Agricultural History Review, Volume 54 Part 1 (2006), p. 175

This book is simply riveting and should be required reading for anyone involved with the conservation of the landscape. Tom Williamson, now the acknowledged expert on this type of environmental study, writes with passion and directness, drawing together research funded variously by the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB, English Heritage and Suffolk County Council. The result is a most attractive and well-illustrated publication with appeal for both academic and general readers. Of particular note are the maps – past and present – which illustrate the receding coastline, the contraction of coastal marshes, disappearing heaths, changing settlement patterns and the planting of woodland, all dominant features of the Sandlands, an important Area of Outstanding National Beauty in overfarmed and increasingly threatened East Anglia.

What distinguishes the book is the format adopted by Williamson. Rather than follow the traditional chronological approach, he treats aspects of the countryside thematically. In this way, he is able fully to explore the distinctive character of the marshes, heaths, fields, settlements and the coast in turn. He provides the necessary chronological framework in the introduction, ‘History and the environment’, starting with a typically surefooted description of the origins and nature of the district; the section on early settlers carries unusual conviction, bringing to life a period mysterious to all but the specialist. Their farming activities, with precise detail on the destructiveness of early farm tools, lead us to consider the long term interaction – for good and evil – between man and his environment. This is the overriding theme. He reminds us that the landscape we see today is very much the creation of the period of agricultural improvement and prosperity of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when field patterns were reorganized, settlements built, plantations established and marshes drained. Williamson does not ignore the cultural and the romantic: landscapes are more than by-products of economic and social activities, they live in the imagination. But his primary aim is to look beyond the aesthetic appeal and understand the forces and influences which moulded this unique landscape.

Having set the scene, Williamson turns to his five thematic chapters. ‘The coastal wetlands’ starts with useful definitions of different types of fen and marsh, the flora and fauna associated with them, and the part they played in rural economy, providing food, salt, fuel and building materials. For centuries, man has tried to improve this valuable resource by reclaiming the salt marshes for grazing, and later by more complex drainage schemes, involving the latest technology of the nineteenth century. The task was never easy and from the earliest times required co-operation between landowners and tenants to build and maintain embankments, dykes, sluices and walls; sometimes the spirit of collaboration was not forthcoming, particularly when areas of common marsh were concerned. Williamson carefully takes us through this intricate and dramatic story, using maps, documents, archaeology and aerial photography, showing how the efforts of our forebears shaped and reshaped the wetlands. We are left marvelling at their ingenuity and determination, but despairing at the lack of sensitivity shown in more recent years. Today, only a tiny fraction of the marshes survive, with the vast majority under the plough or chemically-farmed grassland. A depressingly consistent theme emerges of wholesale destruction of fragile landscapes in the second half of the twentieth century, with conservation bodies struggling to reverse the tide.

The story of ‘The heaths’ follows a similar pattern of change and development in response to man’s needs, descending into neglect and decline in the twentieth century, but here the outlook is more promising as several initiatives start to bear fruit. Williamson’s description of the ecology and management of the heaths over the centuries helps to explain why it is a simpler task than restoring marshland. These chapters illuminate, in the most graphic and informed way, the complexities facing the conservationists and the absolute need to support their endeavours.

The two chapters on ‘Settlements, fields and boundaries’ and ‘Woods, parks and plantations’ cover the more familiar ground we associate with Williamson and his earlier books; they provide the backdrop of ‘normal’ landscape and comfortable everyday life. Drama returns in the final chapter on ‘The landscape of the coast’; this stretch boasts some of the most spectacular examples of coastal erosion in the country with towns falling over the soft cliffs, the formation of long shingle spits, the silting up of rivers and ports cut off from the sea. We are left in no doubt that the remorseless power of the sea has been, and with global warming is likely to remain, the principal influence creating the special quality and character of the Sandlands.