David Collins
Our countryside - an alternative present Since the Second World War the way we farm the land has changed radically. Intensification has increased yields to levels that would have seemed impossible then, but this has been at the expense of biodiversity. Indeed, in Breckland much of the countryside had already been reshaped even before then, because large areas of poor grazing land were purchased by the state to create commercial coniferous forest in the 1920s. So the Breckland we know today is nothing like the Breckland of a hundred years ago. Gone are the endless warrens and dunes where Ringed Plovers nested. But one corner of Breckland largely escaped these radical changes. In 1942 120km2 of land north of Thetford was taken over by the army to create the Stanford Training Area [Ed: i.e. STANTA]. Four villages were evacuated in the process, and little remains of them except their forlorn churches that the army were forbidden from demolishing.
The whole area is still very much in use by the military to this day. The view from the low wooded hills near the centre of the range is unlike anything else in East Anglia. Looking out through a gap in the trees rough pasture and scattered gorse stretch literally as far as the eye can see. The well-travelled birder finds himself scanning his memory to recall a similar scene. Perhaps the closest is the Spanish dehessa, and you could be forgiven for expecting a Montagu’s Harriers to float past. But no this is a softer land, and you remind yourself that although the scene before you does not match your image of the English countryside, this is still East Anglia. You might be tempted to think then that you were looking at Breckland as it was in 1942, when the army moved in. But that would be a mistake. True, there are very few buildings except those constructed purely for army training purposes, and, joy of joys, the natural Breckland meres and marshy hollows have never been drained for intensive agriculture. And the lanes are narrow, largely devoid of traffic, and at least in some areas have flower-rich verges with masses of showy Dark Mullein and an abundance of butterflies.
Typical Brecks track in STANTA
T H E H AR R I ER – A ut um n 2 0 1 4
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