General

Wreningham lies in an area known as the Claylands, which includes South Norfolk and High Suffolk. The Claylands is an official name under National Character Areas (NCAs) listed by Natural England. Their own information can be found here: ‘National Character Area 83‘.

These character profiles group together aspects of how the land appears, what it’s made from and how it’s used by both man and other creatures. In this area, we find gently rolling terrain supporting trees and crops compatible with heavy clay subsoils.

To understand its origins, we need to go back to the time of glaciers rolling over our landscape. Whilst there have been multiple glaciations over time, the last of these to impact South Norfolk is known as the ‘Anglian Ice Age’ – about 480,000 years ago. The ice flowed across the North Sea from Scandinavia and reached as far as the present River Thames. This ice sheet formed a barrier across the middle of the North Sea while a land bridge connected England and France, near Dover. This enclosed area created an enormous lake that collected water from the rivers on its east and west sides. Eventually, the land bridge broke down and the English Channel came into being; meanwhile, the Scandinavian ice retreated so the North Sea could flow in both directions.

A more recent glaciation, known as the ‘Devensian’, took place only 25,000 years ago. However, this travelled south no further than North Norfolk. Hence, The Claylands includes South Norfolk and High Suffolk but excludes North Norfolk.

Our terrain

The Anglian glacier field brought us the surface clay, sand and gravel layers we see in South Norfolk today, which sit over the original bedrock. The intervening years of weather have helped shape this into our local terrain. The resulting elevations, watercourses and local surface composition influenced when and where people first settled and set up their farms. Ground materials and trees also provided the first human occupiers with their building materials.

Wildlife

The animal and plant kingdoms are strongly impacted by the combination of geology, topography and climate. Also important is what the terrain provides in terms of water and nutrients. A symbiotic relationship duly evolves. With the arrival of people, the manner of husbanding the land also became significant.

The Norfolk Wildlife Trust recognises The Claylands as an ‘ancient landscape’

The people

People are believed to have first arrived in Britain about 900,000 years ago, but would have retreated during glaciation. After the last of the glaciers had gone, an improving climate would have led to a permanent repopulation. The Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages enabled progressively more sophisticated evolutions of tools and weapons. Grimes Graves, north of Thetford, has extensive old workings for flint extraction and tool manufacture, dating from the late stages of the Stone Age.

The Iron Age directly preceded the Roman occupation of Britain, with Rome then imposing its own laws, commerce, trade and political structures. When the Roman Empire retreated to its continental roots, it was replaced by a succession of other groups. These included the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Jutes etc; each heralding their own complex stories. Most were living off the land, with elements of trade, and occasionally becoming engaged in conflict. Between the 6^th and 9^th centuries, the present counties of Norfolk and Suffolk formed an association sometimes called the Kingdom of East Anglia. The two parts comprised the ‘north folk‘ and the ‘south folk‘. This kingdom flourished during a period in English history known as the Dark Ages – but still managed to retain some of its own history.

England became more coherent under a series of monarchs until everything suddenly changed, with the arrival of the Normans in 1066. A new order had arrived: markers were laid down – at both national and local levels – which are still observable in modern times.

Each of the above periods brought its own set of political processes, migrations, cultural shifts, religious perspectives, wars and other challenges. Whilst each impacted communities, the people’s connection with the land remained fundamental.

At local level, the manorial system – first employed by the Romans and then modified into the ‘feudal system’ by the Normans – gave patronage to lords of the manor. The present-day parish of Wreningham results from a merger of three old manors – one of which was controlled from the adjacent village of Ashwellthorpe. There had once been a church for each Wreningham manor. In each case, land ownership and usage had been at the heart of the system.

By the late Middle Ages, Norwich had become the second most important city in England. This changed with the arrival of the Industrial Revolution. The centres of law, trade and commerce remained focused on London whilst new industries were centred on locations where their mineral resources were found and exploited. East Anglia’s natural resource remained its land. With the arrival of the railways, the county sent agricultural produce across much of Britain. When the nearby Ashwellthorpe Station opened, this also became a local despatching point.

The choice of crops was always influenced by our heavy clay ground.