Sammy Fraser, RSPB Brecks Community Engagement Officer writes...
Most of you who have paid a visit to the reserve in search of booming bitterns, bugling cranes and pinging bearded tits, will have noticed a subtle transition between the car park and the area west of the visitor centre. This transition is from the sandy and dry Brecks, harbouring specialist plants and a plethora of rabbits, to the reed covered nutrient rich peat soil. You may have also noticed unusual pieces of geology lurking amongst the sandy soil in the form of flints. Coming in all shapes and sizes, flint provides an insight into how the Brecks landscape would have looked and the lives of our ancestors.
Flint:
Image credit: Robert Chapman
The first humans to be recorded in the Brecks were people of the Paleolithic Age. They were hunters and foragers who used natural resources to eek out a living in the Brecks. They presumably hunted red deer in the woodland and foraged for native plants as food sources. They actually had little impact on the Brecks landscape. It was the Neolithic people who were to be the first people to radically alter the wooded landscape that the Paleolithic people first utilized. Some say that there was a Neolithic settlement on what is now Brandon Fen. Perhaps they crossed the “border” to the Fens to fish and hunt for birds such as cranes?
The Neolithic people are often referred to as the first farmers in the Brecks. They arrived with seed for crops, livestock and knowledge of how to create tools. They found the lightly wooded, sandy Brecks soils easy to clear and began to plant crops in the newly felled areas. They would have quickly found out that the soil of the Brecks holds naturally few nutrients, and so in order to farm, they grew crops on a rotational basis. It was necessary to leave the soil fallow after two to three years of growing crops. By removing the woodland and leaving the soil fallow, the first areas of heathland began to form in the Brecks. This is a very contrasting habitat to the Fens but it has an equally unique set of specially adapted wildlife.
Typical sandy soil of the Brecks:
Image credit: Chris Knights.
Perhaps the most obvious remains of the Neolithic people are their flint mines. For those of you who have been to nearby Grimes Graves just over the border in Norfolk, you will have seen the remains of over 400 mines. To think that they dug these mines using nothing but red deer antlers and bones is mind-boggling!
However, it is not only at Grimes Graves where you can see the remains of the flint mining industry in the Brecks. The Brecks was once the flint capital of Britain, from as early as the Neolithic period until as recently as the 1950’s. Towns like Brandon were the centre of this mining industry. Flint was originally mined for flint weapons, later for flintlock muskets and building materials. Over 1,000,000 musket flints per month were supplied through the Napoleonic wars.
So next time you are taking a stroll through Lakenheath Fen remember the snapshot into our fascinating history under your feet.