Page 5 Photos, books to read and useful links

 Photos, books to read and useful links

The Wilds at dawn, June 2024


Looking East from the 'Crossroads', Winter 2024


And then in June 2024



Winter solstice December 2024

Photo taken from the south side of Church Field looking SE (129 degrees to be exact).  Is it a coincidence that the road to Waldringfield past Lumber Wood is on the same bearing (left edge of this photo)?


The scrapes filling with water (October 2025)




Follow the establishment of an oak sapling, which started life in 2025.




Books to read (source from the Woodbridge library)

The name of the village, 'Martlesham', is investigated by a local resident (click on link).

Medieval Suffolk  - Mark Bailey 2007
This book focuses on the economic and social history of Suffolk between c. 1200 and c. 1500.

An Historical Atlas of Suffolk   - David Dymond & Edward Martin 1999
This atlas is a useful summary providing both a short summary of each topic plus a map or diagram. The 1575 map shows Martlesham as Mertlesham. The Suffolk landscape was shaped by rivers, changing sea levels, geology and ice.  People and animals moved to the area and, over time, agriculture developed. Population grew; cultures came and went.  This atlas provides maps covering the ages including the Bronze and Iron Ages, the Roman period, the Anglo-Saxons and modern times.  One map indicates a late Saxon settlement nearby to Martlesham Wilds  (check S.E. Suffolk Survey Area).

A history of Suffolk  - David Dymond and Peter Northeast

Humans came to Suffolk, probably 400,000 years ago and, ever since, they have left and returned following the effects of ice ages on vegetation and animal movements. The last ice retreated some 12,000 years ago and humans came back, favouring drier sandy soils (where woodland was less dense) but also where fresh water springs were available.  Around 9,000 years ago the land between East Anglia and the continent was severed by rising sea levels.  The Neolithic period started after 5000 BC and the inhabitants were the first farmers here.

For an explanation of the archaeological periods visit the Natural England site, as the bronze Age followed and we find the remains of barrows (burial grounds).  Then came the Iron Age.
Crop marks indicating field systems from the bronze/Iron Ages can be found nearby to the Wilds, see Historic England .

The Romans arrived in England in AD 43 and their presence was felt for almost 400 years.  A villa and kiln may have been sited at Martlesham.

The Anglo-Saxons followed and were dominant for 600 years.  East Anglia was a kingdom from about 550 AD.  Christianity was introduced.  The Sutton Hoo burial dates from around 600 AD (?).

A history of the middle to late Anglo-Saxon period

The Normans famously invaded in 1066.  The Doomsday Book was compiled in 1086.


Suffolk in the Middle Ages - Norman Scarfe  
"Studies in places and place-names, the Sutton Hoo ship-burial, saints, mummies and crosses, Doomsday Book, and Chronicles of Bury Abbey". 
On page 2 (Map 1a) just south of the Wilds, is marked a vanished Priests-tun (Prestetun in the Doomsday Book), which is an area of farmed land.  (Research folio 424b to check). 

An introduction to Anglo-Saxon England - Peter Hunter Blair 1977

Suffolk Estuary: The story of the river Deben -  Arnott W.G.
This book is in the "Seckford Collection" (6/73) in Woodbridge library and can be read there, or reserved from another library.

Sutton Hoo and its landscape - Tom Williamson 2008
This book explores the landscape to try to explain why the burial at Sutton Hoo is where it is.  Just across the Deben, Martlesham Wilds has similar soils and geography; people needed fresh water and easily cultivated land, plus grazing, in order to settle successfully.  The Newport 2 soils overlying crag offered the right conditions; the current dwellings at Martlesham Wilds are still on that boundary layer of geology between the London clay and the glacial sandy gravels.

The Deben River.  An Enchanted Waterway - Robert Simper 1992
A useful history of the Deben.  Bantam Dock is shown on a map; this was a post-medieval landing point and was used for farm trade until 1914.  View on Suffolk Heritage Explorer Remnants remain. 

The Suffolk Estuaries - 1988

Suffolk's Changing Countryside - 1995
 

Useful links

Local weather data records          https://www.codingforcodgers.co.uk/

Natural England                             https://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/ 

Heartwood                                    https://www.hnhs.org/heartwood-project/heartwood-long-term-monitoring-plots

Knepp                                            https://knepp.co.uk/rewilding/

Soil Association                            https://www.foodforlife.org.uk/skills/farming/soils

British Society for Soil Science  https://soils.org.uk/education/educational-materials/

Forest Research                           https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/research/lowland-native-woodlands/new-native-woodlands/

Earthworm Society                        https://www.earthwormsoc.org.uk/

Soil information                            https://www.landis.org.uk/soilsguide/mapunit.cfm?mu=55105

Countryside Survey                        https://www.ceh.ac.uk/our-science/projects/cs-reports

AHDB                                            https://ahdb.org.uk/knowledge-library/water-and-soils

                                                        https://ahdb.org.uk/greatsoils

                                                        https://ahdb.org.uk/knowledge-library/tests-and-indicators-of-soil-health





 



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