Athelington Horham & Redlingfield News Spring 2020 No 49

Athelington Horham & Redlingfield News Spring 2020 No 49

Athelington, Horham & Redlingfield NEWS SPRING 2020 ISSUE NO. 49 SPURLING & REMBLANCE MOTOR ENGINEERS MOT TEST CENTRE Service and repairs to all cars, light commercial and 4x4s Specialists in vehicle diagnostics Free local collection and delivery Courtesy car available Prompt attention assured Competitive rates (01379) 384689 Open 8.00am-5.30pm Mon-Fri, 8am-noon Saturdays Barley Hall, Laxfield Road, Stradbroke, IP21 5NQ on the B1117 - 1¾ mile outside Stradbroke, towards Laxfield EDITORIAL E’VE HAD SOME VERY BLUSTERY AND SOGGY WEATHER Wrecently with two stormy weekend’s running. Below is a picture of damage caused by the first storm, Ciara. The tree on Mill Road, Redlingfield, took out fibreoptic cables and along with a fault in Occold this meant the village went back to the pre-fast broadband days for a week. I would like to thank UK Power Networks who quickly came out to inspect and and assure us it was safe and the locals who then got chainsawing and cleared the road double quick. I would also like to thank the Openreach engineers who braved the following weekends’ storm Dennis going up in a cherry-picker in high winds to get Redlingfield back online. Mike Ager Damage caused by storm Ciara. REMEMBER TO PUT YOUR CLOCKS FORWARD AT THE END OF MARCH. ■ PLANNING: ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT REQUIRED: for plan for 7 poultry sheds on land to the south of B1117 Horham & 12 proposed poultry sheds on land to the east of Woodlane Road, Southolt. GRANTED: application to erect four poultry houses, store & offices (following demolition of six existing poultry houses), Homefield Farm, Southolt Road, Athelington. REFUSED: application to erect replacement dwelling including artist’s studio at Chapel Cottage, Chapel Lane, Horham. Planning information from Midsuffolk District Council https://planning.baberghmidsuffolk.gov.uk/online-applications/ If you would like to advertise or contribute to the magazine or have an event or organisation you would like featured contact editors: Evelyn Adey on [email protected] or 01728 628428 at Ivy House Barn, Southolt Road, Athelington, IP21 5EL; or Mike Ager on [email protected] or 01379 678835 at Hidcote Lodge, Mill Road, Redlingfield, IP23 7QU. All issues are available at www.redlingfield.suffolk.gov.uk We aim to produce four full-colour issues a year, coming out at the end of February, May, August and November. Deadlines for adverts & editorial: Spring issue (covering Mar, April & May) Final deadline February 14 Summer issue (covering June, July & Aug) Final deadline May 14 Autumn issue (covering Sept, Oct & Nov) Final deadline August 14 Winter issue (covering Dec, Jan & Feb) Final deadline November 14 Spring 2020 1 FEATURES & NEWS Ciara & Dennis have last HERE ARE NO SIGNS OF A farmers with soils too wet to drill harsh winter as we reach the wheat or even harvest sugarbeet. In Tmiddle of February and a contrast, a shoot day on the sandlings couple of dry days allow some eager near the Suffolk coast gave the guns farmers to rev up and get going with very easy walking on light soils the fertiliser spreaders. Though it has growing vegetables but a friend’s been very mild, the crops look in need Labrador, photographed in a in a two- of help after three months of foot deep gulley, provided stark waterlogged conditions. But just to evidence of serious soil erosion. remind us that few aconites don’t Farmers are now doing some soul- make a spring, Ciara and Dennis blow searching about soil management, in to remind us who has the last word. especially on soils suited for root crops where the harvesting to meet deadlines RAINFALL RECORDS DATING comes at a heavy cost to soil structure. back twenty five years demonstrate the extent of the heavy rainfall in October MAGPIES ARE SEEN and November so when winter began everywhere and in numbers much with a dry week in December it was greater than usual. Our concern as with some relief ... but the respite conservationists is the effect of their didn’t last. egg robbing of other species but in How many times do we hear it said Australia it is the human population that East Anglia has escaped lightly which is nervous. compared to counties further north, Dry December weather is often cold, though that is scant consolation to and a thin layer of ice on the pond PAUL DURRANT & SON LTD BUILDERS Church Farm Bungalow, Rishangles, Eye, Suffolk IP23 7JX Tel/Fax (01379) 678485 Mob 07798673946 Email [email protected] All types of work undertaken Extensions, Renovations, Alterations, Repairs, Council Grant Work FREE ESTIMATES 2 Spring 2020 FEATURES & NEWS A gundog challenge. Trevor Edwards’ latest slice of word Wash Farm Wildlife prevented the mallard from crossing to scavenge near the bird feeders, despite the ice-breaker attempts of a couple of paddling drakes. After a prolonged winter of pair-bonding, the male leaves the area and the female broods and rears the young in his absence ... hardly a shining example of paternal care. A visit to the North Norfolk coast in January, to see the huge skeins of geese over the Wash at low tide, surpassed expectations and the coastal road from Holt to Snettisham was a pleasure to drive ... just don’t go in August. With places to stop and stare on a near- deserted road not short of good pubs, Doc Goodge and I had plenty of chances to sort out the teal from the wigeon before the day’s highlight at RSPB Titchwell. He had seen this only once before and there it was again, a water rail and a first sighting for me. Truly secretive compared to its well-known cousin the moorhen, the water rail’s useful long red bill can skewer anything from a shrimp to a small mammal and even a frog if it hops into range. Continued over. R Cole Plumbing Services 70 Scole Common, Scole, Diss, Norfolk RTel: Cole 01379 Plumbing 741485 Mobile: Services 07961 271644 Email:70 [email protected] Common, Scole, Diss, Norfolk. Tel:Oftec 01379741485 101.105E andMobile: 600 07961 Registered 271 644 Technician Email: [email protected] Oftec 101.105E and 600 Registered Technician. Spring 2020 3 FEATURES & NEWS Continued from previous page. having a chat with a friend in Australia Back at home, a giant toad hopefully about the devastating bushfires. He has lived on when relocated by the barn family in Ballarat, near Melbourne, restoration on Cranley road. Duncan where emergency water is stored in and Zara now live where decades of tanks the size of swimming pools and Xmas turkeys were plucked and everybody lives ready to evacuate in concrete breaking forced this primeval two minutes flat. The horses are looking amphibian into the daylight. stabled close by, always ready to be loaded in the float (horse box) which AFTER A CHALLENGING is kept hitched up to the jute (pick-up). winter, I am looking forward to a good Their dogs are at their heels with a summer of bird song and bumper “go” case packed beside the door crops, but the reality of weather events ready and waiting for the alarm. The here pales to insignificance when commitment of the Australian Wigeon in waiting & the secretive water rail (right). Optimal Heating Father & Son Team With over 30 years experience Oil, Natural Gas & LPG Servicing and Repairs Tel: 01728 628687 Mobile: 07806 660399 4 Spring 2020 A reluctant FEATURES & NEWS toad sees the light. firefighters to help their communities was unwavering but they report increased anxiety from seeing firsthand the damage to the wildlife, when koalas died in agony and birds fell dead from the sky in their thousands. EARLY FEBRUARY IS THE TIME of the Big Farmland Bird Count when farmers, especially those with environmental schemes, spend some time surveying wild bird populations in their fields. It was pleasing to see plentiful fieldfares, meadow pipits and skylarks on the wheat which had been direct- GREY SQUIRRELS PROSPER IN drilled into the rape stubbles of last these parts and they are beneficiaries harvest, a technique meant to of our bird feeding tables. However encourage the biodiversity of buglife there is also good news for the red in the top soil layer. These birds are all squirrel which has been ousted by the lovers of wide open spaces but a bonus grey in northern areas. The pine marten was a large flock of chaffinches two has been reintroduced, the population dozen strong, some perched prettily on is growing and they are very partial to the old rape stalks and showing pink in tasty grey squirrels. Maybe hedgehogs the low winter sun. would increase in numbers if a Of course two buzzards were on the predator could be found to eat some list and the count included our old foe badgers, the first of which has arrived the magpie. Now more numerous than at Wash Farm. ever, I was reminded of an unusual sight of last year when I saw four WE ARE NOT ALONE IN mobbing a sparrow-hawk. celebrating the old milestone of three I regretted no yellowhammers on the score years and ten. The oldest bird in day but on Jan 13th I had seen a the world is an albatross named welcome sight of a large flock of them Wisdom, she is 69 years old and nests about 12-15 strong and nearby the on the Midway Atoll, South Pacific, grassy remains of a nest from last year. where she has produced 35 chicks over Nesting near the ground in the that time. If only she could talk unkempt base of a hedge, because the beach where she breeds is yellowhammers benefit from very now covered in plastic rubbish.

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