Mignonette, wild
Ecology
Where nature & built heritage share common ground
Ecology
Landguard plays a vital role today in ecology, in safeguarding the land which makes up precious wildlife habitats and supports rare species. The 33 hectare Landguard Nature Reserve is both a designated Local Nature Reserve (LNR) and Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). For the team managing the Reserve and the visitors who take up the invitation to come to explore, appreciate and enjoy it, the focus is on caring in the present, to give nature a future.
But it is also important to realise that it has not always been so. Landguard has a rich history as an area of strategic coastal defences which guarded the land in a different way – to safeguard the Orwell estuary’s deep water channel and its military and trading outposts, routes and harbours.
A precious mosaic of coastal habitats
The underlying geology of the the Felixstowe peninsula comprises chalk overlain by London clay which is in turn overlain by deposits of crag. there is a complete sequence of shifting shingle ridges and valleys, which has been stabilised by sea defences together with a poor thin sandy topsoil that supports grassland over much of the site.
GRASS
LOWLAND ACID SOIL
SHINGLE
RARE VEGETATED RIDGES
SCRUB
BRAMBLE & HAWTHORN
BUILT
MILITARY HERITAGE
The mixed range of coastal habitats supports an astonishing range of plants and flora, fungi, resident and migratory birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, invertebrates and mammals, including bats.
Agrimony
Alexanders
Autumn Crocus
Bird’s Foot Trefoil
Black Horehound
Common Cudweed
Hare’s Foot Clover
Henbane
Coastal Vegetated Shingle
East Anglia has one of the main concentrations of vegetated shingle in the UK. Shingle is a globally restricted coastal sediment type, defined as having particles of 2-200mm in size. There are few occurrences outside north-west Europe, Japan and New Zealand.
Shingle beaches are common around the UK’s coast, but due to wave action, few are vegetated like at Landguard which has about 8.5 hectares.
Pioneer species on the seaward edge include Sea Kale (Crambe maritima), Sea Pea (Lathyrus japonicus), Babington’s orache (Atriplex glabriuscula), Sea Beet (Beta vulgaris) and Sea Campion (Silene uniflora). These withstand exposure to salt spray and some degree of burial or erosion. Sea Kale grow tap roots up to 2m long to reach the fresh water!
Look out for Camouflaged Birdlife
The shingle at Landguard provides habitat for nesting Ringed Plovers from April through to the end of September. Nationally the Ringed Plover is in decline.
The birds with their eggs and young are very well camouflaged on the shingle and, unless they are disturbed, remain so. If disturbed the selfless adult feigns a broken wing to distract predators away from its eggs or young!
Shingle areas are roped off during nesting seasons as added protection for these birds.
Natural & Man-made Shorelines
Take a walk along the seashore to spot shells, Whelk Eggs & Mermaid’s Purses (egg cases of Skate, Ray or Dogfish!).
The point structure at Landguard is a man-made rocky shore with Barnacles, Starfish & Sea Anenomes. Look out too for the Sea Slater – the marine version of a Woodlouse!
Lowland Acid Grassland
There are probably less than only 30,000 hectares of lowland acid grassland still remaining in the UK. The grassland features in Suffolk’s Sandlings and Brecks, as well as England’s New Forest, Weald, south-west coast, plus Dorset, Dungeness and the Welsh and English border hills of Powys and Shropshire.
On the southern half of Landguard Nature Reserve, the soil sits on large deposits of shingle. This gives it an acidic nature. As an area of unimproved pasture, the grassland has never been enriched with fertilisers which would encourage coarser grasses. For this reason, Landguard’s grassland has a high count of wild flower species.
Grassland Residents
Rabbits play an important part in managing the grassland at Landguard! Without their continual grazing coarser grasses could take over to the detriment of other species. Without them, the diversity in plants and wild flowers are at risk of being lost and eventually shrubs such as Bramble and Elder take over.
Look down as you walk! The unimproved pasture hosts specialist fungi too, like Dune Waxcap (exclusive to coastal habitats) and is also very important for lichens and mosses. And don’t miss the multitude of miniaturised wildflowers (eg.Early Forget-me-not, Common Storks Bill and Scarlet Pimpernel) which max out at only a few centimetres in height.
Associated Scrub
Scrub at Landguard is mainly Bramble (rubus sp.), Elder (sambucas nigra), Hawthorn (crataegus monogyna), Privet (ligustrum sp.) with some gorse and covers about 15% of the Reserve.
It is maintained to provide different habitats for different species, such as breeding habitats for resident and summer-visiting birds, and a supply of food for autumn/ winter migrants.
Reptiles, Mini-beasties & Pondlife
Landguard has an abundance of bugs and beasties, including jumping spiders, colourful butterflies and moths, such as the Red Admiral and Hummingbird Hawk Moth.
Look out for the healthy population of Common Lizards (zootoca vivipara) the top half of the Reserve, where habitats are protected from sea winds by the ‘Rifle Butts’ mounds (originally the backdrop to an 1860’s military firing range!).
And down at the pond, amongst the rare Divided Sedge and tiny pink-flowered Grass Vetchling, catch sight of water-loving critters, dragonflies and, if you’re lucky, even the rare emerald damselfly (lestes dryas).
Starfish
Anemone, beadlet
Hermit crab in a whelk shell
Jellyfish
Oyster common
Common Seal
A Haven for Wildlife
Slow-worms, smooth newts, toads, butterflies and all sorts of bats; muntjac, red foxes, weasels, hedgehogs and even the occasional badger – Landguard has so many residents and little visitors to care for.
Up to 10 species of bat have been recorded here including common and soprano and nathusius’s pipestrelles, noctules, daubertons. leislers, serotine, plus long-eared and parti-coloured bats.
And it’s not always the natural habitats which are the draw for all this amazing wildlife….
Built Military Heritage – Ready-built Wildlife Homes
Tank traps, gun emplacements, searchlight buildings, practice earthworks for trench warfare, barrack building foundations – there are so many traces of Landguard’s military history throughout the Reserve. And it’s no wonder, since the site (originally ‘Langer Park’) was first in military use in Henry VIII’s day and remained in active service beyond WWII until 1971.
Today, many of Landguard’s redundant buildings have been repurposed – often by wild creatures themselves! From concrete places for bats to roost and ready-built dens for playful foxes to basking platforms for lizards and sun-shelters for newts, frogs and toads, the built heritage on the Reserve lives on with new purpose.
1543-88
Henry VIII’s Landguard Fort
Circular moated earthwork - 2 block houses - guns from Tower of London. Rebuilt (1588) in hexagonal form.
1625-28
Square Fort & Corner Bastions
Built of earth, faced with stout wood, designed by Simon Van Cranfeld. Charles II adds brick walling around fort (1666).
1667
The Dutch ‘Invasion’
First land battle of Royal Marines. 1,500 Dutch marines under Admiral de Ruyter raid fort. Captain Darell repels the assault.
1717-33
Brick Battery & Barracks
New brick fort and 2 storey barrack range (another storey added 1733) constructed to the south-west.
1744-53
Rebuilt in Stone-dressed Brick
By the Board of Ordnance. Existing battery incorporated into 2 main faces of the pentagonal design. Haven-side battery added by 1753.
1779-83
A Significant Defended Camp
New earthworks, 2 further wing batteries with wet ditches (South & North Redoubts), plus square Redoubt to north east.
1871-80
Yellow Bricks & 7 Huge Guns
Remodeled with London bricks and gun casemate battery facing the river. Concrete parapet added to curtain walls.
1878
Submarine Mining Establishment
North-east of Fort, included test and observation rooms, plus (surviving) Ravelin Block.
1889-1918
Rapid Tech Advances
Left Battery ('disappearing' guns), Darell’s Battery, Fire Command Post erected. Main building now barracks and control hub.
1914-18
World War I
Royal Navy War Anchorage at Harwich Haven. Extensive land defences, anti-aircraft guns, and Port War Signal Station.
1939-42
Concrete Towers & More
Control and position-finding towers at Darell’s Battery, 3 searchlight and extra gun houses, shelters and stores built.
1939-45
World War II
Landguard vital to Dunkirk evacuation / Operation Overlord. Extra anti-aircraft defences. Fort is Fire Command HQ.
1945-1956
Defences on Stand-by
Defences downscaled, Landguard site and fort retained for training purposes through 1950s and into the mid-1960s.
1971
Landguard’s Military Use Ceases
Range of military relics left on site, including 4 concrete-set iron rings - final remains of Victorian practice gun battery emplacement.
1983
Bird Observatory Arrives
The Bird Observatory is set up in the disused military buildings of Right Battery, overlooking Landguard Nature Reserve.
A Showcase of Species
Take a look at the wide variety of fascinating and colour species just waiting to be discovered amidst the wonderful mosaic of habitats at Landguard Nature Reserve. Visit throughout the year and see the how the light, the weather, the plants and migratory birdlife transform Landguard’s precious landscape across the seasons.
