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A Suffolk Lane

~ A diary of my life in rural north Suffolk.

A Suffolk Lane

Tag Archives: erosion

An Update

29 Sat Feb 2020

Posted by Clare Pooley in Arts and Crafts, family, Rural Diary, weather

≈ 52 Comments

Tags

erosion, Humphries Weaving, Kent Ambulance Service, news, Suffolk, The Easternmost House

This will be a strange post with links and no photographs.  I have accumulated a collection of links and titbits of news and thought I would share a few of them with you.

Well over a year ago I wrote a post that included, among many other things, some news about my niece, Natalie.  Natalie works for a firm of specialist silk weavers in Sudbury, Suffolk and she does some extremely interesting work and has a few very important clients indeed.  My brother shared a link on Facebook yesterday and I thought you might be interested in some more details of Natalie’s work.

125 years of the National Trust; Heritage Fabrics

ooooOOoooo

In January this year Richard and I took a walk and I posted about it.  In the post I mentioned a book called ‘The Easternmost House’ written by Juliet Blaxland.  The book tells of the trials and tribulations of living in a house on the edge of a cliff; among many other things.

Here is a further installment.

ooooOOoooo

My sister, Francesca is the Operations Manager for the Kent Ambulance Service and works very hard caring for her team of skilled paramedics and for the patients in their charge.  At present, testing for Covid-19 Corona Virus is an added pressure on an already over-stretched and under-paid profession.  Here is a short film about one of the call-outs her team had to deal with recently where a man went into cardiac arrest and was given 21 shocks and then clot-busting medication.

There you are!  A couple of good news items with a bad one sandwiched in the middle.

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A New Year’s Walk at Dunwich

06 Mon Jan 2020

Posted by Clare Pooley in Historic Buildings, Rural Diary, walking, woodland

≈ 60 Comments

Tags

Alexanders, conservation, Dunwich, Dunwich Greyfriars Trust, erosion, fungus, Greyfriars Monastery, Greyfriars Wood, Holly, ruins, stinking iris, Suffolk, sycamore, trees, walking

I hope you all had a merry Christmas and that you will have a blessed and healthy new year.  I apologise if I haven’t visited your sites/blogs recently but I will endeavour to do so very soon.

I would like to thank all my kind followers, readers and visitors for continuing to support me despite very few posts during the past couple of years.  I am just embarking on my 7th year as a WordPress blogger, which amazes me and dismays me at the same time.  What on earth have I achieved in those six years since January 2014?  Not much, I think!

 

ooooOOoooo

 

My daughter Alice and her husband Phil came to stay with us this Christmas and Alice brought her cat Mona with her as well.  Mum came for lunch on both Christmas Day and Boxing Day so our house was nicely full of family.  I took Mum to Midnight Mass at Eye church on Christmas Eve getting back home at 1.15 am.  Next morning I went to our church at Rumburgh and helped Richard get it ready as it was our turn to hold the Christmas morning Communion service this year.  I also stayed for the service and helped tidy up afterwards.  I had put the turkey in the oven to roast before leaving for church and by the time I got home again it was time to take it out.  Alice had prepared all the vegetables for me while I was out so I had no trouble getting on with the meal on my return.  Boxing Day was easier as I didn’t have to go out in the morning but I had just as much food to cook.  By the time we had finished lunch and I had made us tea and coffee I was ready for a rest.  Richard did a wonderful job clearing the table and doing all the washing-up and dishwasher loading and unloading on both days!  Phil went back home on Friday 27th but Alice and Mona stayed on until the following Monday which was lovely!  I was so happy having both my daughters with me this Christmas!  We all went out for lunch in Halesworth on Saturday and then drove to the seaside at Southwold.  We walked the whole length of the promenade and back again and then to the end of the pier and back before returning to the car and going home.  It was very busy with other walkers, chilly and breezy, fine and dry and we were glad of the walk.  I took no photographs.

I spent most of Monday and Tuesday shopping for Mum and us, doing the washing and putting the things back into the spare room that had been removed to make room for our guests.  Richard and I both felt we needed to get out of the house again but wanted to walk somewhere different.  On New Year’s Day we decided that Dunwich Heath would be a good place to go and thought that it would have less mud and puddles to wade through than most walks.  However, when we got there the crowds were so great that there was nowhere to park and a queue had formed so we turned round and drove to the beach car park.  We found a space, though that car park was very full too.

Here it is on our return from our walk.

Here is a view of Dingle Marshes over the tops of parked cars.

We started off by walking down to the beach to look at the sea.  The beach was quite busy with walkers and dogs and the wind off the sea was biting.  We didn’t stay long.

A sepia view of Dunwich beach.

We left the beach and walked up towards the main part of Dunwich village.  We turned off the lane and took a footpath that climbed up through Greyfriars Wood.  At the top of the incline the path then went along the edge of the cliff.

The disconcerting sign.

Most of the East Anglian coastline is eroding fairly quickly.  After every storm we expect to find that large chunks of the cliff have broken off and fallen onto the beach.  Our friend Cordelia’s daughter has written a book about what it is like to live in a house on the edge of a cliff in Suffolk.  The book is called ‘The Easternmost House’ and is available in paperback and on Kindle.

Here is a view from the path. See how close the edge of the cliff is!

I always like to see what plants are growing wherever I walk, as you know. This is Stinking Iris (Iris foetidissima )

This plant has many names; Roast-beef Plant, Gladdon or Gladwyn, Bloody Bones, Blue Devil, Dragon Flower, Dagger Flower are a few of them.  If the leaves are rubbed they give off an odour like stale, raw beef.  The flowers are pale mauve/purple, sometimes with some yellow colour as well and are veined with darker lines.  It comes into its own in the autumn and winter when the seed pods burst open and reveal these glorious orange seeds.  The leaves are evergreen, typical iris leaves.  The name Gladdon or Gladwyn comes from the Old English word for a sword.

Beautiful orange seeds!

Further along the path at the edge of the wood I saw this rotting tree-stump with toadstools on it.

Woods near the coast are very rare as trees do not usually fare well in salt-laden air and suffer in the wind and storms.  This mixed woodland was planted in the eighteenth century by the family who owned the village at that time.  The Dunwich Greyfriars Trust which manages the wood today say that only Sycamore trees (Acer pseudoplatanus) are hardy enough to grow on the side of the wood nearest the cliff edge and that there are no young trees in the wood.  They are trying to overcome the latter by fencing off areas where large trees have fallen and open glades have appeared.  The fences prevent deer from destroying all the seedlings and saplings that will appear in the sunlight and it is to be hoped that the wood will begin to regenerate.

These are the ruins of the Greyfriars Monastery.

All that is left of the 13th/14th century monastery are these ruins, thought to be the refectory at the southern end of the complex.  The cloisters, with accommodation for monks and visitors, and an enormous church were further to the north and were all destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.  The nave and chancel of the church together were about 58 metres long and up to 17 metres wide (190 feet 3.5 ins x 55 feet 9 ins).  There is a perimeter wall around the site of the monastery which was built sometime after the main buildings were constructed and has been repaired and rebuilt many times in the intervening years.  There were three gates into the complex; two which still stand on the western side allowed access to the main road that ran into and away from the medieval town of Dunwich.  The third, now lost to the sea gave access directly into the town with its large port which was also lost centuries ago.

The western gates

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It is always interesting to see how these old buildings are constructed and with what materials.

The Dunwich Greyfriars Trust work hard conserving what they can of these ruins.  They have capped off most of the walls to prevent rain and frost damage.  If you look carefully at one of the photos in the slideshow you will see a sign asking visitors not to climb on the ruins. You can also see in my other photos how much notice the visitors take of the sign!

Greyfriars ruins

Part of the complex showing the perimeter wall

The perimeter wall comes to an end here at the cliff edge. Much of this part of the wall is original 14th/15th century work and hasn’t been rebuilt.  Eventually the whole monastery complex will end up in the sea.

We re-entered the wood near to the cliff edge

The sad but beautiful trunk of a long-dead tree

We found a little bridge, built fairly recently.

There is a lot of Holly (Ilex aquifolium) in the wood

The leaves on this dead holly branch were shining like bronze.

We emerged onto the road next to the perimeter wall

An interesting mixture of flint, beach pebbles and pieces of stone recycled from elsewhere

We stood in the main gateway and looked across the area that had once been monastery land. A pony now keeps the grass in order.

The smaller west gate as seen from the road

A very nice example of flushwork over the gateway

In the gateway

You may have noticed how green everything is. This is Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum)

This plant is an ancient introduction, probably at the time of the Roman occupation.  Its unusual name refers to its Macedonian origin, Alexander the Great’s birthplace.  It is wholly edible and the name Smyrnium is from the Greek word for myrrh and refers to its myrrh-like taste.The leaves can be made into a white sauce or used as a herb.  The young stems can be cooked and eaten like asparagus, the flowerbuds may be used in salads and the roots cooked as a substitute for parsnips.  I read that an old Irish recipe lists alexanders, watercress and nettles as ingredients for ‘Lenten pottage’.  In the 17th century its black seeds were sold in apothecaries’ shops as Macedonian parsley seeds and Nicholas Culpeper the herbalist listed many uses for it including the power to cure not only flatulence but snakebite too!  Until recently Alexanders was only to be found in the south and east of Britain and close to the milder coast.  However, I have noticed its spread inland and northwards of late.

The Greyfriars Trust have been trying to manage the spread of Alexanders in the wood.  It grows so densely it prevents seeds from germinating and smothers other plants.  We have had a mild winter so far with some frosts that have melted by midday and no snow as yet.  We have had lots of rain and so many plants have continued growing through the autumn and winter and plants, like Alexanders that died after flowering in the early summer have new plants growing from seed already.

This is the lane that passes along next to the monastery wall and enters what is left of the ‘town’ of Dunwich.

This is near where we first entered the wood at the beginning of our walk. You see how Alexanders is spreading everywhere.

Dunwich village.  Lots of cars parked in the road and many of the cars’ passengers are probably in the ‘The Ship’, the inn with the tall chimneys just beyond the black car.

I am indebted to the excellent website belonging to the Dunwich Greyfriars Trust for much of the information in this post.  My other reference books have been the Reader’s Digest Field Guide to the Wild Flowers of Britain, Reader’s Digest Field Guide to the Trees and Shrubs of Britain, Culpeper’s Colour Herbal published by W Foulsham and Company Limited, Collins Complete Guide to British Wild Flowers, Collins Complete Guide to British Trees, Flora Brittanica by Richard Mabey, Vickery’s Folk Flora and Harrap’s Wild Flowers.  The photographs are all my own.

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Dunwich Heath – August 31st 2014

07 Thu May 2015

Posted by Clare Pooley in plants, Rural Diary, Uncategorized, walking

≈ 47 Comments

Tags

bell-heather, coastguard cottages, coastline, Dunwich Heath, dwarf gorse, erosion, gorse, heather, heathland, ling, marram, National Trust, sandlings, Sea Kale, shingle beach, Suffolk

057Dunwich Heath sign (640x427)

Richard, Elinor and I took a trip to Dunwich Heath at the end of August last year.  We wanted to go somewhere different to our usual places but didn’t want to make a long journey.

040Coastguards cottages (640x480)

The old coastguard cottages. The National Trust tearoom is situated in the end cottage.  The other cottages are rented out as holiday homes.

The County of Suffolk has six topographical regions each with its own distinct landscape features.  I live in High Suffolk with its boulder-clay soil but just a couple of miles to the East of us the soil changes and becomes sand and gravel.  This gravelly area is called The Sandlings and Dunwich Heath (part of the Sandlings) is right on the coast.  To quote the National Trust description of the area –

‘Dunwich Heath is where the Sandlings meets the sea.  It is 87 hectares (215 acres) of heather, gorse, grassland, woodland and crumbling sandy cliffs, as well as a mile of shifting sand and shingle beach.  The Sandlings landscape was created by early farmers thousands of years ago.  The sandy, free-draining soils became dominated by heather as farmers cleared the trees and introduced sheep to graze the land.

Within the Sandlings, only at Dunwich does the heathland extend to the cliff top – a rare example of coastal lowland heath.’

060Beach (640x384)

The shingle beach and cliffs

Late summer and early autumn is the best time to visit heathland as that is the time the heather is in flower.

005Path at Dunwich Heath (640x480)

We parked the car and walked to the beach first, as the seaside is Elinor’s favourite place to be.

007Heather, gorse and bracken (640x480)

Heather, gorse and bracken by the side of the path.  This heather is going to seed; I love the orange colour of the seed capsules.

009Sea Kale (640x480)

We found Sea Kale (Crambe maritima) as usual, with Marram grass (Ammophila arenaria) and Gorse behind it

012Heather on the shoreline (640x480)

Heather on the shoreline

010Dunwich cliffs (480x640)

You can see here what the cliffs are made of – sand and gravel in layers. It is no wonder they are crumbling away.

The sands are known as ‘crags’.  The southern sandling crags are the oldest – a shelly ‘Coralline Crag’ which was deposited in warm tropical conditions about 3.5 million years ago forms an island and is surrounded by a sea of ‘Red Crag’ which is also full of fossilised shells.  The northern crag known as ‘Norwich Crag’ is younger and is less than 2 million years old.  Dunwich Heath is part of the ‘Norwich Crag’.

I have found three Belemnite fossils in my garden.  Perhaps some gravel containing these fossils was brought to the area when the house was built or perhaps the land where we live is the border between the clay soil and the sandy soil.

011Dunwich cliffs (640x480)

The little holes are probably Sand Martin (Riparia riparia) nestholes. The pipe sticking out at the top left of the picture is probably a land drain.

014Dunwich cliffs (640x480)

Dunwich has disappeared into the sea at a rate of about 400 metres in 400 years. Houses and other buildings are still lost regularly. I don’t know what the structure at the top left of the picture is, or was!

020Southwold (640x480)

We could see the town of Southwold to the north.

024Dunwich Heath (640x480)

There is a large expanse of grassland here.

Richard and I left Elinor on the beach and went for a walk.

029Dunwich Heath (640x480)

There were plenty of flowers and grasses to see. Further away across the water meadows and marshes are the two nuclear energy plants at Sizewell.

Parasol fungus (Macrolepiota procera) about 2' tall!
Parasol fungus (Macrolepiota procera) about 2′ tall!
Honeysuckle - not native
Honeysuckle – not native
Common Ragwort - Senecio jacobaea
Common Ragwort – Senecio jacobaea
White Campion - Silene latifolia
White Campion – Silene latifolia
033Dunwich Heath - heather (640x480)

This is the sight we had come to see. The beautiful heath in flower.

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035Heather (640x480)

Heather (Calluna vulgaris) also known as Ling.

036Bell heather (640x480)

Bell Heather(Erica cinerea) – (the larger flowers)

037Dwarf Gorse (640x480)

Dwarf Gorse (Ulex minor)  There are plenty of Gorse (Ulex europaeus) bushes on the heath as well.

I heard and then saw a Dartford Warbler (Sylvia undata) on the top of a Gorse bush, but he was too far away to photograph.

043Plaque on cliff top (640x480)

A plaque on the cliff-top

044Plaque (480x640)

The plaque

050Clouds (640x441)

Clouds

053Beach (640x425)

The beach

This next photograph really makes me laugh!

055Me and Elinor (640x427)

Look at Elinor’s expression! Goodness knows what I must have been wittering on about.

‘Oh wad some power the giftie gie us / To see oursel’s as others see us! / It wad frae monie a blunder free us, / And foolish notion.’  Robert Burns

059Border Force ship at sea (640x422)

A Border Force ship patrolling the coast. The modern coastguards.

072Sea watch shelter (640x427)

A sea-watch shelter. Looking at the water can be interesting and calming in itself but often ships, boats and other craft can be seen as well as sea-birds and mammals such as dolphins and seals.

We ended our visit with a cake each and a drink of choice at the tea-room.

081Sunset (640x480)

A dramatic sunset when we got home.

 

Thank-you for visiting!

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I talk about what it's like living in a quiet part of Suffolk. I am a wife, mother and daughter, a practising Christian and love the natural world that surrounds me. I enjoy my life - most of the time!

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