Inventing our future Collective action for a sustainable economy

The Landscape and Natural Environment
• Essex coastal grazing marshes have declined
by 64% since the 1930s.
• 97% of wetlands in the Fens have disappeared
since the 1650s, with 40% lost since 1930.
• 46% of saltmarshes on the Stour and Orwell
estuaries has been lost since 1975.
• Over a hundred species, such as the Norfolk
damselfly, have disappeared from the region
in the last century.
• Whilst woodland cover has increased by 25%
since 1980, this varies across the region, with
Cambridgeshire still being the least wooded
county in Britain.
• The quality of habitats is declining due to
pollution, disturbance and neglect.
• Farmland wildlife has suffered as agricultural
production has increased dramatically.
• In urban areas remnants of countryside still
exist, but they too are fragmented and altered.
• Brownfield sites in urban areas that have
developed nature conservation interest
continue to be developed for other uses.
14 The Regional Environment Strategy for The East of England
3 THE HISTORIC AND BUILT
ENVIRONMENT
3.1 THE HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT
Introduction
The historic environment embraces all those aspects
of the environment that reflect the shaping hand
of past human activity. History can be traced
throughout our modern, everyday surroundings
through the location and form of our settlements,
historic buildings, industrial sites, field patterns,
woodlands, historic parks and gardens, and archaeological
sites. Together they play a critical role in
defining local identity and sense of place.
Key Assets
The finest historic assets are recognised as needing
special protection. These include 57,643 listed
buildings, 211 registered parks and gardens, a
registered battlefield at Maldon, approximately
1,600 scheduled monuments and 1,100 areas of
special architectural or historic interest, designated
as Conservation Areas. It is difficult to quantify the
archaeological resource, but there are approximately
150,000 archaeological sites currently recorded on
County Sites and Monuments Records.
Archaeological and Below Ground Assets
• Prehistoric Sites - The diversity of regional
landscapes and natural resources underlie the
development of human communities. Evidence
exists from the earliest hunter-gatherers, whose
tools were found at Clacton and Hoxne, to the
later prehistoric farming communities, who
may be glimpsed through their flint mines at
Grimes Graves, and ritual sites at Holme and Flag
Fen. Traces of their settlements, cemeteries and
defences survive below the ground, revealed as
cropmarks by aerial photography.
The Historic and Built Environment
The Bronze Age timber circle at Holme next the
Sea, Norfolk, comprised a sub-circular ring of
55 oak timbers surrounding a large inverted oak
tree. Originally located on salt marsh, it was
vulnerable to a dynamic and changing coastline,
which prompted its excavation. The site has
provided important evidence of the earliest use
of metal tools.
© English Heritage
• The Earliest Towns - More tangible sites and
monuments survive from the Roman, early
and later medieval and modern periods,
encompassing a wide range of buildings and
structures in addition to their buried artefacts.
This is still evident in the great Roman towns
at Colchester and St Albans, with their network
of small towns and local markets, as well as the
internationally significant Saxon and medieval
ports and towns of the eastern seaboard, such as
Ipswich, Norwich and King’s Lynn.
• Defence and Fortifications - The length of
coastline and the importance of its estuaries,
together with the agricultural wealth of estates
and towns inland, give the region a legacy of
impressive historic fortifications ranging from
private castles, such as Hedingham, forts such as
Tilbury, Landguard and the Martello chain, up to
Second World War and Cold War defence sites
encircling London and protecting the east coast.
The Regional Environment Strategy for The East of England
15