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HISTORY OF V>¥.COyS— {con fimied). 



CHAPTER XIII. 

 Decoys in the County of Suffolk. 



This county, at the beginning of the present century, was well stored 

 with wildfowl. Though its chief extent consisted of well-cultivated land, 

 still it had immense tracts of waste and marsh, that occupied nearly all the 

 county at its NW. corner, and which extended from Newmarket, on the 

 borders of Cambridgeshire, to the confines of Norfolk, near Thetford and 

 Brandon ; in the vicinity of which latter town was Lakenheath Fen and its 

 Decoy. This uncultivated portion comprised, as stated by Mr. Young in 

 his agricultural survey (1804), "o less than ioc,ooo acres. There was also 

 a considerable amount of low land and marsh that bordered the extensive 

 estuaries of the Aide, Deben and Orwell rivers, and which chiefly lay 

 between Woodbridge, Orford, and Saxmundham. 



In this district we find several Decoys existed, the majority of which 

 still remain and do fairly well. 



Though Suffolk does not contain the broads and rivers of Norfolk, 

 nevertheless, the estuaries of the rivers mentioned, as well as that of the 

 Stour on its southern boundary, are so large, and penetrate so far inland, 

 that Wildfowl are always somewhat numerous in its SE. portion. To the 

 NE. extremity of the county, is Fritton Lake with its Decoys, and to the 

 NW. the fens of Brandon, Lakenheath, and Mildenhall still exist, though 

 of course much reduced in area within the past 50 years. 



Decoys in 7ise. 



Iken 



Chillesford 

 Orwell Park 



N acton (2) 

 Fritton (2) 



Decoys not in use. 

 Lakenheath ^ Flixton 



Benacre Worlingham 



Friston Campsey Ash 



Brantham i 



