Google Street View Trusted Virtual Tour, Suffolk

The Suffolk Wildlife Trust commissioned ambientLight to create Google virtual tours of their flagship reserves, one of which is Redgrave and Lopham Fen.

Redgrave & Lopham Fen is the largest remaining river valley fen in England and the source of the River Waveney.

As one of the most important wetlands in Europe, Redgrave and Lopham Fen now has international protection. As well as open fen the reserve includes a mixture of wet heathland, open water, scrub and woodland. The underlying acid and alkaline geology have resulted in characteristic wildlife including many species now rare in Britain.

Historically local people dug peat for fuel, harvested reed and sedge for thatching and grazed the drier margins with cattle. With the demise of these activities, together with post-war drainage and water abstraction, the fen began to dry out and degrade.

The Trust’s restoration project has included the reinstatement of traditional management, grazing with a herd of resilient Polish Konik ponies, beef cattle and Hebridean sheep, peat scraping to expose fresh wet peat and the re-siting of a public water abstraction borehole. This has resulted in re-hydration of the fen and the gradual return of its wonderful wildlife. Already wetland species such as butterwort, marsh fragrant orchid and cross-leaved heath have made a comeback as have breeding snipe.

Project Details