Читать книгу Suffolk Coast and Heath Walks. 3 long-distance routes in the AONB: the Suffolk Coast Path, the Stour and Orwell Walk and the Sandlings Walk онлайн

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The beach at Pakefield, looking north towards lowestoft (SCP, Stage 1)

Some idea of the importance and relative prosperity of the Sandlings region in the Anglo-Saxon period may be judged from the treasure found at Sutton Hoo, close to present day Woodbridge. Later, in the 14th and 15th centuries, the wealth created by wool production, resulting from enclosure and grazing of the heaths, financed the building of many fine and notable medieval churches, including those at Blythburgh, Southwold and Kessingland. However, this extensive grazing for wool production caused serious problems of soil infertility in subsequent centuries.

Large areas of heath were enclosed, ploughed and fertilised during the 18th and 19th centuries, and much of the Sandlings region was given over either to game-keeping or arable farming, or afforested with large coniferous plantations.

Forests

All three major forests within the confines of the AONB – Rendlesham, Tunstall and Dunwich – were established by the Forestry Commission in the 1920s on relatively infertile tracts of Sandlings heath. These were all quite badly damaged by the Great Storm of 1987, but widespread clearance and replanting has taken place since. As well as these modern plantations there are also some fragments of ancient woodland with a mix of broad-leaved species.