Page 161 HISTORY OF DECOYS.

HISTORY OF DECOYS ( continued ).



CHAPTER XIII.

DECOYS IN THE COUNTY OF SUFFOLK.
THIS county, at the beginning of the present century, was well stored with wildfowl. Though its chief extent consisted of well-cultivated land, still it had immense tracts of waste and marsh, that occupied nearly all the county at its NW. corner, and which extended from Newmarket, on the borders of Cambridgeshire, to the confines of Norfolk, near Thetford and Brandon; in the vicinity of which latter town was Lakenheath Fen and its Decoy. This uncultivated portion comprised, as stated by Mr. Young in his agricultural survey (1804), no less than 100,000 acres. There was also a considerable amount of low land and marsh that bordered the extensive estuaries of the Alde, Deben and Orwell rivers, and which chiefly lay between Woodbridge, Orford, and Saxmundham. In this district we find several Decoys existed, the majority of which still remain and do fairly well. Though Suffolk does not contain the broads and rivers of Norfolk, nevertheless, the estuaries of the rivers mentioned, as well as that of the Stour on its southern boundary, are so large, and penetrate so far inland, that Wildfowl are always somewhat numerous in its SE. portion. To the NE. extremity of the county, is Fritton Lake with its Decoys, and to the NW. the fens of Brandon, Lakenheath, and Mildenhall still exist, though of course much reduced in area within the past 50 years.

Decoys in use.
	Iken. Chillesford. Orwell Park.	Nacton (2). Fritton (2)

Decoys not in use.
	Meare. Lakenheath. Benacre. Friston. Brantham.	Flixton. Nyland. Worlingham. Campsey Ash.