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Suffolk Natural History, Vol. 34 BRECKLAND MARG RUTTERFORD
Travellers from the London area approaching the Six Mile Bottom district will notice fields bordered by Scots Pine. This is a sure sign that they are approaching Breckland. Leaving the chalky boulder clay behind, they will enter the sandy Breckland at Red Lodge. Breckland is a place of wide open skies and, when easterly winds blow, which are frequent in early spring, can have brilliant sunshine and white, billowing clouds. We of the Breck call them 'fine weather clowds'. This is the driest area of England, for the prevailing southwest winds lose much of their moisture before they reach East Anglia. Dust storms are prevalent in Breckland. Sitting in my car on Maid's Cross Hill one afternoon in March, 1990, I watched dust blowing off some sandy fields at Wangford and piling several feet high against a grassy bank, just as drifting snow will hang on ditch sides. One area of Blue Fescue (Festuca caesia) had disappeared under six feet of blown sand. In the past, Scots Pines were planted along roadsides in Breckland. These trees had the leading shoot cut out, so that they formed a hedge, but they were seldom kept trimmed and were allowed to grow away so that they are very distorted today. Between Barton Mills and Tuddenham is a good example of where trees were trimmed, forming an impenetrable hedge, with mature trees every fifty yards. Lilac was often planted in the Thetford area to form a windbreak and, when in flower, a very nice one. Pits can be seen in many fields. These are where marl, a chalky clay, was dug, carted, and spread over the sandy fields to stop erosion and improve the soil. Most of these pits are now overgrown with Hawthorn, Eider, Buckthorn, Wild Rose and Box. Breckland is a unique area, stretching from West Stow almost to Swaffham in Norfolk. It should be visited again and again if all the flora is to be examined and savoured, and visitors should be prepared to crawl on hands and knees to see the minute early Breck flowers. Much of what was open Breck has been planted with coniferous forest (at first Scots Pine, and now the more rapidlygrowing Corsican Pine) by the Forestry Commission. Many field naturalists condemn this, but I think it has produced wonderful country. The forest rides contain all sorts of Breckland plants, and bird life has increased. The healthy smell of the pines is welcome when air pollution is all too common. I can remember all the Scots Pines being planted. Now I can walk where whole blocks of the forest have been clear-felled and replanted. It is exciting to walk over such country. It was here that John Trist and I were wandering when we came upon a big colony of Crown Vetch (Securigera varia) growing side-by-side with Fine-leaved Vetch (Vicia tenuifolia), which is a Continental vetch resembling a large edition of Tufted Vetch (V. cracca). It made one of the finest pictures I have ever seen in the field. Seeds of these alien species must have been brought in by birds. The three Speedwells which flower in early spring are found in the Brecklands (see plate 2). The Fingered Speedwell (Veronica triphyllos) has now become extremely rare on the edge of sandy fields where it could be found
Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 34 (1998)