on I saw two ladies walking their dogs and a runner panting by, little did I realise these were to be my only company for the rest of the walk. The fields all around me were packed with buttercups, a green wood pecker yaffled away from me, gold finches and sky larks in front of me and butterflies abound.  Arriving at the road to Dedham I crossed and continued my way towards the A12 underpass. The Stour, full of water and very reflective, showing off the blossom in a fantastic mirrored image with the folly sitting by the river, simply beautiful. Interestingly, as you leave Dedham you start to pick up the noise of the A12, increasingly so as you near it obviously. I went through the underpass and joined, what originally would have been the old A12, now a vegetated edge quiet road. Past some amazing old wood framed building, I always wonder how some of these are still stand, bent and knarled as they are but always worth a look as there are some amazing carvings on the doors and porches, 

Crossing a small bridge, I went across another grass meadow obviously grown for hay, continuing the grass meadow theme of the pre-A12 walk. This time though I noticed immediately this was a commercial Italian rye seed mix not a wild flower mix. The grasses were seeding so it would be cutting time shortly but it was noticeable that there were no flowers in the mix. We have lost 97% of our flower meadows in the UK a shocking figure, but wonderful that the Queen has chosen this year, her 60^th year since her coronation, to make her mark with conservation via the regeneration of our flower meadows, creating 60 flower-rich meadows for generations to come.  

After walking past a fishing lake, the journey landscape changed. It changed in two ways; 1.) It became industrial farmland, but that gave me a chance to spot glacial and interglacial features and 2.) Nature became sparser and quieter.

As you’ll know I’m sure, there were approx. four main glaciations that affected the Eastern Counties of England. I have over simplified this for this blog but basically the ice reached London for the first, Essex for the second, Ipswich for the third, and the north Norfolk coast for the fourth. The ice sheets Kms thick affected us by planning the landscape and diverting rivers, depositing sands, gravels and tills over the landscape then re working that and re depositing each time. In between times there were warmer periods when the landscape was very important for ancient peoples and wildlife such as Hippos in the Thames, which of course was a tributary of the Rhine at that time, Lions, Hyena e.t.c. and Woolly Rhino and Elephants in the cooler periods. Evidence for this is still being found by geologists and archaeologists both of which in Suffolk we are well blessed with.

Features such as out wash channels, gravel based rivers, ice depressions and wind-blown sands e.t.c. are easily seen on the coast but these are also visible in the farmed landscape if you look. The undulating Suffolk countywide is a product of this process. The Suffolk clays, the gravels and the flints all due to the ice age reworking of the land.

There is a photo of an old outwash channel and subsequent stream below seen near Stoke by Nayland. In the fields and particularly good where potatoes are grown as the farmer moves the stones as he is planting with the machinery you can find flint Sea Urchins, worm burrows, Belemites squid like creatures, and the like; these have been replaced by flint in the chalky seas they lived 100—125 million years ago. You also find flits that have been rolled by the glaciers forming cannon ball flints as well as frost shattered and acid altered flints showing how harsh these landscapes were. What’s great is its all here to see as you walk through the countryside. For more indepth information check out the Suffolk Geosite or RIGS web site. 

So having had my head down looking for fossils I suddenly became aware of a mist. Was it raining? No it was an irrigator watering the potatoes, only trouble is it was irrigating the footpath as well! I had to time my run by once the spray had flicked left, it then moved back and I had to run ahead of the spray to keep dry. Trouble was the vegetation had been soaked and of course I brushed passed it all and got totally soaked - the water was running down the inside of my trousers!!

I understand the farmers have to irrigate their crops and I imagine I’m somehow to blame - afterall as a society  we are driven by the supermarkets to want potatoes all the same shape and size,  therefore the farmer is forced to deliver on these demands. As I walked I thought this must take its toll, he is constantly monitored by the supermarkets to get the right crop we allegedly want and therefore nature is constantly eroded with industrial farming and pesticide/herbicide sprays.

For a farmer to accomplish what we want he has to ‘sterilise’ the field. No ‘weeds’ (or wild flowers to you and me), no insects, and no crop damage. You are left with mono cultures of insect free, weed free crops, totally uninteresting and dead to life.

 I have to ask the question is this really what we want from our countryside? We have to work with farmers to give us more at the same time allowing them to be a profitable business; you and I have to demand that of our supermarkets and farmers.  It is lazy to blame food shortages and world famine; at the moment there is more than enough food in the world it is just in the wrong place so it’s a logistics issue and we need to stop throwing over 40% of our food away because we buy too much and let it go bad in our homes.

OK here endeth the lesson, but it will come back, in one of my future blogs.

Next, I crossed barley fields and through some more grassland with two pairs of displaying and calling lapwing, exhibiting all the characteristics of protecting young, I hope so, lapwing have also declined massively in our increasingly dry landscapes.

After crossing the road to Stoke-by-Nayland  near Torrington Hall a National Trust Tudor wooden framed house - a must see if you are on this road.

 You can hire the house if you fancy it! Crossing the road you go up to what can only be described as an adventure lane. It starts off as a cart track, in fact you can see the tractor tracks where the farmer had been up to see the crops, it then narrows after a small turn to the right then left, and it becomes a real old Suffolk Green Lane. With its high banks, once laid and coppiced, note the the stools at the base of the hedge many hundred years old, an art we have lost to the flail in modern times. Walking up this green lane you can practically hear the ghosts of the old farm hands maintaining the hedges, the women carrying baskets of produce with children running and playing down the lane. Ok I romanticise for a while but, these green lanes were arteries for local people going from village to village or on their way to market. A fantastic lane allows you to really use your imagination to go back in time. Again it reminds me of Ronald Blythe books, a must if you haven’t read any. I was reminded only the other day that he is still alive and about to publish a new book.

However there is a downside to this; I stopped to overlook the countryside from this great vantage point and I was struck by one thing - the silence. Total silence, broken only by a single bird calling at times. Now I like silence, love it in fact, but here it is an indication just how sterile our countryside is now and I am sad about that.

I walked on eating an apple and stopped again to overlook a small hamlet of wooden framed houses and barns and at last I was conscious of a buzzing noise. I did wonder If it was the ‘Hum‘ that so many people say they can here in the modern world, I don’t hear it myself, much too much tinnitus I suspect, but I could hear this buzz. I narrowed it down to a lone holly tree in flower. Being a holly it is tall and had been allowed to grow up above hedge height. It was in flower and those flowers, like an oasis in the desert, were being served by bees and other insects in huge numbers. Again I recorded the buzz, click on this video and turn up the volume it’s great J

Moving on, I joined the Stour River again; now a much smaller beast than pre-A12 but flowing well at a farm complex. Again great historic buildings, you climb up and down dale, as they say, over the outwash gravels, certainly gets the heart rate up a bit and who said Suffolk was flat! These lanes and paths would be a perfect setting for period dramas, no road tyre tracks no pylons looking like they could be the lanes of the 18^th century.

Climbing up over sheep pasture, the grasses and sorrel,  the rabbits and the gorse and coming down to a small lane that eventually leads up into Stoke-by-Nayland opposite the Crown Public House! I have stayed here before with some members of RSPB council when taking them on a tour of Suffolk I can recommend the beer, the food, and the accommodation, but no time to call in today, I needed to catch a bus back to Colchester station.

At the bus stop by the village hall stop and savour the great view of one of Constables favourite churches. It appears in several of his works, mostly out of context to where it is it seems, as was his wont at times. Why not? I totally align with his thinking, in your mind’s eye when you are day- dreaming or thinking, you bring back all bits of your life’s experiences and in the microseconds your brain works in, you see all sorts of things, views, and people. It’s what keeps us sane despite T.E. Lawrence saying

All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.

Keep having good thoughts of views, sounds, tastes and people it is good for you and your mental health.

The double decker bus arrived  (only 5 mins. late) and took me back to Colchester station for the train back to Norwich. I completed 27166 steps which is 13.6 miles and by the time I got home it was 30937 steps in total - so a good day stepping out as part of my Million Steps Challenge. I have now walked over 400000 steps so I’m well on my way to my target in fact at this rate it might be 2 million! J  Watch out for my next adventure in a couple of weeks’ time again I have added a bird list for those that do.

Until next time,

Richard P

Bird list

Skylark	Tree sparrow	Cuckoo
Bullfinch	Green finch	White throat
Chaffinch	Collared dove	Black cap
Goldfinch	Turtle dove	Willow warbler
Blue tit	Red shank	Common gull
Great tit	Egret	Black headed gull
Dunnock	Shoveller	Common Tern
House sparrow	Shelduck	Kestral
Reed warbler	Sedge warbler	Reed bunting
Meadow pipit	yellow wagtail	Green woodpecker
Gt spotted woodpecker	Lapwing	Kingfisher
Crow	Rook	Wood pigeon
Song thrush	Blackbird	Swallow
Swift	House martin	Sand martin
Mallard	Wren	Robin
Jackdaw	Jay	Coot
Moorhen	Pheasant	Hobby