Norfolk Coast GUARDIAN FREE guide to an area of outstanding natural beauty 2015 Coast history special Here, now, always INSIDE Competitions 8 pages of events & map Local foods & recipes 2 A SPECIAL PLACE NORFOLK COAST GUARDIAN 2015 NORFOLK COAST PARTNERS THE NORFOLK COAST A place for everyone, for ever Natural England PARTNERSHIP Norfolk County Council South Wing at Fakenham Fire Station, As every year, this newspaper comes to you from The Norfolk Coast has a wide range of landscapes North Norfolk District Council Norwich Road, Fakenham, the team at the Norfolk Coast Partnership. The – from hilly chalk ridges and heathlands, to expansive Borough Council of King’s Lynn Norfolk NR21 8BB Partnership is a group of organisations (listed right) flat saltmarsh. And a wide range of ways to enjoy and West Norfolk T: 01328 850530 active in looking after the wonderful Norfolk Coast, them, from sailing on the sea to walking on the land. Great Yarmouth Borough Council E: offi[email protected] backed up by a small staff team at Fakenham. This edition of the Guardian focusses on the rich Broads Authority W: www.norfolkcoastaonb.org.uk As a designated ‘area of outstanding natural and deep history of the coast. We go back deep into Environment Agency Manager: Tim Venes beauty’, we are one of a family of protected areas the past – but look ahead too, with our ‘Making Policy and partnership officer: English Heritage which extend across the world. History’ boxes. Settle down for an interesting read Estelle Hook The idea is to protect what is most special about – and plan some great days out on the beautiful National Trust Communications officer: Lucy Galvin nature and landscape, and its relation to us as coast with our public transport guide and what’s on Norfolk Association of Local Councils Community and external funding officer: Kate Dougan humans – and to learn from it. section. Norfolk FWAG Project officer: Gemma Clark Norfolk Rivers Trust Project support officer: Steve Tutt Norfolk Wildlife Trust Funding Partners RSPB DEFRA; Norfolk County Council; Country Land and Business Association North Norfolk District Council; Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West National Farmers Union Norfolk and Great Yarmouth Borough Community Representatives Council AONB Common Rights holders The Norfolk Coast Guardian is published Wells Harbour Commissioners by Countrywide Publications on behalf of the Norfolk Coast Partnership. The Wash and North Norfolk Coast Editor: Lucy Galvin. European Marine Site Management Designed and produced by: Scheme Countrywide Publications T: 01502 725870. Printed by Mortons Print on sustainable newsprint. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information in this publication. However, the publishers can accept no responsibility for any effects arising there from. Views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Norfolk Coast Partnership member Norfolk Coast Partnership Coast Norfolk organisations. All material copyright Norfolk Coast Articles available in large print: please contact 01328 850530 or via website www.norfolkcoastaonb.org.uk Partnership 2015. NCP 03/15 – 60K NORFOLK COAST GUARDIAN 2015 A SPECIAL PLACE 3 Wildness, space and peace National Trust / Justin Minns National Trust Boats on the salt marsh at Blakeney. Boats on the salt marsh at Blakeney. This edition of the Norfolk Coast Guardian takes Patrick Barkham opens our look back into the Norfolk Coast’s special you on a journey into the past of the coast. And what a past it is. There’s deep history: the first history with the story of how the coast has shaped him. human footprints at Happisburgh; the mystery y first memory of the seaside of the seahenges; the wild West Runton beasts. is sitting in an oversized or- There’s natural history – the coast can lay claim ange life jacket listening to Find out for yourself to being the cradle of conservation in the UK, with shrieks of wading birds and You can experience wilderness almost reserve, managed by Natural England. Mthe chink-chink-slap of the rigging on anywhere along the Norfolk coast if you Access to such a sensitive site is difficult. the first nature reserves. Then there’s the human plan your day. Follow our guidelines to There are no facilities – no toilets, no history - village treasures, parish churches, farming sailing boats clustered in the small creek. I was three, and my parents were taking me visit the coast and help to keep it special: accommodation, no shelter! Visitors techniques that have shaped the nation – and a key and my sister on a small boat from Bran- • Leave the car behind – take public are discouraged from crossing by foot role in wartime too. caster Staithe for a holiday on Scolt Head transport, walk or cycle – you’ll because the tides are dangerous, and Of course, history is not just then, it’s now. Island. see much more. Or hop in a boat! most people who visit choose to land The kind of coast we love most pas- •Respect wildlife – follow the on the eastern end via private boat or We’re all constantly making it! The Norfolk Coast countryside code; keep to paths; avoid the ferry from Burnham Overy Staithe. sionately is often formed by childhood Partnership represents a group of key organisations dunes and shingle nesting areas and Access to the western end is prohibited holidays. When compared to the vivid keep dogs under control. during the nesting season because of the set up to ensure the area’s future is as diverse and beauty of the sandy coves of Cornwall, or fascinating as its past. Look out for the Making • Buy local products – support the sensitive tern colonies. Some guided tours the wild Pembrokeshire cliffs, the muddy local economy and get a better deal for of the area are available. You can also history boxes throughout for details of how we are smudge of the North Norfolk coast, with everyone. enjoy fine views and a sense of its habitat doing that today. And enjoy the ride! its muted palette of olives, duns and pew- • Get involved – there are lots of from Gun Hill, on the mainland, which ters, can seem underwhelming. organisations that could use your help lies on the North Norfolk Coast Path. But my heart leaps in this wide, windy to care for the coast. More at norfolkcoastaonb.org.uk/ and empty land and I am not alone. North Scolt Head today is a fragile nature understanding and enjoyment Norfolk’s landscape seeps into us, with its own subtle and unique beauty, regardless of where we were raised. planted in the 1920s as part of an experi- our understanding of the natural world. In geological terms, it is a young coast- ment to see what species could survive Amidst the seal trips and holidaymakers, line, a tentative line between marsh and there. this academic work still goes on: every flimsy sea, constantly changing, and likely For all our concerns about develop- summer, a Cambridge professor still visits to change more dramatically in the future. ment, one human impulse has shaped Scolt Head Island to study its mud snails. And the island of Scolt is younger than this coast more than any other in the past It is no coincidence that after a century most parts, perhaps only 800 years old, century. North Norfolk could lay claim of such protections, the Norfolk coast is constantly growing westwards. to being the cradle of conservation. Blak- more precious than ever. More than ever, Seen from the sky, Scolt can almost re- eney Point became the first coastal nature we crave its wildness, space and peace. semble a human embryoyo in sshape:hape: riridgesdges reservereserve in tthehe country when it was Scolt’s first warden (a woman – another of dunes separating saltt marsh, an iin-n- purchasedpurchased by the National Trust innovation) put it perfectly. Emma Turner tricate web of capillarieses that inhale in 1912, and the Trust protected grew up in Kent but was seduced by Scolt 0DNLQJKLVWRU\ and exhale sea water aatt hihighgh and ScoltScolt 1111 years later. Local bird- when she moved there in 1924. “That first The Paston Family letters are an incredible record of life in the low tide. watcherwatcher Sydney Long founded day of solitude has bitten deep into my area – and the most comprehensive story of medieval day to day life that exists anywhere. This part of the Norfolkorfolk coast the NorfolkNor Wildlife Trust after memory,” she wrote in her memoirs. “It The Norfolk Coast Partnership’s Sustainable Development is as wild as southern EEnglandngland ggetsets raisingraising mmoney to buy Cley in filled me with wild joy to think that for Fund is helping Paston Heritage Society tell part of the story of and yet it is a landscapee sshapedhaped by 1926 aandn NWT is the oldest months I should possess the island with all the past with today’s techniques and the community. us. I love how every tinyny ridgeridge andand WildlifeWildlife Trust in the country. its mystery and loveliness.” Using high tech 3D computer visual imaging, the society has marsh on Scolt has beenen named – CreatingCreati entire “reserves” to made a reconstruction of the inside of the church in the 14th Wire Hills, Long Hills,s, PlantaPlantagogo savesave nativnativee wildlife was a radical Patrick Barkham is the author of Coast- century showing rare medieval wall paintings – and is planning to Marsh, Plover Marsh – there stepstep at ttheh time. In the decades lines – The Story of our Shore, published work with local ceramicists to make art which records the amazing are even a few exoticotic that ffollowed, Blakeney and by Granta (more details on page 20). He images.