Land Management surrounding Bildeston

The land is the heart of Nedging Hall Estate – we want to care for it for generations to come. You might have noticed the land just outside Bildeston towards Hadleigh has a number of pools of water. Work has been done to the land; creating a number of scrapes.

Scrapes are shallow ponds, less than 1m in depth, which hold rain or flood water but stay damp for most of the year. Shallow with gently sloping edges, you can see them in fields all over the UK but most often on farmland, where they create obvious water features.

They make a significant difference to wildlife, especially in agricultural areas and are often created in areas of damp or floodplain grassland. They’re key because they allow excess surface water to drain from agricultural land and roads in a controlled way.

What lives in scrapes?

Ditches and scrapes support a lot of wildlife, particularly wetland plants and insects such as water beetles, dragonflies and hoverflies. Scrapes can be valuable for wading birds, amphibians and small mammals. Many plants provide valuable food for wildlife but these damp places also contribute to wildflower-rich grassland.

Research has shown that wet features can provide very important feeding areas for breeding wading birds such as lapwings and redshanks, and their chicks, which find lots of invertebrate food in and around the wet muddy edges.

Why do we need ditches and scrapes?

Ditches and scrapes can be easily built into land management plans and farming practices to support local wildlife. Farmers are now adding grassy strips on either side of their drainage channels, to enable wildlife to move about freely.

Nedging Hall Estate creates long term plans with their land including wetlands, woodlands and farmland. We have a programme to look after all the land. It is carefully managed (but not over managed, which is important) to ensure that it provides the best habitat for the broadest range of species.