A 12
Walk 1
1
A–B
IPSWICH TO MARTLESHAM HEATH
some common heathland plants In
SANDLINGS WALK SANDLINGS WALK (ON ROAD)
A1214 Route
spring and summer the
B–C heath is a warm, welcoming
Barrier at start: gap <1.2m. Dirt/stone/grass path across Golf Course. Basically flat. Dry. Uneven dirt path under trees. Dry.
Martlesham Police Headquarters Martlesham Heath Aviation Museum
4 A 121
colours, brown, yellow,
A
purple and green.
Rushmere St. Andrew
And the scents of the
Road
same for more than two weeks on end. Ipswich Hospital
Rushmere Heath
J. TENNYSON
SCHOOL
SCHOOL
E
SCHOOL
C D C2 – D2 D2 – E2
A 1189
G2
E2 – F2 F2 – G2
Ipswich Golf Course
Heath Road Route A1 – B1
F2
156
A
2
FARM
B2
E2
D C2
Buck les
B1 – C C–D
2
St. Augustine’s ham R oad
• Bixley Heath
1KM
PERMISSIVE PATH (IN FOREST)
HEATHLAND
WOODLAND /TREES
FOREST PLANTATION
MARSHLAND /REEDS
COAST/RIVER /PONDS
GOLF COURSE
HOUSES
FARMLAND
BARRIER/GATE: GAP WIDTH<1.2M
BENCH
BRIDGE
STILE
STEPS
CHURCH
TUMULI
MAST
/VILLAGES
Foxhall Stadium
Foxhall Road
SCALE 1:25 000
PUBLIC RIGHT OF WAY
B1 WATER TOWER
Ipswich
0
RAILWAY STATION
Martlesham Heath
A1
A1
G
F
Kesgrave
B
RAILWAY LINE
SUPERSTORE
Rushmere
Rushmere Golf Course
h Heat
heath are scarcely the
ROAD
H
A 1214
Heath Road
landscape of ever-deepening
SANDLINGS WALK (PERMISSIVE)
• Parish Walks – Kesgrave; Martlesham; Foxhall; Rushmere St.Andrew
Reproduced from the Ordnance Survey map by permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, © Crown Copyright MC 100029931
Bollards at start: gap <1.2m. Sand/stone/grass path across Golf Course. Basically flat; steep slope at end. Dry. Uneven dirt path under trees. Dry. Mainly flat, dirt/grass path. Dry.
G2 – D
D–E
St.Augustine’s Route
E–F
A2 – B2
F–G
B2 – C2
Dirt/stone path/track. Sometimes uneven & slightly undulating. Narrow between houses. Bucklesham Road; pavement both sides. Flat.
G–H
Roughly surfaced private road. Mainly flat. Dry. Mainly compacted dirt/sand/stone track; some patches of loose sand. Occasionally undulating. Steep slope at C2. Mainly flat field edge. Muddy path through woodland. Intermittent sections of boardwalk – parallel sleepers and a bridge: width <1.2m. Slope at start, otherwise basically flat but uneven. Pavements at Foxhall Road – slight incline. Compacted dirt/grass path & surfaced track. Flat. Dry. Few metres of road walking approaching D – no pavement. Varying compacted sand/grass path/roughly surfaced track. Uneven but flat. Dry. Compacted dirt/grass/gravel paths. Flat. Dry. Tarmac/concrete path leading to minor road (access for Police Headquarters) – no pavement – then tarmac/concrete path. Flat. Sand/stone path. Flat. Dry.
AMENITY SITE CAFÉ PARKING PUBLIC HOUSE ADNAMS PUB POST OFFICE SHOPS TOURIST INFORMATION CENTRE VISITOR CENTRE TOILETS TELEPHONE BUS STOP
some common heathland plants
BELL HEATHER AND LING
ompared to some places, there are not a great variety of
Like most heathland plants, there was a time when gorse was cherished and put to good use. It fuelled the bread
impenetrable to anything else. Its only
plants and flowers found on the Sandlings heaths.
oven, swept the chimney, was fed to cattle and was tied with heather into besom brooms.
natural enemy is frost. Locally, bracken
However, the ones you will see are nonetheless beautiful,
would have once been used instead of straw.
Heather
in most cases rare and some have a useful past.
Today, thick layers of bracken litter
There are 3 types of heather found on the Sandlings. Ling is the most common and widespread as it grows well in the
Gorse
poor sandy soils and dry climate. Bell heather can also tolerate these dry conditions, but is not as common. Crossleaved heath is occasionally found in wetter areas.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;When gorse is in flower,
are scraped off the heath and used in nurseries for growing azaleas. Although bracken is poisonous some people gather the young shoots in spring.They are then soaked, dried,
kissing is in seasonâ&#x20AC;? so the old saying goes. Historically,
Bell heather flowers are very purple and come out in July,
it is no wonder that heaths
just before ling. Ling flowers are
and commons are places
distinctly paler and smaller. Both
where lovers meet. On the
flower through into September.
Sandlings there are two
Cross- leaved heath has greyish
types of gorse, common and
green leaves, growing in whorls of fours.
dwarf. Because of their differing
fried and eaten.
Acid grassland There are areas on the Sandlings heaths where you will see grass. This grassland is very rare and has evolved to withstand the dry, sandy, acid soil. Growing amongst it you will discover small, delicate and beautiful flowers just as rare.Take a good guidebook and look out for flowers such as heath bedstraw, harebell
Heathers are prolific seed producers.
and lengthy
A mature bell heather plant can shed
T. Heaps
flowering seasons, there is
up to half a million seeds per square
COMMON GORSE
rarely a
metre.These seeds can survive for up to
time without gorse in flower, somewhere.
forty years in the ground. Heather was also put to good use for
Common gorse is first to flower, sometimes
fuel, stuffing mattresses, animal feed and
as early as January.The flowers are coconut scented
thatching.
and bloom until early summer. Common gorse BELL HEATHER
bushes are about 2 metres tall when fullygrown and form dense clumps.You rarely see them
Bracken
growing amongst heather.
Bracken is now regarded as a prolific weed.You will see
This is where you will
it a lot as you walk through the Sandlings. It is estimated
find dwarf gorse, which
to cover nearly 2% of Britain.
is low growing and flowers from mid-
One bracken plant can have roots (rhizomes) that cover R. Godfrey
summer until the late autumn. DWARF GORSE FLOWERING WITH HEATHER
and sheep sorrel.
nearly half an acre. Living bracken fronds smother other plants and dead fronds make a deep litter that becomes BRACKEN
Plant illustrations by D. Parrett, from far left to right LING, HAREBELL, SHEEP SORREL AND HEATH BEDSTRAW
SHEEP SORREL AND HEATH BEDSTRAW E. J. M. Kirby