Twixt the Alde and Ore
People of the Alde and Ore: Brundish to Sweffling; Saxstead to Blaxhall
According to Daniel Silver and Terry Clark in their book 'Scenescapes, Not Landscapes (2016)' scenes can be defined in three ways: (1) a shared activity, such as a city’s “jazz scene” or “coffee scene”; (2) features that define a neighborhood or place, such as the “SoHo scene”, a district defined by entertainment and restaurants districts; and (3) the aesthetic meaning of a place, which has to do with personal and social sense of place and place attachment according to how people activate places and assign meaning to them. All three definitions are important to people and societies who wish to transform their environment to promote an inherently stable approach to discovering 'place-based' solutions to societal challenges. In this connection it can be argued that the first event that transforms 'wilderness' into 'home' is the creation of a road infrastructure followed by the compartmentation of the land associated with it. This process of settlement defines the local 'road scene', where boundaries of roads, fields and habitations are visual elements of the scenescapes viewed from the road.
According to Daniel Silver and Terry Clark in their book 'Scenescapes, Not Landscapes (2016)' scenes can be defined in three ways: (1) a shared activity, such as a city’s “jazz scene” or “coffee scene”; (2) features that define a neighborhood or place, such as the “SoHo scene”, a district defined by entertainment and restaurants districts; and (3) the aesthetic meaning of a place, which has to do with personal and social sense of place and place attachment according to how people activate places and assign meaning to them. All three definitions are important to people and societies who wish to transform their environment to promote an inherently stable approach to discovering 'place-based' solutions to societal challenges. In this connection it can be argued that the first event that transforms 'wilderness' into 'home' is the creation of a road infrastructure followed by the compartmentation of the land associated with it. This process of settlement defines the local 'road scene', where boundaries of roads, fields and habitations are visual elements of the scenescapes viewed from the road.
Twixt the Ald and Ore is a study of the 'road scene' in a small part of Suffolk defined topographically by the watersheds these two rivers that was selected by the writer Julian Tennyson in the 1930s as having a special aesthetic quality. That is to say he valued the biodiversity of roadside views according to how good their elements of trees, shrubs and flowers are to look at. This may be contrasted with the way we now value countryside boundary elements of according to how good they are to know in terms of their species richness. The latter scientific view of biodiversity now dominates counryside management. However, pictorial values can still stand alongside species diversity as is evident in the following quote from the great survey of Suffolk's hedgerows carried out between 1998-2012.
Twixt the Ald and Ore is a study of the 'road scene' in a small part of Suffolk defined topographically by the watersheds these two rivers that was selected by the writer Julian Tennyson in the 1930s as having a special aesthetic quality. That is to say he valued the biodiversity of roadside views according to how good their elements of trees, shrubs and flowers are to look at. This may be contrasted with the way we now value countryside boundary elements of according to how good they are to know in terms of their species richness. The latter scientific view of biodiversity now dominates counryside management. However, pictorial values can still stand alongside species diversity as is evident in the following quote from the great survey of Suffolk's hedgerows carried out between 1998-2012.
"This data reflects the great scenic landscape value and health of the hedgerow network and depending upon the richness of it, so also would flourish the flora and fauna, using the hedgerows as host plants, for nesting, feeding, refuge and as corridors between habitats".
"This data reflects the great scenic landscape value and health of the hedgerow network and depending upon the richness of it, so also would flourish the flora and fauna, using the hedgerows as host plants, for nesting, feeding, refuge and as corridors between habitats".
However the emphasis of the survey was overwheimingly on species richness and cultural indicators as is evident from the foreword written by the Earl of Cranbrook, a resident of Great Glemham.
However the emphasis of the survey was overwheimingly on species richness and cultural indicators as is evident from the foreword written by the Earl of Cranbrook, a resident of Great Glemham.
"Suffolk is a largely rural county and, in our rich and varied agrarian landscape, hedges are deeply significant monuments of land use and farming practice. As field boundaries, hedges are of great antiquity. Francis Pryor’s meticulous excavations at Flag Fen in Cambridgeshire peeled back the overlying peat to reveal Bronze Age farms of rectilinear fields bounded by ditch and bank, certainly with a thorn hedge on top. Later, at Yaxley, Norman Scarfe2 has shown how the Roman road cuts obliquely, and unconformably, through a pre-existing hedged landscape. Here, the rectangular field system survives to this day, established by our Iceni predecessors who farmed this land. Rich in conservation value, ancient hedgerows support the greatest diversity of plants and animals. Species-rich hedgerows, defined as those averaging 5 or more native woody species per 30 metre length3 , are generally recognised to have been in existence before the Enclosure Acts of 1720-1840. A notable finding of this remarkable survey is that, in Suffolk, 20,179 landscape hedges (52.7% of those surveyed) comprise 8 or more woody species , and 11,940 (31.2%) others contained 5 – 7 species: a sum of 32,119 hedges (83.9%) that are probably at least three and possibly twenty centuries in age".
"Suffolk is a largely rural county and, in our rich and varied agrarian landscape, hedges are deeply significant monuments of land use and farming practice. As field boundaries, hedges are of great antiquity. Francis Pryor’s meticulous excavations at Flag Fen in Cambridgeshire peeled back the overlying peat to reveal Bronze Age farms of rectilinear fields bounded by ditch and bank, certainly with a thorn hedge on top. Later, at Yaxley, Norman Scarfe2 has shown how the Roman road cuts obliquely, and unconformably, through a pre-existing hedged landscape. Here, the rectangular field system survives to this day, established by our Iceni predecessors who farmed this land. Rich in conservation value, ancient hedgerows support the greatest diversity of plants and animals. Species-rich hedgerows, defined as those averaging 5 or more native woody species per 30 metre length3 , are generally recognised to have been in existence before the Enclosure Acts of 1720-1840. A notable finding of this remarkable survey is that, in Suffolk, 20,179 landscape hedges (52.7% of those surveyed) comprise 8 or more woody species , and 11,940 (31.2%) others contained 5 – 7 species: a sum of 32,119 hedges (83.9%) that are probably at least three and possibly twenty centuries in age".
The biodiversity of hedgrows in Tennyson country were not singled out as being particularly special.
The biodiversity of hedgrows in Tennyson country were not singled out as being particularly special.