Redgrave, South Lopham & Banham

Redgrave & Lopham Fen is an internationally important lowland valley fen with a unique landscape of spring-fed sedge beds, rush and grass meadows, wet and dry heath, woodland and pools.

Home to insect-eating plants and Britain's biggest spider, the fen raft spider, this dramatic fenland landscape is one of the most important wetlands in Europe and the source of the River Waveney.

The fen is an exceptional place for wildlife and a testament to the vision of those who battled to save it. It`s a wild watery landscape of sedge, rush, heath and hundreds of pools created over many centuries by local people as they eked out a living, digging peat for fuel and cutting reed and sedge for thatching.

Talking of large spiders, here is an image I captured in 2010 on a visit. Not the best quality, but it does show the creature in its habitat.

The Raft Spider is a large, chunky spider that lives around the edge of ponds and swamps. Adults sit at the edge of the water, or on floating vegetation, with their front legs resting on the water's surface in order to feel for the vibrations of potential prey. Using the surface tension of the water, they chase out onto the water to catch their prey, which will even include tadpoles or small fish.

Raft Spiders will also swim underwater, often diving beneath the surface when threatened.

These two images are of the Four Spot Chaser dragonfly which was just trying to warm himself up at the start of the day.

This was I believe, a Variable Damselfly - Coenagrion pulchellum

and this a female Blue-tailed Damselfly - Ischnura elegans

....and then to an unfortunate one captured, and being eaten by a spider!

And so we made our way to South Lopham where the village sign shows how proud they are of their resident raft Spider.

South Lopham church (St Andrews) has the finest Norman tower in Norfolk and one of the best anywhere. It rises 70ft and is somewhat austere, even forbidding - it would not take a big jump of the imagination to see it in a Norman castle.

The original church was Saxon, dating from between AD 1000 and 1066. The Norman work was commissioned by the fearsome William Bigod, Earl of Norfolk. He was to drown in 1120 in the “White Ship” that was taking another William - the son and only legitimate heir of Henry I - from Barfleur in Normandy to England. The Bigods had fought alongside the Conqueror and most of Norfolk and Suffolk was their reward! We might speculate that the no-nonsense austerity of the tower owed something to the no-nonsense mindset of the Bigods!

The church tower might well have been designed to be the centre of a cruciform church, but the transepts never materialised.

There are a quantity of pew ends which are worth a look including this one, the Elephant and Castle emblem. It is a fairly common feature of mediaeval iconography. The carver of this piece obviously had little idea of the creature’s anatomy - hence the beak-like trunk and pathetic legs!

The font is from the fourteenth century and is of octagonal design. It`s stem and bowl carved with traceried patterns (each one different from the others) and topped with a seventeenth century cover.

This mighty parish chest, fashioned out of a single piece of oak! Some believe that it could well date from 1100, contemporary with the tower. In it parish documents and valuables would be stored. At a later date it was secured by three padlocks (the hasp of the middle one remains) for which the rector and two churchwardens each had a key, so all three had to be present for it to be opened.

So onto Banham to take in St Mary`s church with it`s 125ft lead covered spire, atop the tower. Most of the church is flint construction of fourteenth century, flint being available in large quantities in Norfolk.

Doors on old buildings have such a story to tell with their gnarled and weather beaten appearance. This one is from St Mary`s, but is no longer subject to the weather as the Friends of Banham Church had a modern glass entrance door constructed in 2007.

The fourteenth century Parish Chest.

Two images of the buildings which were originally the late sixteenth century Guildhall. Now known as Guildhall Cottages (not too original!)

Home    Forward   Back

The hidden history of Little Wenham

Little Wenham is a small village in Suffolk, England. It is part of the civil parish of Wenham Parva (the ancient name for Little Wenham) within Babergh district.

A village with no public roads but fortunately some rights of way. Its most famous building, Little Wenham Hall, is largely hidden from view.

To quote Sir Nikolaus Pevsner from his “The Buildings of England” series, “The house was built c.1270 - 80, probably for Sir John de Vallibus and his successor Petronilla of Nerford. It is of great historical importance for two reasons. The first is that it is built of brick, and represents one of the earliest uses of home-made brick in England. Flint is used only for the base of the walls and stone for the much rebuilt buttresses and dressings. The second point of outstanding interest is that the house is a house and not a keep. It is fortified of course, but it is in its shape and appointment on the way from the fortress to the manor house and so ranks with Stokesay and Acton Burnell of about the same years as one of the incunabula of English domestic architecture.” 

About the only view I could get of the `castle`, but perhaps at a later date I will find a way! 

Also on the site are the magnificent 16th C barn which was at one time thatched ...

... and the now redundant Church of All Saints which is under the care of the Church Conservation Trust. It`s a 13th C building whose tower and the south porch were added in the 15th century, and in the following century the tower being raised by the addition of a bell chamber.

On the south side of the sanctuary is a pre-Reformation tomb for a member of the Brewse family (it bears an earlier form of the shield across the chancel) but for whom is now unknown. However, in 1785 it was pragmatically reused for John Brewse, a descendant of Thomas Brewse of little Wenham Hall, who died in 1514 and his wife. When John Constable made an ink drawing of this in 1798, it had iron railings across it. Note the two shields with coats of arms flanking the recess.

Home    Forward   Back

A visit to Flatford

The Mill at Flatford was once owned by John Constable’s father and Constable made the Mill and the surrounding area the subject of many of his works of art, which are now world famous.

The famous `Willie Lott`s Cottage` at Flatford, taken in 2011 on a summer evening. 

Valley Farm is the oldest building on site at Flatford. Built in the mid-15th century and is a good example of a medieval, open hall house which is now a Grade 1 listed building. 

At one time Willy Lott's grandparents (English and Mary Lott) lived at Valley Farm and it was later owned by Willy Lott’s brother John (a farmer like his brother) who lived there with his wife and 14 children. Up until the 1930's Valley Farm was surrounded by buildings for all sorts of different agricultural uses. A fire in the 1930s destroyed nearly all of them. 

Outside, the walls were timbered and painted with lime wash at regular intervals to preserve the timber frame and seal the gaps between the timbers and the wattle/daub infill - whilst allowing the whole building to breathe. 

Valley Farm was called an 'open hall house' because there was no upper floor, the central hall being open up to the roof rafters. Originally the fire in the room would have been laid on the stone floor with the smoke going up to the underside of the roof ridge and escaping through the roof tiles or through a smoke hole in the gable end wall.

In the sixteenth century a massive inglenook fireplace and chimney were built to replace the open fire and an upper floor was added for use as bedrooms.

In 1901 Leonard Richardson bought Valley Farm. He lived there with his wife and three daughters Kathleen, Sylivia and Margaret and farmed the surrounding land. In the late 1920's he became increasingly anxious about the condition of the house and between 1928 and 1935 wrote repeatedly to the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings asking them for help with the cost of repairs - but no financial help was forthcoming. 

Leonard Richardson sold Valley Farm in 1935 to the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings for £1,500. The Society undertook major repairs and restored the building to its near original state. The upper floor was removed - although the marks on the vertical timbers clearly show where it was. The inglenook fireplace and chimney were retained and can be seen to this day. 

The National Trust continues to lease the building to the Field Studies Council for student accommodation but the National Trust still holds various family events inside the grounds and the building itself.The house is also open to the public on Heritage Open Days

This building I know is Bridge Cottage - as it`s position indicates. We went here specifically to see a Landscape Photography exhibition by Justin Minns (http://www.justinminns.co.uk/gallery) It is one of the views that most phototographers like to capture, along with Willie Lott`s cottage of course. During John Constable's boyhood, the family living in Bridge Cottage were tenants of the Constable family. 

Family members collected tolls from the lighters passing through Flatford Lock and may have provided a rest area, beer house and eating place for the families who operated the commercial barge route along the River Stour between Sudbury and Mistley Wharf. They cooked their meals on a large central fireplace which can still be seen inside Bridge Cottage today. 

Bridge Cottage was constructed as a single dwelling around a timber frame and the gaps between the frame were filled with daub and wattle, a mixture of twigs covered by a plaster made out of mud, straw and animal dung. 

By the late 17th-century the northern end of the cottage had been constructed although buildings would have existed on the site in previous centuries. 

Between 1725 and 1750 the southern end of the cottage was added along with commercial bread ovens which were housed in a lean-to extension at the back of the cottage - all that remains of the bread ovens today are a couple of brick arches. 

In the 19th-century, Bridge Cottage was converted into two dwellings to accommodate two families. Each family lived in a small parlour with access to a bedroom in the attic. One family accessed the attic by a small twisting staircase whilst the other used a loft ladder. 

A great way to see the Mill but how could they pass the coffee shop I ask? 

Mallards were busy either chasing each other, begging for food (as this one was) or just sunning themselves with an occasional swim. 

Mr Mallard was on the lookout for any female who passed (and the odd other male) 

Home    Forward   Back

Flags of Convenience

Recently, while at Languard Point, I was at watching these two vessels coming into Felixstowe Port and mulling over their countries of origin. So, when at home, a bit of research on the internet gave me the following.

ANNABA, registered in Liberia but owned by a firm in Germany. It has a length of 168m and deadweight of 20600 tons

The  MAERSK ESSEN, registered in the Marshall Islands but the owner is from Singapore. It has a length of 366m and deadweight of 142105 tons.The interesting point is that neither ship is registered in the country of the owner.

So, why is this?

Well, When registering a vessel for international travel, one must choose a nation under the flag of which that vessel will sail. The term “flag of convenience” refers to registering a ship in a sovereign state different from that of the ship's owners.

Why register a flag of convenience?

Ships registered under flags of convenience can often reduce operating costs or avoid the regulations of the owner's country. To do so, a vessel owner will find a nation with an open registry, or a nation that allows registration of vessels owned by foreign entities. A ship operates under the laws of its flag state, so vessel owners often register in other nations to take advantages of reduced regulation, lower administrative fees, and greater numbers of friendly ports.

History of open registries

The modern practice of flagging ships in foreign countries began in the 1920s in the United States after shipowners became frustrated with increased regulations and rising labor costs and began registering their ships in other nations (originally Panama). As other nations began to allow open registries a few nations became standouts in the flag of convenience industry. In 1968, Liberia grew to surpass the United Kingdom as the world's largest shipping register and, as of 2009, more than half of the world’s merchant ships were registered with open registries, with Panama, Liberia, and Marshall Islands flags accounting for almost 40% of the entire world fleet as calculated by tonnage.

Criticisms of flag of convenience systems

Many nations with open registries are criticized for having substandard regulations. For example, many shipowners are allowed to remain legally anonymous in open registry systems, making it difficult to identify and prosecute legal actions (whether civil or criminal) against these individuals. Some ships with flags of convenience have been found engaging in criminal activity, offering substandard working conditions, and spewing pollution into the environment or illegally fishing. As a result, ships flying under these flags are now targeted by other nations for special enforcement when they make call in one of the host nation's ports.

Home    Forward   Back