JCA 83 South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands.
2 JCA sub-units - 1: Clay Plateau, 2: the River Valleys.
1. Settlement and Development
Iron Age and Roman settlement was extensive and grew again in the Saxon period so that by the time
of Domesday most of present villages were established and the area was one of the most densely
populated in England.
The settlement pattern is a mixture of villages, mainly in the west and the river valleys, with numerous
scattered farmsteads and hamlets set around greens displaying the process of colonisation from
woodland in the medieval period. Round-towered Saxo-Norman churches are a particular feature of the
area, displaying a tradition of flint construction which continued in later medieval churches.
The larger market towns are small in comparison with those in adjacent areas, and retain high
proportions of 15th -17th century buildings.
The area has an overall very high survival, in a national context, of pre-18th century buildings, these
being in timber frame and with colourwashed plaster walls. Flint and brick used from the later 17th
century for vernacular buildings. Important survival of clay-lump and cob walling, predominantly of 19th
century date.
High survival of moats, generally associated with high-status sites and of 12-13th century date, in this
area particularly near the Dive Valley around Eye and Hoxne.
2. Agriculture
A mixed farming economy of arable and dairying (of particular importance in High Suffolk, until eclipsed
by other areas in the 18th century) brought wealth and supported a broad spectrum of middling gentry
and yeoman farmers. This stable economy did not lend itself to the changes seen elsewhere in the 19 th
century, hence much of the countryside remains closely tied to the pre-industrial past - with numerous
small-scale holdings and owner-occupiers, and one of the country's highest concentrations of surviving
pre-1750 farm houses and barns.
The tradition of timber-framed construction is exceptionally well represented in this area. A distinctive
feature is the area’s combination barns. On the dairy farms of the South Norfolk and High Suffolk
Claylands pre-1750 barns were typically of three bays with a central threshing floor and a fourth bay
containing lofted stable or cattle accommodation. ‘Neathouses’ for housing cattle are documented and
commonly survive as smaller timber-frame structures dating from the 17th century: these are locally
distinctive and highly significant where they survive as rare examples of early cattle housing.
This is the direct result of both the need to house dairy cattle and the reduced requirement for crop
storage in these pastoral areas. Intensification of arable farming in later 18th and early 19th centuries led
to removal of internal partitioning and construction of more threshing barns.
High survival of pre-1750 farmstead buildings, particularly farmhouses (which can include cheese
rooms) but also including medieval and later aisled barns. Larger farmsteads developed as loose
courtyard complexes, and many as dispersed plan complexes, with 2 or more aisled or unaisled barns.
Granaries and stables, mostly dating from the 18th century but with some notable earlier examples.
As arable and requirement for yard-fed cattle increased from late 18th century, farmsteads were
typically redeveloped with south-facing cattle courts. New barns were rarely built as corn was commonly
stacked outside. Dispersed and loose courtyard plans are still dominant in the area.
3. Fields and boundary patterns
Beneath the pattern of medieval and post-medieval holdings it is possible to perceive a landscape of
much greater antiquity - the sinuous co-axial fields whose principal parallel boundaries continued mile
after mile irrespective of contours. Good examples remain visible to the east of Stane Street, orientated
with the Roman Road and therefore likely to be Roman or later. Elsewhere the patterns of co-axial
features are less irregular and may be of still earlier origin.
By the late 18th century barely 10% of the landscape remained as unenclosed pasture or common
arable, the majority divided into small hedged enclosures closes, averaging as little as five acres.
From the late 18th century improved drainage methods and increasing grain prices led to widespread
arable conversion across the dairy lands of High Suffolk.
The late 20th century saw further enlargement of arable fields, breaking down still further the patterns of
irregular co-axial fields in the centre of the area and long coaxial fields to the east. Some areas of the
plateau have developed a prairie-like character.
4. Trees and woodland
The area historically had an abundance of woodland, both in managed lots and hedgerows, which was
intensively utilised as building materials and fuel.
Ancient woodland is now largely confined to small patches dotted along the river valleys.
Elsewhere the wooded character is maintained by numerous standard and pollards in boundaries and
parkland, by thick hedgerows and by numerous modern plantations providing shelter and shooting
cover.
Hedgerow oaks sometimes remain even where the hedgerows have been removed.
5. Semi-natural environments
6. River and coastal features.
Pastoral farming, once the core of the area's economy, is now limited to areas such as the Waveney
Valley