— 262 — 



East of Barton Broad is Catfield Feu wliere there are a 

 number of shaïlow pools which o\w their origin to fche digging 

 of peat. 



Froin Barton Broad to the junction of the Hivers An1 

 and Bure is alioul six miles, and from lliis point access mav lie 

 had to ail the other watersof the Broads Districts. 



THE DISTRICT, ITS EXTENT, PAST HISTORY, 

 AND PRESENT CONDITIONS 



The Broads District willi which the work ofthe Laboratory 

 isconcerned, comprises the valleys of five rivers, the Waveney, 

 Yâre, Bure, Thurne, and Ant, and the Broads lying therein. 

 Roughly speaking, the whole is contained within a triangle 

 bounded by Unes drawn from HappisburghtoNorwich and 

 Norwich to Lowestoft. A spécial interesl attaches to tins 

 district in thaï it lias been subjecf to very great changes in his- 

 torié- tiraes. A glanée at the map will show (bat on either side 

 of the rivers there are wide tracts of fiât alluvial marshes, extin- 

 dinff.in the neighbourghood of Yarmouth, over the whole of the 

 great triangle enclosed between the lîure and Waveney. There 

 is good évidence to show thaï tins lowlying area was, in Roman 

 limes, occupied by a vast estuary, the mouth of which was 

 guarded on the North by the Roman Fort of Caistor, and on the 

 South bv the Fort of Burgh F as (le. Prpbably another tidal 

 channel occupied the valley of the Thurne River, having its 

 mouth al the place now known as Horsey riaj», thus conver- 

 ting the land betwen Horsey and Yarmouth (known as 

 Flegg Burghs) into an island. To fhis day Horsey Gap 

 remains the weakest point in the range of sand hills which 

 protect tins stretch of low-lying coast, and bas frequently been 

 subject lo inroads by the sea. Ai Lowestofl was a third 

 opening by way of Oui ton Broad and Lake Lothing, 

 teaving the island of Lothingland between Yarmouth and 

 Lowestoft. The Southerly drifl of sand and shingle along the 

 coast. which still prevails, gradually blocked the entrances of 

 thèse estuaries, closinff those of Horsev and Lowestoft ai 

 an early date. The sand-bank upon which Yarmouth is built 

 was formeil in the middle of tlie mouth of the gréai lîure and 

 Yare Kstuary, so thaï for some time tlïere were two mouths, 

 the Northern of which was close»! in the thirteenth or fourteenlh 



