Norfolk coast
Peering between tree trunks across the reclaimed salt marsh and dark-brown mudflats that border Ken Hill, I train my eyes intently upon two orange blobs on the horizon. These incongruous flashes of neon, nestled amid the sludgy autumnal landscape of the eastern shore of the Wash, are the targets of RAF Holbeach, one of two RAF weapons ranges situated within the European Marine Site that borders and overlaps with the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). I’ve just been reliably informed that a plane is about to drop its payload between them.
Sadly, despite my best efforts and some intense focusing with the binoculars, the mid-morning haze proves too thick to penetrate. But Peter Rushmer, project manager for the Wash and North Norfolk Coast European Marine Site Management Scheme, assures me that ‘on a clear day, you can watch the planes dipping out of the clouds, dropping dummy bombs fitted with a charge that emits a puff of smoke to show where it has hit. That way, there are no big explosions and they don’t seem to disturb the wildlife.’
Once we’re sure the aerial display is over, we continue walking through the woods. Earlier, Rushmer had told me that this was one of the AONB’s more remote areas, despite the
fact that we’re following one of the many footpaths that help to make up nearly 300 kilometres of public rights of way within its boundaries.
‘You see why I described it as less accessible?’ he asks me now. ‘There’s no nice sandy beach and fewer facilities than elsewhere along the coast. And it’s predominantly agriculture, so it isn’t as attractive to holidaymakers.’ It’s difficult to understand why, because it’s precisely this agricultural backdrop – the old farm buildings and windmills, and the fields unfurling along the undulating coastline – that constitutes a major part of the AONB’s appeal.
Far and wide
Designated in 1968 after five years of deliberation by the National Parks Committee (NPC), the Norfolk Coast AONB covers 453 square kilometres, including nearly 100 kilometres of coastline. But despite its name, the area includes much more than just the seashore, as Tim Venes, manager of the Norfolk Coast Partnership, tells me. ‘When people speak of the AONB,’ he says, ‘they just think of the North Norfolk Heritage Coast, but it’s actually a lot more diverse, covering a far greater expanse.
‘When the area was designated, it was originally going to be asmaller area (from Hunstanton to Overstrand), but the county council at the time wanted all of the Norfolk coast to be included in the AONB. It was eventually agreed that the highly developed parts of the region would be left out – for example, the caravan parks on the cliff tops.’
As a result, the towns of Cromer and Sheringham, and the coastline between them, as well as the villages of Mundesley and Bacton, were excluded from the designation, creating small pockets of unprotected and developed land across the AONB. The NPC also decided to create two outliers to the main area – one to the east and one to the west. The western outlier includes part of the Sandringham Estate and some of the Wash mudflats, as well as coastal marshes and lowland heath. The eastern outlier comprises a dune system that stretches from Sea Palling to Winterton-on Sea and the low-lying marsh and farmland behind.
With the AONB’s lengthy coastline, it isn’t surprising that saltwater habitats are among the region’s most common landscape features. Salt marsh, one of the UK’s most pressured habitats, makes up six per cent of the AONB. Created by the buildup of marine sediment, salt marsh is globally rarer than rainforest, according to the UK Sustainable Development Commission, and the UK Biodiversity Action Plan estimates that the UK needs to create 100 hectares of new salt marsh every year just to keep pace with the area lost to land pressure and erosion.
Wells, located in the centre of the AONB, is home to the region’s oldest salt marsh, formed around 10,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age. The salt marsh along the Norfolk coast is vital to the surrounding landscape. The tussocks of grass and vegetation help to form a natural defence against flooding by the sea, soaking up water during a rising tide, preventing erosion of the sea walls behind them and protecting surrounding farmland.
It also attracts numerous bird species, which have become one of the biggest draws for visitors to the region, particularly in the area around the Wash. The UK’s largest marine embayment, the Wash is the second-largest expanse of intertidal sand and mudflats in the country, and it serves as a year-round feeding ground for a huge variety of birds.
Nearby reed beds are home to a healthy community of marsh harriers, a species rarer than golden eagles in the UK. And during winter, nearly 40 per cent of the world’s pink-footed goose population – almost 120,000 birds – visit the mudflats, flying in from Iceland and Greenland. More than 400,000 birds visit the Wash annually, making it one of the UK’s most important estuaries for birdwatching.
Rather surprisingly, it appears that the presence of two RAF weapons ranges has benefited the birds. ‘The RAF has been very important to the management scheme,’ Rushmer tells me. ‘There is an area of salt marsh between the two orange targets we were looking at earlier that probably wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for the MOD. On either side of them, most of the salt marsh has been reclaimed, but the bombing range has stopped the encroachment, simply by being there. Interestingly, the birds don’t seem to be put off by fast jets – they become habituated to them, unlike helicopters, which are much more “predatory” in their movements and cause a far greater disturbance.’
Shingle-minded
Walking along the beach later that afternoon, we spot a tank rolling along the horizon – further evidence of the military’s presence in the region. Rushmer tells me that it’s part of the Muckleburgh Collection, the UK’s largest privately owned working military museum, which is based here at Weybourne, a shingle beach that was, like so much of Norfolk’s coastal landscape, created by glacial movement and tidal erosion. ‘This beach was dumped by glaciers at the end of the Ice Age,’ Venes says. ‘So it isn’t being added to naturally anymore.’
Over the years, the Environment Agency has regularly scraped up the shingle to help build a protective ridge along the coast, but now it’s being allowed to evolve naturally, becoming lower but wider. ‘When it was being scraped up, it was loosening the structure and weakening the bank,’ Venes explains. ‘If there was a storm, the sea would break through and come across in a torrent – so although it might flood more often now that the shoring-up has stopped, allowing the silt and sediment to build up will help to make it stronger, which should, in turn, stop any catastrophic breaches.’
Ice and water have always been the primary forces that shaped the Norfolk coast, and the Cromer Ridge – a terminal moraine (a ridge of debris at the snout of a glacier) that was created by the edge of an ice sheet that came across the North Sea from Scandinavia – is the highest part of the AONB. It rises up to around 100 metres above sea level, and Rushmer is keen to point out that, despite its reputation to the contrary, the region is surprisingly hilly.
‘To say Norfolk as a county is flat is wrong,’ he insists. ‘It’s gently undulating, topping out at 180 metres or so in the inland northwest Norfolk area.’ Hardly the Himalaya, but flat or
not, the scenery within the AONB is certainly anything but monotonous. ‘Our landscape is really very wild,’ says Venes. ‘The coast east of Weybourne is really interesting geologically, and very undervalued. There are big lumps of chalk in the cliffs, created by the ice that came from the North Sea. And then there’s the esker at Blakeney, which formed under the ice and is now a Site of Special Scientific Interest.’
The esker – a meandering sand and gravel ridge – is of particular interest, being the only formation of its kind in the UK to have been quarried. This has allowed extensive interpretation of its internal structure, and the British Geological Survey has used the information to aid research into climate change as it has unfolded in the UK over the past 800,000 years.
While the potential impact of climate change, specifically the possibility of rising sea levels, is naturally a concern for both the AONB and the Marine Site, it seems that the rising number of visitors is a more immediate problem. ‘Visitor numbers are a really difficult thing to get a handle on,’ says Venes, ‘but it has to be in the millions.’
‘It’s certainly one of the things that we’re concerned about,’ Rushmer agrees. ‘More access would, in certain areas, be dangerous in terms of the physical features here, and could easily damage some of the conservation interests that make it such an important place to visit.’
Fortunately, it’s a problem that both Rushmer and Venes believe can be turned to the area’s advantage, with the help of careful management. ‘We have to recognise that tourism is important to the region and that it’s likely to grow,’ Rushmer says. ‘And it’s right that people experience what the area has to offer, because it’s a wonderful place that deserves to be celebrated. However, while we want people to come and to experience its diversity, they need to be aware of its sensitivity and of the right ways to enjoy it.’
Local knowledge: Tim Venes reveals his top tips for places to visit
Catch a boat to see the seals at Blakeney Point. They sail from Morston Quay out to the point and it’s a really good way to see the seals without disturbing them – they don’t seem to feel threatened by the boats.
The birds of the north Norfolk coast are so important that they can’t be ignored. The marshes at Cley and Titchwell are the best places to see birds because they’re set up to allow visitors access to the birds without disturbing them or the sand dunes.
Riding the Coast Hopper [bus] gives you great views of the coast and allows you to see more, because you aren’t focused on driving – and you can hop on or off. It’s a really good way of travelling. You can also cycle all the way along the AONB or walk the Peddars Way, which follows an old Roman road up the coast.
The cliffs southeast of Cromer are well worth visiting. It’s a great coastline that doesn’t get much recognition, despite the fact that it’s accessible and has some fantastic beaches.
December 2007
Sadly, despite my best efforts and some intense focusing with the binoculars, the mid-morning haze proves too thick to penetrate. But Peter Rushmer, project manager for the Wash and North Norfolk Coast European Marine Site Management Scheme, assures me that ‘on a clear day, you can watch the planes dipping out of the clouds, dropping dummy bombs fitted with a charge that emits a puff of smoke to show where it has hit. That way, there are no big explosions and they don’t seem to disturb the wildlife.’
Once we’re sure the aerial display is over, we continue walking through the woods. Earlier, Rushmer had told me that this was one of the AONB’s more remote areas, despite the
fact that we’re following one of the many footpaths that help to make up nearly 300 kilometres of public rights of way within its boundaries.
‘You see why I described it as less accessible?’ he asks me now. ‘There’s no nice sandy beach and fewer facilities than elsewhere along the coast. And it’s predominantly agriculture, so it isn’t as attractive to holidaymakers.’ It’s difficult to understand why, because it’s precisely this agricultural backdrop – the old farm buildings and windmills, and the fields unfurling along the undulating coastline – that constitutes a major part of the AONB’s appeal.
Far and wide
Designated in 1968 after five years of deliberation by the National Parks Committee (NPC), the Norfolk Coast AONB covers 453 square kilometres, including nearly 100 kilometres of coastline. But despite its name, the area includes much more than just the seashore, as Tim Venes, manager of the Norfolk Coast Partnership, tells me. ‘When people speak of the AONB,’ he says, ‘they just think of the North Norfolk Heritage Coast, but it’s actually a lot more diverse, covering a far greater expanse.
‘When the area was designated, it was originally going to be asmaller area (from Hunstanton to Overstrand), but the county council at the time wanted all of the Norfolk coast to be included in the AONB. It was eventually agreed that the highly developed parts of the region would be left out – for example, the caravan parks on the cliff tops.’
As a result, the towns of Cromer and Sheringham, and the coastline between them, as well as the villages of Mundesley and Bacton, were excluded from the designation, creating small pockets of unprotected and developed land across the AONB. The NPC also decided to create two outliers to the main area – one to the east and one to the west. The western outlier includes part of the Sandringham Estate and some of the Wash mudflats, as well as coastal marshes and lowland heath. The eastern outlier comprises a dune system that stretches from Sea Palling to Winterton-on Sea and the low-lying marsh and farmland behind.
With the AONB’s lengthy coastline, it isn’t surprising that saltwater habitats are among the region’s most common landscape features. Salt marsh, one of the UK’s most pressured habitats, makes up six per cent of the AONB. Created by the buildup of marine sediment, salt marsh is globally rarer than rainforest, according to the UK Sustainable Development Commission, and the UK Biodiversity Action Plan estimates that the UK needs to create 100 hectares of new salt marsh every year just to keep pace with the area lost to land pressure and erosion.
Wells, located in the centre of the AONB, is home to the region’s oldest salt marsh, formed around 10,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age. The salt marsh along the Norfolk coast is vital to the surrounding landscape. The tussocks of grass and vegetation help to form a natural defence against flooding by the sea, soaking up water during a rising tide, preventing erosion of the sea walls behind them and protecting surrounding farmland.
It also attracts numerous bird species, which have become one of the biggest draws for visitors to the region, particularly in the area around the Wash. The UK’s largest marine embayment, the Wash is the second-largest expanse of intertidal sand and mudflats in the country, and it serves as a year-round feeding ground for a huge variety of birds.
Nearby reed beds are home to a healthy community of marsh harriers, a species rarer than golden eagles in the UK. And during winter, nearly 40 per cent of the world’s pink-footed goose population – almost 120,000 birds – visit the mudflats, flying in from Iceland and Greenland. More than 400,000 birds visit the Wash annually, making it one of the UK’s most important estuaries for birdwatching.
Rather surprisingly, it appears that the presence of two RAF weapons ranges has benefited the birds. ‘The RAF has been very important to the management scheme,’ Rushmer tells me. ‘There is an area of salt marsh between the two orange targets we were looking at earlier that probably wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for the MOD. On either side of them, most of the salt marsh has been reclaimed, but the bombing range has stopped the encroachment, simply by being there. Interestingly, the birds don’t seem to be put off by fast jets – they become habituated to them, unlike helicopters, which are much more “predatory” in their movements and cause a far greater disturbance.’
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Shingle-minded
Walking along the beach later that afternoon, we spot a tank rolling along the horizon – further evidence of the military’s presence in the region. Rushmer tells me that it’s part of the Muckleburgh Collection, the UK’s largest privately owned working military museum, which is based here at Weybourne, a shingle beach that was, like so much of Norfolk’s coastal landscape, created by glacial movement and tidal erosion. ‘This beach was dumped by glaciers at the end of the Ice Age,’ Venes says. ‘So it isn’t being added to naturally anymore.’
Over the years, the Environment Agency has regularly scraped up the shingle to help build a protective ridge along the coast, but now it’s being allowed to evolve naturally, becoming lower but wider. ‘When it was being scraped up, it was loosening the structure and weakening the bank,’ Venes explains. ‘If there was a storm, the sea would break through and come across in a torrent – so although it might flood more often now that the shoring-up has stopped, allowing the silt and sediment to build up will help to make it stronger, which should, in turn, stop any catastrophic breaches.’
Ice and water have always been the primary forces that shaped the Norfolk coast, and the Cromer Ridge – a terminal moraine (a ridge of debris at the snout of a glacier) that was created by the edge of an ice sheet that came across the North Sea from Scandinavia – is the highest part of the AONB. It rises up to around 100 metres above sea level, and Rushmer is keen to point out that, despite its reputation to the contrary, the region is surprisingly hilly.
‘To say Norfolk as a county is flat is wrong,’ he insists. ‘It’s gently undulating, topping out at 180 metres or so in the inland northwest Norfolk area.’ Hardly the Himalaya, but flat or
not, the scenery within the AONB is certainly anything but monotonous. ‘Our landscape is really very wild,’ says Venes. ‘The coast east of Weybourne is really interesting geologically, and very undervalued. There are big lumps of chalk in the cliffs, created by the ice that came from the North Sea. And then there’s the esker at Blakeney, which formed under the ice and is now a Site of Special Scientific Interest.’
The esker – a meandering sand and gravel ridge – is of particular interest, being the only formation of its kind in the UK to have been quarried. This has allowed extensive interpretation of its internal structure, and the British Geological Survey has used the information to aid research into climate change as it has unfolded in the UK over the past 800,000 years.
While the potential impact of climate change, specifically the possibility of rising sea levels, is naturally a concern for both the AONB and the Marine Site, it seems that the rising number of visitors is a more immediate problem. ‘Visitor numbers are a really difficult thing to get a handle on,’ says Venes, ‘but it has to be in the millions.’
‘It’s certainly one of the things that we’re concerned about,’ Rushmer agrees. ‘More access would, in certain areas, be dangerous in terms of the physical features here, and could easily damage some of the conservation interests that make it such an important place to visit.’
Fortunately, it’s a problem that both Rushmer and Venes believe can be turned to the area’s advantage, with the help of careful management. ‘We have to recognise that tourism is important to the region and that it’s likely to grow,’ Rushmer says. ‘And it’s right that people experience what the area has to offer, because it’s a wonderful place that deserves to be celebrated. However, while we want people to come and to experience its diversity, they need to be aware of its sensitivity and of the right ways to enjoy it.’
Local knowledge: Tim Venes reveals his top tips for places to visit
Catch a boat to see the seals at Blakeney Point. They sail from Morston Quay out to the point and it’s a really good way to see the seals without disturbing them – they don’t seem to feel threatened by the boats.
The birds of the north Norfolk coast are so important that they can’t be ignored. The marshes at Cley and Titchwell are the best places to see birds because they’re set up to allow visitors access to the birds without disturbing them or the sand dunes.
Riding the Coast Hopper [bus] gives you great views of the coast and allows you to see more, because you aren’t focused on driving – and you can hop on or off. It’s a really good way of travelling. You can also cycle all the way along the AONB or walk the Peddars Way, which follows an old Roman road up the coast.
The cliffs southeast of Cromer are well worth visiting. It’s a great coastline that doesn’t get much recognition, despite the fact that it’s accessible and has some fantastic beaches.
December 2007
