"Look at it this way"

Natural England has updated the National Landscape Character assessments on their website.  Wherever you are in England you are in one of these areas, which has a particular character. Each NCA represents an area of distinct and recognisable character at the national scale.  Their boundaries follow natural lines in the landscape, not county or district boundaries.  This makes them a good framework for decision-making and planning for future change.  The information contained within the NCA profiles aims to help guide land management and other activities to strengthen character and resilience, responding to pressures such as climate change. I was born in Area 38: Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire Coalfield I studied in Area 37: Yorkshire Southern Pennine Fringe I trained as a teacher in Area 41: Humber Estuary My first job was in Area 69: Trent Valley Washlands The first home I owned was in Area 76: North West Norfolk and my school was on the very edge o...

There was good news for walkers this week with the opening of a new stretch of a proposed path which will run right around the coast of Britain.  This is an area that has been out of bounds for years, as it runs through the Sandringham Estate. I lived in Snettisham for twelve years, and was often frustrated that at Wolferton the path petered out and came well inland away from the coast. It was featured in the local paper, the EDP, and also on BBC News.  I look forward to following the path this coming summer to give it a go. I've been down to Peter Scott's lighthouse many times and followed the path for part of the way, but it was always incomplete between King's Lynn and Heacham. The trail is rather remote as it leaves King's Lynn... all the way to Snettisham. You'll want the wind behind you as well...  The trail website is here.

I live a short distance away from this wonderful stretch of coast. It's now branded as the Deep History Coast. North Norfolk’s Deep History Coast is 36km of unique coastline from Cart Gap to Weybourne. The rocks beneath this coastline tell the story of the world millions of the years in the past. It’s the story of an ever changing landscape. The landscape that we see today tells us about the environment of years ago. If it wasn’t for the last ice age, some features of the north Norfolk coast wouldn’t be here at all! Our video reveals some amazing facts about this fascinating stretch of coast. Did you know West Runton beach is the richest source of fossils anywhere in the British Isles from the Pleistocene epoch between 12,000 and 2.6m years ago? And that north Norfolk has produced finds so important that there’s even a period named after Cromer – the Cromerian stage? And did you know that the Cromer Shoal Chalk Bed is a rich and diverse eco system of animals and plants that rivals ...

  Radio 4's 'Costing the Earth' series broadcast a programme on the 18th of April called 'Losing our History'. It featured the Norfolk Coast and the village of Happisburgh.  There are over 400 episodes available. A recent issue of the programme explored the impact of erosion on historical remains. For more on this, visit the Pathways to Ancient Britain (PAB) virtual tour of the area around Happisburgh. There are some particularly important archaeological sites on the coast. This is developed using Google Earth.

 New signage at Wells-next-the-Sea following a whole range of incidents this last summer...

I often post details of cliff collapses along the stretch of coastline which featured in the OCR textbooks that I wrote. This is close to Sidmouth and collapses regularly, including heading the other way to Budleigh Salterton. Last weekend saw a cliff collapse near Mundesley which is on the Norfolk coast, and was blamed on waterlogged cliff material. Some houses are now very close to the edge of the cliff and are nervous about the potential for further cliff falls. Some excellent drone footage here.

I've recently been reading Issue 7 of Ernest magazine. It's coordinated by Jo Tinsley. She has edited a fantastic magazine, and if you check the website you can also order some past issues for the same cost as the present one. All of them offer a range of photography, and articles of varying lengths which explore ideas around place. The standout elements of Issue 7 were the sections on East Anglia, with plenty of familiar places which I know very well, including Snettisham , where I lived for 12 years, and also down into Suffolk. There were explorations on the coastal marshes off Wells-next-the-Sea and also along the Blakeney area. There were also some excellent photos, and a fascinating  piece on a map of Antarctic Women, produced by Carol Devine,  which fits very well with some of the work we did on Polar regions, and in the week when the expedition led by Felicity Aston which I have been following and producing some materials for (although shamefully slowly) reache...

I've mentioned this blog before , but there have been some excellent recent additions which explore some aspects of local landscapes, and have given me some inspiration for recent writing and thinking about place. It describes itself as offering: Hidden places, secret histories and unsung geography from the east of England and beyond Follow Laurence Mitchell on Twitter too

Out to the Norfolk coast today to visit Cley16 : an annual art exhibition which takes place in the church in Cley and other nearby locations. These included a piece by Brian Korteling which is shown below, and which I really liked. It represents the view as taken from 3 different perspectives, and breaks up the lines nicely... good to see art in the landscape.

On my doorstep for 20 years, and meandered through this region many times… a real edge land … Marshland: my recent blog post on west #Norfolk 's border region on the edge of the #Fens https://t.co/BZ7wbPM6wp pic.twitter.com/piyeKDoCg0 — Laurence Mitchell (@eastofelveden) July 6, 2016

By James Rowley-Hill Here's one from earlier in the week at Morston… Morston Quay aurora Mon 15th Feb from James Rowley-Hill on Vimeo . Clouds stayed away enough for some aurora activity and with the tide in as well it made for some really nice reflections Here's some more from James on Vimeo.

Out to Cley to speak to David North of the Norfolk Wildlife Trust. He gave me a tour of the reserve, and the newly acquired land to the east: towards Salthouse. This is part of a long term plan to develop a Living Landscape. To find out more, pick up a copy of the  TERN  newsletter at any NWT reserve. We discussed the plans for the new Wildlife Trust Education Centre.

Some great images from Ian Ward of the Norfolk coast taken from the air... Particularly like this one of Wells next the Sea - coming soon to a coastal resource near you... Copyright: Ian Ward - and used here with permission...

A very useful resource for those teaching about the Norfolk Broads - a very special landscape.... Available from newsagents across East Anglia at the moment, and probably online too...

I was reminded of this excellent book by a tweet from @Landscapism It described the use of the word palimpsest to describe a landscape. It's a phrase that I use when talking about landscapes, although it's usually qualified, in the same way as Richard Mabey does, by saying that the landscape rarely starts again - elements of the past remain stubbornly and reappear.... The rains of the last few months have shown up in many areas the routes of previous watercourses and drainage which farmers tried to suppress.... One to read over Christmas perhaps...

BBC News article from a week or so ago. There were plans to put turbines onto Docking Shoal , which is close in to the North Norfolk coast, but these have been rejected because of the nesting terns nearby. There are two further wind farms which have been given permission: Race Bank and Dudgeon. Fits with Lesson 4 and 5 which focus on changes to the landscape.

As already mentioned, the Tour of Britain comes to Norfolk later in the year... Check out the movie... Tour of Britain movie - Norfolk stage Consider the choice of images and locations to represent the landscape of the places that the route passes through... Why not make your own version of the movie ?

Image by Flickr user Sami Taipale made available under Creative Commons license Image by Flickr user zaser made available under Creative Commons license There was a lot of comment locally this week and last, when BIRDS EYE announced a major decision on their sourcing of peas. (Link to the EDP article) There was a posting on the local PICKENHAM POSTS blog regarding the decision. This will not only have an impact on the landscape, but take away a lot of regular contract income for local farmers. It is also a break in history as the area has been providing peas for freezing for decades. Following a link to the BIRDS EYE website also led me to their CHANGING PLATES report. (Link leads to PDF download) This would make a good resource for those looking at cultural change in the UK and the changing importance of families sitting down around a table to eat a meal together... More on this to come...

Image Alan Parkinson Poppies are a glorious temporary part of our landcape... We have also attached additional cultural resonance to them with their association with remembrance day... What other examples of these temporary landscape aspects can you identify, or your students record ? Why not use the NORFOLK WILDLIFE TRUST 's poppy field sighting record cards (link goes to PDF download - survey was carried out originally in 2006) Poppies are the county flower of Norfolk, and there are certainly plenty in the fields around my village. North Norfolk (particularly the area around Cromer and Overstrand) is known as 'poppyland ' and there are many fields full of these flowers at the moment. The local Eastern Daily Press reported that the particularly impressive blooms of poppies that can be seen at the moment are the result of changing farming practices... Farmers growing rape in particular are keen to keep the growth of poppies to a minimum as the plants compete for the avai...

One of the chapters in the book, which is being worked on right now (available in Autumn) is on the Norfolk landscape. Here are some images I took yesterday around Ringstead.