The North Norfolk Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) is an area of European importance for wildlife in Norfolk, England. It comprises 7,700 ha (19,027 acres) of the county's north coast from just west of Holme-next-the-Sea to Kelling, and is additionally protected through Natura 2000, Special Protection Area (SPA) listings; it is also part of the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The North Norfolk Coast is also designated as a wetland of international importance on the Ramsar list and most of it is a Biosphere Reserve.
Habitats within the SSSI include reed beds, salt marshes, freshwater lagoons and sand or shingle beaches. The wetlands are important for wildlife, including some scarce breeding birds such as pied avocets, western marsh harriers, Eurasian bitterns and bearded reedlings. The location also attracts migrating birds including vagrant rarities. Ducks and geese winter along this coast in considerable numbers, and several nature reserves provide suitable conditions for water voles, natterjack toads and several scarce plants and invertebrates.
The area is archaeologically significant, with artefacts dating back to the Upper Paleolithic. The mound of an Iron Age fort is visible at Holkham, and the site of a 23 ha (57 acres) Roman naval port with a fort built on the castrum pattern is just outside Brancaster. The site of the medieval "chapel" (probably a domestic dwelling) at Blakeney is no longer accessible. Remains of military use from both world wars include an armoured fighting vehicle gunnery range, a hospital and bombing ranges, as well as passive defences such as pillboxes, barbed wire and tank traps.
The SSSI is economically important to the area because of the tourists it attracts for birdwatching and other outdoor activities, although sensitive wildlife sites are managed to avoid damage from the large numbers of visitors. Another threat is the encroachment of the sea on this soft coast. The Environment Agency considers that managed retreat is likely to be the long-term solution, and is working with the Norfolk Wildlife Trust to create new reserves inland to compensate for the loss of scarce habitats at the coast.
Description
The SSSI is a long, narrow strip of coast that starts at the eastern boundary of The Wash between Old Hunstanton and Holme-next-the-Sea, and runs east for about 43 km (27 mi) to Kelling. The southern boundary runs roughly west to east except where it detours around towns and villages, and never crosses the A149 coast road.
The SSSI has a wide variety of habitats, with bare mud, sand and shingle characterising the intertidal zone along the whole of the coast, although higher areas may have algae or eelgrass that are grazed by ducks and geese in winter. The salt marshes which form on sheltered coasts, in the lee of islands, or behind spits are described in the SSSI notification document as "among the best in Europe" due to their exceptionally diverse flora. Sand dunes occur at several places along the coast, but the best examples are at Holme Dunes, Holkham, Blakeney Point, and Scolt Head Island. The latter two sites are also important for geomorphology research purposes as structures consisting mainly of shingle ridges. Reed beds are fairly localised, but substantial areas occur at Titchwell Marsh, Brancaster and Cley Marshes. Grassland is represented by grazing pasture reclaimed from former salt marsh, with wetter areas at Cley and Salthouse marshes. Woodland is limited in the SSSI, although a belt of Corsican pine planted at Holkham has provided shelter for other trees and shrubs to become established.
History
To 1000 AD
Norfolk has a long history of human occupation dating back to the Palaeolithic, and including significant archaeology. Both modern and Neanderthal people were present in the area between 100,000 and 10,000 years ago, before the last glaciation, and humans returned as the ice retreated northwards. The archaeological record is poor until about 20,000 years ago, partly because of the then prevailing very cold conditions, but also because the coastline was much further north than at present. As the ice retreated during the Mesolithic (10,000–5,000 BCE), the sea level rose, filling what is now the North Sea. This brought the Norfolk coastline much closer to its present line, so that many ancient sites are under the sea.Robertson et al. (2005) pp. 9–22. Early Mesolithic flint tools with characteristic long blades up to Murphy (2009) p. 14. long found on the present-day coast at Titchwell date from a time when it was from the sea. Other flint tools have been found dating from the Upper Paleolithic (50,000–10,000 BCE) to the Neolithic (5,000–2,500 BCE).
By 11,000 BC, the makers of the long blades had gone. Two timber platforms have been identified within the peat at Titchwell, and may possibly be rare Bronze Age (2,500–800 BCE) survivals.Robertson (2005) p. 149. Seahenge is another early Bronze Age site found on the coast at Holme in 1998. It consists of a ring of 55 oak posts and was built in 2049 BC; a similar nearby structure, Holme II, may be almost two centuries older. A large Iron Age fort at Holkham enclosed 2.5 ha (6.1 acres) at the end of a sandy spit in what was then salt marsh, and remained in use until the defeat of the Iceni in 47 AD.
Roman period settlements have been discovered all along the Norfolk Coast, notably the complex at Branodunum, which covered at least 23 ha (57 acres) near Brancaster. This site included a fort built on the castrum pattern enclosing 2.6 ha (6.3 acres) within its walls, 2.9 m (10 ft) wide. The fort had internal turrets at the corners and was backed by an earth rampart.Fields (2006) p. 25.Edward, Derek A; Green, Christopher J S "The Saxon Shore fort and settlement at Brancaster" pp. 21–28 in Johnson (1977). Early Saxon sites are scarce close to the Norfolk coast, but a gold bracteate found near Blakeney Chapel was a rare and significant 6th-century find, and there is a somewhat later Saxon cemetery at Thornham. The Danelaw left few tangible traces within the SSSI, but place names such as Holkham ("ship town") reflect the Viking influence. Saxon building foundations were described as the ruins of "Cley Chapel" on a 1797 map, although it is more likely that they belonged to a barn.
Medieval to nineteenth century
An "eye" is an area of higher ground in the marshes, dry enough to support buildings. Cley Eye had been farmed since the earliest human habitation, and was 28 ha (70 acres) in extent in 1651, but is much reduced by coastal erosion.Brooks (2011) p. 21.Bishop (1983) pp. 130–133. The Eye and its Saxon barn were accessed by an ancient causeway, passable at low tide. A 1588 map showed "Black Joy Forte" in the same area, which may have been intended as a defence against the Spanish Armada, but was never completed. On the other side of the Glaven, Blakeney Eye had a ditched enclosure during the 11th and 12th centuries, and a building known as "Blakeney Chapel", which was occupied from the 14th century to around 1600, and again in the late 17th century. Despite its name, it is unlikely that it had a religious function. Nearly a third of the mostly 14th-to-16th-century pottery found within the larger and earlier of the two rooms was imported from the continent,Birks (2003) pp. 1–28. reflecting the Glaven ports' importance in international trade at this time.
The sheltered waters of Blakeney Haven had brought prosperity to the internationally important Glaven ports of Cley, Wiveton and Blakeney. Blakeney gained its market charter in 1222, and the three ports, along with Salthouse, were jointly required to provide three ships for Edward II in 1322,Lambert, Craig (2012) "The contributions of the Cinque Ports to the wars of Edward II and Edward III", p. 65 in Gorski (2012). having previously contributed to his father's navy in 1301. By the early 15th century, Blakeney was one of the few ports permitted to trade in horses, gold and silver, through "merchants sworn by oath to the king", which contributed to the town's growing wealth.Robinson (2006) pp. 3–5. In 1640, land reclamation schemes, especially those by Henry Calthorpe just to the west of Cley, led to the silting up of the shipping channel and relocation of the wharf,Pevsner & Wilson (2002) p. 435. and further reclamation east of the Glaven meant that all the Glaven ports declined;Labrum (1993) pp. 113–114. Cley and Wiveton silted up in the 17th century, but Blakeney had packet ships until 1840.Pevsner & Wilson (2002) pp. 394–397. Similar marsh reclamation schemes took place elsewhere, often with the same consequence for the local harbours, as for example at Holkham. Only Wells-next-the-Sea had significant trade into the late 20th century.
Twentieth century coastal defences
Artillery may have been installed at Gun Hill on the coast near Burnham Overy during the Napoleonic Wars, but there were no modern fortifications in north Norfolk at the start of World War I. Following the German naval attack on Great Yarmouth in November 1914, defences such as trenches, concrete pillboxes and gun batteries were constructed along much of the Norfolk coast. The main bases were outside the SSSI boundaries, but Thornham Marsh was used between 1914 and 1918 by the Royal Flying Corps as a bombing range. A World War I concrete building on Titchwell's west bank was let as holiday accommodation until the British Army returned in 1942; some brickwork on Titchwell Marsh is all that remains of a military hospital dating from that period.Titchwell Marsh before the RSPB. RSPB information sheet.
There were no new fortifications along this coast at the start of World War II. After the fall of France in 1940, the threat of invasion led to the creation of new defences. In addition to the installation of anti-tank and other passive obstacles, fourteen coastal batteries, each of two guns, were constructed. Some of these emplacements and other military bases fell within the SSSI area. Four spigot mortar base plates found at Holme dunes may not have originated at that site, since there is no record of such armament there.Birks (2003) p. 60. The marsh at Titchwell was reflooded, and pillboxes built into the beach bank. Between 1942 and 1945, the marsh was used by the Royal Tank Regiment; an armoured fighting vehicle gunnery range was established and banks were constructed for firing practice, with targets set at intervals. Some of the still extant islands were built to hold "pop-up" targets, operated by cables from winches in a building whose foundations now lie below a bird hide. Remains of the triangular concrete track used by the tanks also survive. Military activities continued in the area after the war, and the Royal Air Force returned to Thornham Marsh between 1950 and 1959. Bombing practice was supervised from a control tower, which was demolished in 1962, leaving only a concrete structure opposite the end of Titchwell's west bank. The remains of two World War II Covenanter tanks, probably used as targets, are sometimes exposed at low tide. The SS Vina, an 1894 cargo steamer, was anchored offshore in 1944 for use as an RAF target, but a gale dragged her to the sands off Titchwell, where the wreck can still be seen at low tide.
Brancaster beach had a base including three pillboxes, Nissen huts and two gun emplacements, and another possible base, comprising about fifty different structures, was located in a salt marsh north-east of Burnham Overy Staithe. A wreck at the west end of Scolt Head Island was used as a bombing target, and the remains of a Blenheim bomber were found at the north of the island in 2004.