NORWICH IN ITS REGIONAL SETTING 15 
was covered with grass over which large herds of red deer roamed at a 
time when the landscape was beautified by beech, Scotch pine and stunted 
oaks growing here and there, but in Saxon times it was almost a treeless 
area. ‘Towards the end of the eighteenth century the plantation of hedges 
of Scotch pine began on a small scale, followed by the planting of small 
woods in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and to-day we have 
the beginning of what may probably be one of the largest forested areas 
in England. ; 
The Good Sands Region—Stretching northwards from Breckland as far 
as the salt marshes and from the hilly country of the Greensand region of 
the west to the Morainic Ridge is an interesting piece of upland country 
having an average altitude of 200 ft. Up to the end of the seventeenth 
century this region was a most desolate tract of heathland, consisting for 
the most part of heather-clad commons with some scanty grass, and 
relieved here and there by meadows in the narrow valleys of the Babingley, 
Burn, Glaven and affluents of the Wensum. Rabbits burrowed in the 
sandy soil and sheep grazed on the poor grass, but the number of cattle 
was small, and in a few places where crops were grown the yield was 
poor ; yet underneath the poor sandy soil there was a rich ‘ marl,’ which 
paved the way for the improvements made by Townshend of Rainham 
. and Coke of Holkham. When Arthur Young witnessed the success of 
Townsend’s experiments he was so much impressed with the possibilities 
of utilising this land that he called it the Good Sands region (a term 
adopted by Prof. Roxby). The transformations brought about by the 
practice of marling the land, the introduction of new crops, the institu- 
tion of the Norfolk four-course system coupled with the new ideas of 
improving stock made this land famous in the eighteenth and nineteenth 
centuries. To-day the region still retains its title as a land of experiment, 
for during the last decade two remarkable developments have attained 
success: (1) ‘ Prairie farming’ methods for wheat cultivation by the 
Alley Bros. of Bluestone Farm, South Creake, and (2) the cultivation of 
about 2,000 acres of lucerne by Messrs. Parker and Proctor of the Castle 
Acre district. In connection with the wheat farming a subsidiary rural 
industry has developed, in which wheat is manufactured into ‘ Farmers’ 
Glory,’ !* a prepared cured food ready for the breakfast table. The 
produce of the lucerne fields is taken to the ‘ dried fodder’ factory at 
South Acre nearby, where it is dried within six hours from the time of 
cutting. 
Broadland.—Alternate submergence and elevation as the results of 
earth movements during the period 3000-1600 B.c.!* ended in the depres- 
sion of the area now occupied by the marshlands of the lower Bure— 
Yare—Waveney, and formed a shallow bay or vast estuary. The forma- 
tion of the sand spit from Caister to Gorleston, the deposits of alluvium, 
the embanking of the river of the twelfth century, and subsequent drainage 
operations have won back this land from the sea once more, and now this 
12 Since this article was written the Alley Bros. have concentrated on the 
manufacture of Farmers’ Glory, and the farm has been taken over by a new 
company called the Bluestone Farm Ltd. 
138 W. G. Clarke, Norfolk and Suffolk ; also Clement Reid, Submerged Forests. 
