The Breckland meres

One of the joys of writing Tales from Iceni Territory was exploring the region off the beaten track. Following the old roads and looking for Iron Age and Roman settlements. Unsurprisingly this led me to places I'd never been and never would have visited. Often surprisingly close to places I know and routes I've driven a thousand times.

East Wretham heath is just one example. I alighted on this Breckland nature reserve because it lies adjacent to the Peddars Way and was immediately to the south of a wartime air field, now another ghost in the Norfolk landscape and an irresistible draw to me - even if this slice of history is within living memory.

The first time the dogs and I stopped at the Norfolk Wildlife Trust (NWT) reserve and strolled out across the grass closely cropped by the rabbits, we headed for a lake called Langmere, where a hide offered the opportunity to view a variety of ducks and gulls enjoying the water.

We moved on through the pines and back along a track clearly visible on aerial photos taken when the fields immediately to the north were populated with P-51 Mustang fighters rather than tractors and reels of irrigation pipe. I was captivated. The first Breckland reserve of the NWT, hidden in plain sight and free to roam.

On future trips along the A11 through 2022, the car practically steered itself to Wretham. There was only one problem, in the hot weather of the summer, Langmere was fading fast until one Autumn day it had gone completely. The drought and water extraction by agriculture had lowered the water table to such an extent that the spring lake had become autumn grassland.

Shock turned to mild surprise and resignation as I subsequently learned that this is the way of the Breckland meres. They come and go. Dependent on the seasonal rainfall feeding the underlying chalk aquifer. One month, open water populated with widgeon and shelduck. The next, an empty bowl overlooked by a redundant hide.

Two years on, this January week, thanks to generous winter rains, Boom and I could rest awhile and watch the birds, for the most part hunkered down out of the breeze at the water's edge.