Building a Tree Almanac ~ Griffmonsters Great Walks

View from the path access coming in from Valley Road

Building a Tree Almanac

Diary of a Suffolk Common 2025-06-06

Another wander to add data to a Tree Almanac

NOTE

This is a walk summary intended to provide the user with just the essential information in order to navigate the walk route. Fully detailed information notes, refreshment stops and walk features are not included in this. A full write up will may be included in the future.

Building a Tree Almanac - Essential Information

Walk Statistics (calculated from GPX):

Start location: Leiston
Distance: miles ( km)
Total Gain: ft ( metre)
Total Descent: ft ( metre)
Min Height: ft ( metre)
Max Height: ft ( metre)
Walk Time:
Walk Grade: Easy
Terrain: Footpath, Country Lane, Road

Maps:

The following maps and services can assist in navigating this route. There are links to printed maps and links to downloadable GPX route data for importing into navigational software and apps.

Ordnance Survey Explorer Map: OS Explorer 212 - Woodbridge & Saxmundham
GPX Route File

Route Verification Details

Date of Walk: 06/06/2025
Walk Time: 07:30:00 to 09:00:00
Walkers: Griff
Weather Conditions: sunshone giving way to rain

Walk Notes

Over the last few weeks I have been compiling a tree almanac of fruiting trees around my local area of East Suffolk. This was inspired over the previous winter when numerous hedgerows and field boundaries were severely cut back, primarily due to the local Wind Farm Cable projects and the Sizewell C construction project. It is quite amazing that post-Covid there was a general national impetus to reduce the amount of verge and hedgerow cutting to allow wildflowers and insects to thrive. This support of nature now appears to have been thrown out of the window, and, certainly locally, we are seeing verges and hedgerows being cut back on a fortnightly basis; with the general philosophy of those in charge being never mind the wildlife and wildflowers, its cut, baby, cut to paraphrase the strange ideas of a particular world leader. This full blown destruction of nature, I guess, will accelerate climate change, food production and the ultimately fate as human beings as a species. It is a very strange world we live in when those in charge hurtle us towards self destruction..

There is little I can do about political policy that is dictating this, other than to put my name down to the various petitions and protests against such goings on. Therefore in the meantime we have to carry on the best we can.

Getting back to the Almanac. Each year I brew wines from local hedgerow fruit. The results are very agreeable and in most cases preferable to a lot of shop bought wine which is filled with meta-bisulphites. With the current destruction of hedgerows, my source of fruit has been severely hampered. Therefore I have been conducting a survey of local rights-of-way, lanes and by-ways to determine the various fruiting trees in the area. This will, hopefully, provide a detailed map that I can use during the Summer and Autumn months to locate the required fruit and go forth and harvest without spending the time and effort searching for the required produce. Each local walk in the past couple of weeks has added to this compilation of data with some remarkable findings and areas to harvest that I had never before considered. Lets hope the politicians and construction companies don't their grubby hands on it before then.

Today was no different and another walk was planned with similar intention. Currently the weather is changeable, the Met Office forecast changes by the day, and even by the hour. Come the day, the forecast had indeed changed from a prediction of a dry morning to a prediction of a 70% chance of rain by 9am reducing down to 50% by midday. Therefore leaving at 7.30am gave me a brief window of opportunity to head out without getting wet. The day started with some hopeful sunshine and no sign of imminent rain that was predicted. To be certain of not get caught in a later deluge, it was considered that a walk within easy reach of home seemed appropriate.

As in many of my ramblings, my plans tend to change on the hoof, and it wasn't until heading out of town that my plans changed. On heading up to Leiston common I diverged to walk across the Aldhurst Farm So Called Nature Reserve or as it has now been rebranded, Wild Aldhurst. I use the words So Called on account that this was an EDF inspired Nature Reserve created out of arable farmland that was supposed to be a substitute for the Minsmere marshland that they aim to completely destroy and desecrate. The fact that marshland being destroyed is at the very least a thousand years old can be substituted by a few modern fields seem to pass them by, plus the fact that fields make a good substitute for marsh completely alludes them. But then EDF are not renowned on their expertise of Nature and Wildlife, their expertise is in underestimating time and budgets at which they are very good at. The rebranding of the So Called Nature Reserve is to presumably attempt more of the public to visit the area. The notice board states that this is restoring the natural Suffolk Sandlings landscape. I would beg to differ, the Sandlings landscape is the poor coastal sandy soils that are not good for agriculture and therefore are retained as heathland full of gorse and heather. Aldhurst Farm was more clay based land. I need to do a little more research to confirm this but certainly it was sticky soil underfoot when wandered through here.

It should also be noted that the area of Aldhurst Farm, back in the middle ages, was known as Wynters Heath, and was common land for use by the common local people. EDF's original proclamation when proposing this as a site for a Nature Reserve, stated that they were giving the public something back for the destruction of the marsh. This is a lame excuse when it was the commoners right to use this land in the first place, at lest up until the enclosure Acts enabled the landowners to grab it all for themselves. I presume the Wynters Heath also provided access to the Sizewell river, whose course leads from Abbey Road, through Aldhurst Farm towards the coast. This is no more than a stream these days, but probably a valuable watercourse in centuries gone by. It is interesting to note that the Theberton parish boundary originally had a tongue of land that stuck into Leiston parish and followed one side of the river, thus providing their residents access to these waters. The parish boundaries are said to date back to Saxon times and remained largely unchanged until the 20th century. The strange thing in this case is the Theberton parish occupied the southern side of the river and the Leiston parish had the north side which seems totally the wrong way round as Theberton is in the north and Leiston in the South.

I have never regularly wandered around this Nature So Called Reserve on account of the numerous fences which make it appear to be more like a zoo where you parade around looking at the lifeless scrub but not being allowed to feed or touch the exhibits. Nonetheless I bit my lip and scurried forth before the rains started.

The walk was better than expected. There are areas of spaces for nature, another name to encourage visitors. These are former sections of open farmland which is now just scrub with a lot of bramble, thistles and long grasses. The notice board lists wildlife such as the Marsh Harrier, the Common frog, Common dragonfly, Otters, Voles and Hare residing within the habitat. I saw none of these on this occasion and the birdsong was no more than Chaffinch and Chiffchaff, drowned out by the noise of the construction site for a new housing estate and the eternal drone from the Sizewell C traffic and the accompanying development site.

By the end of the walk a few spits of rain issued and it was time to return home. In the event there was no deluge and I added data to my Tree Almanac. A few photos follow from the area, it looks pleasant enough but the whole area is surrounded by the sights and sounds of development and construction, or more appropriately decimation and destruction.