Broadland

The Broads are based on alluvial deposits of peat, silt and clay laid down by repeated changes in sea level since the last ice age. What we see today are the remains of hand dug pits created during the Middle Ages as local people excavated peat for use as fuel. During the fourteenth century these diggings flooded to form what is now a unique and internationally important network of reedbeds, grazing marsh, fens, wet woodland and open water.

Typical species: heron, southern hawker dragonfly, yellow water lily, common reed, alder.

Threatened species: bittern, swallowtail butterfly, Norfolk hawker dragonfly, depressed river mussel, holly leaved naiad, marsh harrier, otter