A Project With Broad Appeal

Lafarge leave a positive legacy for people and for wildlife at Whitlingham

Many people may not associate quarrying with protecting the environment, creating leisure amenities and building wildlife habitat, but that is exactly what has happened at a former sand and gravel quarry barely three miles from Norwich city centre. Award-winning restoration work at Whitlingham proves that mineral extraction can provide a positive, lasting legacy, both in the local construction projects it has supported and in the ultimate end use of the quarried land.

Lafarge Aggregates’ operations at Whitlingham started 20 years ago with progressive restoration taking place as each phase of mineral excavation was completed. Last year the final piece of restoration to transform the quarry into a country park and nature reserve was achieved with the creation and completion of Thorpe Marsh, an area dedicated entirely to conservation.

Now, with operations concluded, Lafarge’s legacy at Whitlingham is a country park extending to more than 280 acres and featuring the first man-made ‘broads’ in more than 100 years. It is a prime example of how responsible mineral extraction and well-managed and sensitive restoration can provide a popular public amenity while also protecting wildlife. Indeed, it was Lafarge’s long heritage of restoration and site management which helped secure the excavation contract in the first place.

Stuart Anderson, senior planning and estates manager with Lafarge Aggregates & Concrete UK (A&C UK), has been involved with the Whitlingham project for more than 20 years and has seen the site evolve from its early excavations to the planning of the final departure from site – scheduled to be sometime this autumn.

‘As a company, Lafarge are proud of their restoration pedigree,’ said Mr Anderson. ‘We have a reputation for quality quarry restoration spanning four decades and it was this reputation which ensured A&C UK won the tender in 1989 to dig at Whitlingham.

‘Initial works began in 1990 and we quickly established a partnership with the landowners, The Whitlingham Charitable Trust, the mineral planning authority, Norfolk County Council, and the Broads Authority who would go on to manage the country park.

‘We were very aware of the need to manage the site sensitively from the outset and our first concern was to ensure that the processing plant was as inconspicuous as possible. We excavated soil so the plant could be sited into the valley side and then constructed an environmental amenity soil bund on the lower level and created a living ‘willow wall’ so that plant and machinery could operate with minimal visual and noise impacts.’

Millions of tonnes of material were extracted and processed during the site’s 20-year operational history, much of it going into the production of concrete for local construction projects, such as the Norwich southern by-pass, Castle Mall Shopping Centre, Norwich Hospital and the Millennium Library.

The first phases of extraction took place between 1994 and 1996 with 400,000 tonnes of sand and gravel excavated following the removal of the peat overburden and dewatering by electrically powered pumps.

Around 300,000m3 of peat and soils were removed to uncover the mineral, with two-thirds of the overburden material then replaced to create the shallow end of Little Broad, an area earmarked for nature conservation. The rest was placed around the edges of the excavation to create the broad’s shoreline.

A special deep-water area was constructed and lined with sand specifically for scuba diving training and the shallow eastern slopes were covered with sand to create a suitable surface for water-based training activities, such as sailing, canoeing and windsurfing.

Little Broad, a 4ha lake, was the first to be handed back to landowners The Whitlingham Charitable Trust – an organization set up to manage and conserve the park for the benefit of the local community – in 1997. This area was the subject of a Quarry Products Association Restoration Award.

The park itself has a long and interesting history with kings, monks, generals and wealthy businessmen all linked to the landscape. The site features the ruin of a monk’s manor house, old lime kilns, ancient chalk workings and evidence of Palaeolithic and Neolithic flint-knapping. A tooth from a mastodon has also been discovered.

Close to Little Broad, standing at the end of a grand avenue of lime trees, are the ruins of Trowse Newton Hall. Built in 1306, this was once the county retreat for the Priors of Norwich, leaders of the Benedictine monks at Norwich Cathedral.

A place of theological significance, the hall also played host to important regal guests. In 1385 King Edward III and his queen, Philippa, arrived in style at the hall, in a flotilla of decorated rowing boats. But this, it seems, may have been the pinnacle of the hall’s celebrity. After the reformation it passed to the Deans of the cathedral and was later rented out as a tenant farm.

In 1766 the hall was ransacked during the Norwich food riots, and when the wider estate passed into the hands of the Money family its fate was sealed. In 1784 John Money (later General Money) built himself a new house on the site he called Crown Point, a name he chose following his involvement in the taking of Crown Point in America.

Eighty years later a successor reduced the hall to a picturesque ruin, planting the lime avenue seen today, and just a few years after this, in 1872, the estate was purchased by local businessman J.J. Colman of Colman’s English mustard fame. He opened a factory and, in true Victorian philanthropic style, built new houses, a school, chapel and home for the elderly, to benefit the employees at his Carrow works.

Although the Colman family no longer live on the estate they are still very much involved with Whitlingham. It was Sir Timothy Coleman who had a vision for a country park and gifted an area of the estate to achieve this. He remains a trustee of The Whitlingham Charitable Trust, as does his son James.

With a keen interest in wildlife and nature, Sir Timothy is also a high-profile patron of the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, a close partner in the restoration project. The Trust took over the final piece of the Whitlingham restoration jigsaw, Thorpe Broad, this spring.
Located north of the river Yare, Thorpe Marsh, as the area was previously called, was worked between 2005 and 2009 with the extraction of 550,000 tonnes of sand and gravel. Relatively isolated with poor highway access, Thorpe Marsh posed a particular logistical problem for the transport of material from the dig face to the processing plant on the other side of the river.

Three options were considered: a conveyor across the river; barges ferrying to and fro; and the  use of water power to pump the sand and gravel through a pipe beneath the riverbed. The pumping solution was eventually chosen as a unique way to transfer material from the extraction area with minimum intrusion to the landscape or disturbance to river users.

This environmentally friendly method was a first for the UK and testament to Lafarge’s commitment to sustainable operations. A quiet, dust-free and low-energy solution, the scheme involved the use of a gravel pump and a dewatering wheel.

Excavated material was placed into a hopper and screened on the Thorpe side of the river. Any large flints were removed at this point and water was added to make the material wet enough to be pumped through the pipes under the riverbed. Once on the other side, the sand and gravel mix was dewatered using a dewatering wheel before being deposited on a 1.3km field conveyor for delivery to the processing plant.

Restoration works at Thorpe Marsh were completed last year and comprise a large lake with two smaller shallow ponds. The main lake was constructed in phases and has an initial 5–10m width of shallows with around 30–40m of slightly deeper water surrounding a deeper core. On the southern shore small bays and promontories were also created.

The shallow ponds to the north were designed and constructed to provide a water depth of up to 1.25m and are surrounded by seasonally wet grassland to offer a marginal area suitable for small mammals, reptiles, birds and insects.

Bays and promontories with varied slopes have been formed around the pond edges to create habitat attractive to diverse aquatic plants, amphibians and reptiles. Reeds were planted in the shallows but otherwise the ponds were left to colonize naturally with sedges, rushes and reeds, together with marginal plants such as iris, loosestrife and water crowfoot.

A bird hide overlooks the ponds and is accessed by a permissive footpath on the northern boundary of the site. At the suggestion of local people, a viewing platform made of gravel was constructed on the western side of the lake and an additional bird hide was erected, between the river and the lake, so wildlife enthusiasts could enjoy the abundance of species.

Birds such as warblers, snipe, marsh harrier, bittern, tufted duck and shoveler are all expected to make Thorpe Broad their home. Already, the longer-established Great and Little Broad have legions of birds flocking to their waters with birdwatchers entranced by the sight of breeding migrants and overwintering waterfowl.

The freezing spell during winter 2009/10 saw the arrival of a number rarities, which made Whitlingham one of the best places in the country for birdwatchers. Huge numbers of ducks gathered on Great Broad, gradually being squeezed into an ever smaller area of open water as the covering of ice spread outwards from the edges of the broad. Among them were birds usually confined to northern coastal locations, including a great northern diver, goosanders, a smew, ring-necked duck and all of the European grebes.

This year too, Great Broad, which was handed back to the Trust in 2007, attracted hundreds of migrants, including tufted duck and gadwall, while on Little Broad two male red-crested pochard took up residence for several weeks, delighting visitors with their striking plumage of fluffy rufus-orange head, light brown back and snowy-white flanks. A red-breasted goose with its distinctive tri-coloured plumage of red, white and black also paid a visit.

However, enjoyment of the park would not be possible without suitable access ways, routes and paths. One important task carried out by Lafarge has been the reconstruction of the historic Whitlingham Lane, a main thoroughfare into the park. This had deteriorated considerably under the increasing amount of traffic.

Conscious of its poor condition, Lafarge invested around £300,000 to bring the lane up to a standard suitable for Norfolk County Council to adopt as a public highway. During the upgrading, Lafarge maximized recycling opportunities by breaking up and crushing the existing surface and mixing it with new material to form a fresh, strong and stable top layer.

The road’s new status as an adopted highway means that speeding and parking regulations apply and enforcement action can now be taken against infringements. Further access improvements are also being undertaken by Lafarge, including the creation of an additional coach and car park. Previously, no coach parking existed, so when groups from schools, day centres and clubs arrived by bus they would often have to park on Whitlingham Lane, causing an obstruction and safety hazard.

These works will be the last physical tasks carried out by Lafarge on a site which the company has helped to shape over the last 20 years. Throughout this time, Stuart Anderson watched proudly as the extraction areas were transformed into public amenities and wildlife habitats.

He said: ‘The park now attracts hundreds of thousands of people each year. All sorts of water activities take place, from sailing to windsurfing to canoeing. Scuba diving is provided for and a 1,500m long rowing course can be accommodated. Families come to the popular picnic meadow and can enjoy a myriad of scenic walks.

‘As well as the leisure facilities, we have also managed to create quite diverse wildlife habitats. There are flourishing wildflower meadows at Whitlingham, renewed and enhanced woodland, wet grassland and islands, all benefiting wildlife and contributing to biodiversity. We have deep-water areas, shallows and reed beds offering rich habitat for all kinds of creatures.

‘Evidence of otters is regularly found and you can sometimes catch a glimpse of a water vole. Other residents include rabbits, stoats and hedgehogs, as well as bats, numerous species of butterflies, moths, dragonflies and even rare longhorn beetles. And of course, the park provides a home and seasonal sanctuary for countless species of birds,’ continued Mr Anderson.

‘The restoration has been an enormous success, so much so that the site has won numerous environmental awards. The fact is, without Lafarge’s extraction works and subsequent restoration, the area would not have such a wide range of habitats or the extensive leisure facilities. Left in its original state as fields, grassland and marsh, the site would have provided some habitats, of course, but nothing as varied and wide-ranging as those which have been progressively developed.

‘Lafarge have been able to extract the important mineral from beneath the ground, to be used in many local construction projects, and restore the site to beneficial use. The park is now visited by far more people than would otherwise have come to the site and they can enjoy the new broads, the range of precious habitats and the wonderful wildlife.

‘I have been involved with this park for 20 years and it has been a very exciting project. Credit has to be given to all our partners who have helped make this restoration the success that it is. It is lovely now to wander round Whitlingham and see so many people enjoying the water, the countryside and the wildlife. It is a very special place.