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 | Human influence has long been recognised as a fundamental factor in the shaping of the Brecks landscape.
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| | | | The story of human settlement
The story of human settlement in the Brecks begins 500,000 years ago, with flint tools found at Mildenhall Warren Lodge.
In this dry region, water was the most important resource and many settlements were clustered along the river valleys, around meres and along the fen-edge.
Today, signs of settlement remain from many different periods in history and pre-history. As well as the more visible remains, there is a vast amount of hidden archaeology, such as flint tools and pottery fragments.
‘Few districts in Europe have more attractions to the archaeologist than Breckland. The Palaeolithic flint implements found in its gravels and brick earths; the Neolithic flint implements scattered by the million over the surface of its heaths and arable fields; its important flint mines at Grimes Graves; its lengthy mileage of primitive track ways, its dykes, many barrows and the numerous relics of early cultures which are constantly being discovered, indicate that in most of the prehistoric period it was one of the most important centres of culture in the British Isles.’
W.G.Clarke, 1925
Discover the Brecks through the ages - click here to access the Brecks timeline
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| | | | | Further reading
Historic Brecks – Discovering the landscape of the Norfolk and Suffolk Brecks. Text by Tom Williamson. To order a copy click here
Historic places in the Brecks - to download a PDF copy click here
Other publications:
CLARKE, W.G. (1937) In Breckland Wilds. (2nd ed.) Heffer, Cambridge.
COOK, O. (1980) Breckland. (2nd ed.) Hale, London.
THE LARK VALLEY ASSOCIATION (1999) The Lark Valley, Glimpses of an area of west Suffolk – past and present. Lark Valley Association, Bury St Edmunds.
SKIPPER, K.AND WILLIAMSON, T. (1997) Thetford Forest. Making a Landscape, 1922 – 1997. Centre of East Anglian Studies, Norwich.
SUSSAMS, K. (1996) The Breckland Archaeological Survey 1994 –1996. A characterisation of the Archaeology and Historic Landscape of the Breckland Environmentally Sensitive Area. Suffolk County Council, Norfolk Museums Service, English Heritage.
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