Broadland: Shaping marsh and fen

“This important and well-illustrated new book adds substantially to our understanding of the Norfolk Broads and the authors are to be congratulated on bringing together a comprehensive landscape history of this world-famous and ecologically significant environment. The lead writers have researched Broadland for decades and their cumulative work – together with that of a range of other experts in the field – is brought together here to present a fascinating and highly readable account of how this unique landscape has developed from prehistory to the present day. This is an important and authoritative book, not just for the history of the Norfolk Broads, but also as an exemplar of how interdisciplinary study of landscape should be conducted.” Robert Liddiard, Professor of Landscape History, University of East Anglia

Broadland, or ‘the Broads’, is a unique area of wetlands occupying the floodplains of a network of waterways in eastern Norfolk and north-eastern Suffolk, and which includes around forty shallow freshwater lakes. Since the nineteenth century it has been a major holiday destination, with countless visitors attracted by the seemingly timeless tranquillity of its rivers, fens and marshes. The area also provides a globally important habitat for numerous rare species of flora and fauna. But this is, nevertheless, very much a landscape shaped by its history, and even the ‘broads’ themselves, the shallow lakes which give the area its name, are flooded peat-cuttings dating from the Middle Ages.

This is the first new academic study of Broadland for many decades and uses the latest research to explore the making of this distinctive landscape. With contributions from a team of prominent East Anglian local historians, archaeologists and natural scientists, Tom Williamson and Alison Yardy explain how the marshes were reclaimed and the fens were managed, explore the development of drainage technology and discuss the impact of commerce, industry and tourism. The landscape of the adjacent uplands is also considered, in chapters examining subjects as diverse as vernacular architecture and monastic foundations, prehistoric archaeology and medieval parish churches. Broadland's environments everywhere bear the marks of past human exploitation; its landscapes have always been changing. And all this has profound philosophical implications for the practice of conservation in what is now a National Park.

Highly readable and copiously illustrated, this authoritative account will be essential reading for all with an interest in the history and ecology of Broadland. But it will also appeal to those who simply want to know more about the forces that have shaped the character of an iconic British landscape.

Tom Williamson is Emeritus Professor of Landscape History at the University of East Anglia.

Alison Yardy is Senior Project Officer (Landscapes) at Norfolk County Council.