Oct 11 - To The Power of Norman
The windpump, known as Norman’s Mill, was relocated to Wicken Fen in the 1950’s
Coming back from a long weekend’s birding on the North Norfolk coast we decided to break our journey at Wicken Fen – a National Trust property that preserves the only section of the Great Fen that has never yet been ploughed. It’s an amazing expanse of reeds and sedge trimmed by emerging woodland and dykes. We’d visited in the spring and had been delighted to see all manner of summer migrants (including cuckoos) and breeding lapwings wheeling joyfully and calling our their vernacular name – ‘peewit, peewit, peewit’.
To be honest there weren’t a lot of birds around. Distant views of hunting peregrines and kestrels and a large flock of redwings fresh in for the winter from Scandanavia on a north wind were probably the highlight in terms of birds. That said, it was great to watch the hunting dragonflies and wild honey bees busying themselves in a new hive they had established in a deep fissure in an ancient willow.
I was most taken though by a volunteer preparing a wind pump for action. As the wind freshened we watched him stretching out and securing green curtains of canvass to two of the four vanes. It was a lengthy process that gathered quite a crowd who were delighted once the fastening ropes were firmly in place and the sails of the only working wooden windpump in the Fens began to whirl and water began to move.
“This windpump, known as Norman’s Mill, was relocated here in the 1950’s,” our volunteer Peter explained, “but it no longer drains the fen, it’s all about getting water onto the fen these days as Wicken is gradually drying out. As you probably know Wicken has been heavily studied by students at Cambridge University for decades and many plants and animals have disappeared or are in the process of doing so. In particular the swallowtail butterfly no longer flies here as its food plant, the milk parsley has become very scarce – mostly because of reduced water levels.
“Norman’s Mill has been doing it’s best but nowadays we don’t get any of the alkali flood water off the Newmarket chalk ridge so we’re fighting acidity too. That’s where our new pump is going to make all the difference.” Peter pointed to another, modern wind pump just across the fen. “Very soon that windmill will be pumping water out onto Wicken from a chalk stream and it could make all the difference. Seeds from historic plant life will be regenerated and once the plants are back the insects, maybe even swallowtails, will follow and Wicken’s whole web of life could be restored.”
How wonderful is that I thought, and all thanks to the power of Norman (and his human helpers of course) to do what he could even when it wasn’t really enough. Norman held the fort until re-inforcements appeared – a lesson perhaps for all of us as we deal with issues and difficulties that often seem to be overwhelming us.