The Breckland Society

Join The Breckland Society.  The Brecks cover over 370 square miles of inland Norfolk and Suffolk. Click here to see a map of the area.

The Breckland Society was set up in 2003 to encourage interest and research into the natural, built and social heritage of the East Anglian Brecks. We are a membership organisation working to help protect the area and offering a range of activities to those who wish to see its special qualities preserved and enhanced.  Breckland is a unique part of Britain, traditionally characterised by huge tracts of open heathland. The word ‘breck’ was used to describe temporary fields, which were ‘broken’ from the heath and allowed to revert once the soil was exhausted. Historically this was an open, steppe-like landscape populated by sheep and rabbits, but in more recent times large scale forestry and intensive agriculture have changed the face of Breckland.  Many of the traditional human occupations, such as flint-knapping and warrening, have all but disappeared and the area’s very particular atmosphere risks being changed forever in the face of increasing developmental pressures.

“The Cold War In The Brecks” – The Breckland Society are delighted to have received a grant of almost £10,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for a project, that will run through the rest of 2019, to look at the history and impact of the Cold War on our area of Norfolk and Suffolk. It will include visits to Cold War sites, original research, interviews with those who were involved and/or affected, and educational events for those who never lived through the era.

Breckland Society Projects – As well as the Society’s busy programme of events for members and non-members, we also undertake major research and education projects.  Our current project is “The Cold War in the Brecks” – click here for further information

STOP PRESS – The Breckland Society are absolutely delighted to announce that the second stage of the bid for Lottery funding for the big follow-up to “Breaking New Ground”, the Landscape Partnership Scheme for “Brecks, Fen Edge and Rivers” (BFER), has been successful. It includes 24 projects, of which the Breckland Society will be taking the lead on two; “River Raiders” focusing on Thetford and the Vikings and “Industrious Rivers” looking at the use of the region’s rivers as arteries for trade down the centuries. More details here.

Completed Projects – The first of these, the Vernacular Architecture Project, was grant-aided by the Heritage Lottery Fund and ended on 31 March 2008. Information about this project is available here.  In March 2008 the Society was awarded a grant by English Heritage for its second project, on the historic Rabbit Warrens of the Norfolk and Suffolk Brecks. For details about this project, which ended on 31 March 2010, please click here.  The Society was also very involved in Breaking New Ground: A Heritage Landscape Partnership for The Brecks. It lead on six projects:

Flint In The Brecks
Internal Archaeology Of The Brecks Warrens
The Military History Of The Brecks, 1900-1949
Sheep In The Brecks
The Brecks Heritage Trails
Establishing The Journal of Breckland Studies

Please click here for more information on these projects.  In May 2014 the Society launched the Breckland Bat Project, click here for more information.

Visit Breckland