Heathland Origins

The ice sheets from the last Ice Age ended in a line running along the Cromer ridge. The ridge is made up of the terminal moraine of rocks, boulders, gravels and sands that had been dragged by the ice as it developed and moved south. As the Ice finally retreated, all this material was left behind.

The land that was created would have developed into tundra and gradually as the climate warmed, other plants were able to colonise. On the very porous soil of the morainic material, these plants had to be adapted to live in the dry conditions. Collectively such plants are called xerophytes and include the heathers and gorses. Sandy soils leach minerals rapidly, so another adaptation has to be the ability to survive in a low nutrient soil. This habitat is called a Heath and heaths are found wherever such sandy soils are found in Britain.

Gradually the colonising plants would stabilize the soil and when the plants died they contributed to the humus in the soil building up its fertility. This allowed other plants to colonise in a process called succession. Gradually, the Heath could become scrubbed over and then eventually develop into broad-leaved woodland. So why do we still see Heaths today?

There are 3 reasons for this:

• The first is that large grazing mammals such as the Wild Ox or Auroch, in large herds would graze and browse the developing woodland making open spaces for the heath vegetation to survive in.
• From about 6,000BC, Neolithic and later Bronze Age man with their stone and bronze axes, started to clear some of these wooded areas for agriculture. On the sandy soils of the heaths the crops planted soon exhausted the minerals and after a few years the areas were abandonded. The heath was able to regenerate.
• Heaths were kept open by people cutting the wood and grazing their animals. sometimes they used fire.
• Holt Lowes is unusual because it also contains wet areas. It is thought that these may have kept open from succession to woodland by peat digging.

The more recent history of Holt Lowes

Holt Lowes is a ‘Poors Allotment’. In 1807 the Holt and Letheringsett Enclosure Act passed through Parliament, allowing the land holdings in these two parishes to be modernised and rationalised. ‘Enclosures’ were commonplace in England in this period, and typically involved the removal of the old common rights, whereby most of the residents of the parish rights to graze animals and cut wood and turf for fuel over large areas of ‘waste’ (in other words, heathland and fen). The ‘waste’ passed into private ownership, but as compensation, the Enclosure Commissioners set aside the very worst areas, in terms of their potential for agriculture, for the use of the poor. Holt Lowes was described in the Award as an allotment for houses of the parish not exceeding £10 per annum (i.e. £10 annual rent), and was to be used by the owners and occupiers of such ancient houses for supplying each of them with common pasture for one head of ‘neat’ (cattle), or for one gelding or mare, and for taking flag, ling, brakes and furze for domestic firing. These activities were to be subject to the control of the trustees, namely the Rector, Churchwardens, Guardian of the Workhouse and Overseers of the Poor. In 1807 there were around 140 qualifying ‘poor’ in the parish of Holt.

The need of the poor of the parish for grazing and fuel declined, and by the end of the 19th century the use of the Lowes was described as ‘largely recreational’. as the traditional land-uses declined, a combination of Rabbits, fires and use by the military in both World Wars maintained the Lowes as an area of open heathland.

Holt Lowes was used by the army during both world wars and evidence of their activity can still be found. Numerous ‘slit’ trenches were dug on the heath and some are still present, a trap for the unwary if you walk through dense heather. The remains of mortar bombs are also found occasionally; most are just the tail fins – harmless bits of scrap metal – but from time to time complete mortars appear. These are extremely unlikely to explode, but may leak dangerous chemicals, so should never be handled (make a careful note of the location and contact the police).

Holt Lowes was declared an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) in 1954. The SSSI at that time was larger and included much of what is now Holt Country Park, as well as Edgefield Woods. Unfortunately, the portion in Edgefield Woods was quickly removed at the request of the Forestry Commission (who had just entered into a 999 year lease), while the section in Holt Country Park was similarly removed in 1986.

The bigger the area, the easier it is to maintain populations of wild plants and animals, which is why conservationists tend to think big. From a time when Holt Lowes was just a small part of a much larger area of heathland extending across Norfolk, it is now a small island, sandwiched between farmland and plantations of  coniferous trees, Small, isolated populations a vulnerable to local extinctions, and in the last 25 years the Lowes has lost some of its most beautiful plants, such as Lesser Butterfly Orchid and Grass of Parnassus. The long term aim is surely to re-create some of the lost areas of heath and bog in North Norfolk and re-connect the existing areas for the benefit of both wildlife and people