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Welcome to the BFER newsletter

A River Keeper’s Year: Chalk, Autumn, and Winter

by Dr John Urquhart

(Image credit: John Urquhart)

“We are, I suppose, river keepers, of sorts; my wife April, my other best friend Kerry, and me. Volunteers, it goes without saying, and largely self-taught. I lean on the writings of Simon Cooper and the knowledge of a river keeper friend in Dorset. Simon’s book is an authoritative handbook of river management woven into a charming narrative.
People we meet think of us first as fishermen, however, as we are always happy to explain, the greater part of our time on the river is spent not fishing it, but, rather, caring for it. Put simply, there would be no viable river without volunteers within organisations like our own river syndicate, The Wild Trout Trust, The Brecks: Fen Edge & Rivers Landscape Partnership, and the Lark Valley Catchment Partnership, nor without the support of the Environment Agency and Anglian Water. Much funding comes, directly or otherwise, from the Heritage Lottery Fund. We like to moan and criticise, but these are people trying their best with limited resources.
The river in question is one of the very few, perhaps only 220, chalk streams in the world, almost all of which are found in England. This one, the river Lark, has been first abused and then neglected; used as a navigation in the 19^th century, then dredged in an act of environmental vandalism in the 20^th in a completely unsuccessful attempt at flood mitigation. Dredging makes flooding worse. I’ll explain.”…

To read the full blog post, click here: A River Keeper’s Year: Chalk, Autumn, and Winter

Project 1.5 Ghost Pingo excavation

A pingo is carefully extracted under the watchful eye of professionals

In August 2023 four ghost pingos were excavated on two separate privately owned landholdings in the Brecks close to Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Thompson Common nature reserve. This follows on from the successful excavation of 10 ghost pingos on Norfolk Wildlife Trust owned Watering Farm between 2020 and 2022. The excavations were overseen by a group of experts, including from Norfolk Ponds Project, University College London and Norfolk Wildlife Trust, and included conservationists and geologists. The work builds on learnings from the previous excavations and focusses on excavating material from the ponds to re-expose sediment and seeds layers within the pingo. It is hoped that these will then germinate and could allow the pingo to quickly re-establish with a wide range of plant species. Following excavation, the restored pingos are surveyed for plants and invertebrates the following summer, and all of the learnings will be recorded in guidance at the end of the project to assist further future restorations.

Read more about the ghost pingos, and see further images on our website:
https://brecks.org/news/1-5-update-sept-2023/

Project 1.6 
Managing the Margins
Scything and Grassland Management

August and September offered a chance for individuals and groups to participate in a scything course in partnership with Norfolk Rivers Trust. The courses offered the opportunity to learn and practice traditional heritage crafts in order to restore meadows and wildflower habitats. The teaching of these time-honoured skills hold the promise of profound benefits, not only to our local communities, but also for the wildlife that shares our environment. These skills will be able to be used to create a lasting legacy of sustainable meadow management through the sharing and practice of these skills and knowledge.

Read more about this project and see further images on our website https://brecks.org/bfer/projects/restoring-the-water/1-6-managing-the-margins/

Project 4.2 
Celebrating Brecks Heritage
Viking Exhibition 360° Tour

As part of our ongoing work to ensure that our partner’s hard work is accessible to all, and continues to provide a long-lasting resource, we have teamed up with Vortex Visual Ltd. and Ancient House Museum, to create an amazing 360° tour of the Museum’s recent ‘Vikings on your Doorstep’ exhibition, which ended after a year-long run earlier this summer.

A fascinating new addition to our website, this tour allows you to walk around the exhibition from the comfort of your home (or anywhere else), and view the exhibits, artefacts, and interpretation materials, including a number of supporting seminars and documents such as the Breckland Society’s River Raiders report. Artifacts found in the Brecks, and on display were gathered from all over the country and some were loaned by the British museum. They and included high value items such as coins, gold jewellery, broaches, stirrups and swords, as well as everyday goods such as gaming pieces, pins and pottery.

This online resource means that a temporary exhibition is now accessible in perpetuity, and those who were not able to make to Ancient House Museum to see it live, including schools and students of our Viking history, can now do so at their leisure.

Click here to view the 360° Degree tour:
https://brecks.org/bfer/projects/revealing-the-rivers-connecting-with-communities/4-2-celebrating-river-heritage/ 

Events Update: Hidden History of West Stow Country Park

On a bright day in September, Bob Morgan our BFER volunteer went to the beautiful setting that is West Stow Country Park, and joined a few others to take part in a guided Hidden History walk.

Walking a distance of two and a quarter miles and over 5000 steps, Bob said that although he had done the walk around the park many times previously, there was still more that he didn’t realise was ‘hidden’ in the park and much that he learnt about especially about the Cherry Tree Lock. He was also fortunate enough to see this beautiful comma butterfly (above)  WOW!

4.5 – Volunteer & Engagement Programme

Thetford Town Council’s Craft Group is a friendly volunteer group based at The Guildhall, Thetford. The group offers opportunities for volunteers to meet weekly for a drop-in morning session of crafting, while socialising and enjoying the treats on offer in the Guildhall café. The group are currently working on a series of three textile panels for the BFER project. Using their combined skills in needlework, knitting, crochet, and other forms of craft, the group are creating river scenes to celebrate their local rivers, the Little Ouse, and the Thet. The first panel was exhibited at Thetford Library earlier this year, and the second panel (a section of which is pictured above) is nearing completion.
Stay tuned to brecks.org to find out more about the progress of this beautiful artwork and how to view it once completed.

Would you like to join the group to get involved, learn new skills, and meet new people?
Visit out Volunteer Hub to find out more.

Join a fun and welcoming community of volunteers with Run Breckland and volunteer as a marshal at their upcoming autumn events!

Run Breckland is a charitable organisation based in the Brecks, that organises community running events. Volunteer Marshals are key to helping create a welcoming feeling at each event. Tasks include assisting to set up, welcome and cheer on participants, mark routes, hand out medals, and assist with time keeping.

The American Library, Norfolk Library and Information Service, and Norfolk Museums Service are running a Collection Day in partnership with the Their Finest Hour project (organised by Oxford University). Volunteers are wanted to help at this Collection Day, which will be held at Thetford Library, Saturday 21st October 2023, and with some work that may take place following the event to digitise the items, documents and oral histories collected. Volunteer tasks will include welcoming and talking to visitors, documenting information and stories, digitising (taking photos of) World War II objects, and helping to upload the information captured onto the Their Finest Hour Online Archive. Find out more and how to get involved on our Volunteer Hub.

Do you have an event you would like us to promote on our newsletter, on our website, or across our social media pages?

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