Galloper Wind Farm Project - National Infrastructure Planning

several small greens in an attempt to reduce fire risk.
Felixstowe is now the largest container port in the country
and has post-war housing estates linked to Victorian terraces
to form amorphous suburbs. Yarmouth’s South Quay has a
splendid sequence of Queen Anne and Georgian houses some
of which are timber-framed behind their more fashionable
brick façades. Lowestoft is very urban with strong links to
London’s East End via the fish trade and the railway.
One unusual structural feature of this area is the crinkle
crankle or serpentine wall, of which there are 40 in Great
Yarmouth and Gorleston alone. Most of them are late
Georgian in date, with a few later examples. Until it was
breached, the serpentine wall around Easton Park, near
Woodbridge, was the longest in the world.
Land Cover
The variety of soils within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths area
has largely dictated the differences in land cover. These range
from the shingle beaches and spits along the coast (Orford Ness
is a very important coastal feature) to the large-scale Scots and
Corsican pine plantings on former acid heathland and the arable
production on the silty clay and loam alluvium of the interestuarine
areas. Much former saltmarsh has also been drained
and ploughed. Main crops are wheat, barley, sugar beet and
potatoes but there are also areas of soft fruit and vegetables and
increasing numbers of outdoor pigs. Sheep used to graze the
heathland and are being reintroduced as an aid to restoring
ecological balance. Grazing in many of the small valley pastures
and estuarine marshes has been restored and safeguarded,
helping to maintain the subtle variation within the landscape.
Enclosure came very late to this area, in the 18th and 19th
centuries, following agricultural improvements fuelled by
high corn prices. Some further reclamation has been carried
out by private landowners since the second world war. The
area now consists mainly of large estates, such as Benacre,
Henham, Sudbourne and Sutton, rather than the small
farms of the adjoining clay plateau. This can give a degree
of uniformity to the landcover, depending on individual
landowner’s attitudes to conservation and shooting.
If the dominant tree in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths area
is now the Scots pine, it was not always so. Staverton Park
still contains 4,000 medieval pollard oaks within its deer
park and some of the mightiest hollies, birches and rowans
in the country. The monks of Butley Priory entertained the
Queen of France to a picnic under these oaks in 1528 and
they withstood the 1987 and 1990 gales far better than the
vast pine plantations that surround them. Elsewhere there
are few oaks for there are few hedgerows to contain them
and very few elms since the outbreak of Dutch Elm disease,
which had more impact here than elsewhere in Suffolk.
Copses and woods have been planted for shooting and
contain a mix of mainly broadleaf species.
The once extensive ‘sandlings’ heaths, created by woodland
clearance and grazing in Neolithic times, are now fragmented by
conifer plantations, agricultural use and development. However,
they remain a significant characteristic in the area, providing
spectacular colour in late summer, internationally important
wildlife habitats and popular areas for recreation, as seen here at
Sutton Common.
The Changing Countryside
● Loss of hedgerow trees, hedgerows and pine lines, due
to a number of factors, has now largely ceased but
management is still an issue. Their absence leads to a loss
of definition and texture within the landscape, especially
in the large-scale arable areas.
● Increase in extensive outdoor pig rearing and the use of
plastic mulches.
● Heathland losses have now ceased except from
development around Ipswich. Local corporate
landowners and wildlife trusts are contributing to
heathland restoration and management assisted by recent
incentive schemes, although reversion opportunities have
still to be fully realized.
● Redevelopment of redundant military facilities is likely
to have significant impact.
● Tourism has been increasing throughout this century
and is now obvious all through the year, albeit with
most impact during the summer months. It is limited
chiefly to the coastal settlements. Planning policies
appear to have been successful in curtailing the
development impact of this influx but there are
pressures on land and sea, especially for mooring
facilities in the major estuaries.
● Improvement of the transport infrastructure would have
knock-on effects, with the possibility of creeping
urbanization into the rural parts of this area.
● Coastal erosion and siltation are having a significant
effect on archaeological sites, such as Dunwich and
Covehithe, and coastal squeeze is continuing to result in
loss of salt marsh in some estuaries.
SUFFOLK WILDLIFE TRUST
61