By Various School Children

Location: Village in the Broads

Project Title: Children’s accounts of special and favourite place in Rural East Anglia

Project Description: Children provide a combination of image and text to illustrate places which have particular meaning for them.

Collector: Drs Elsa Lee & Richard Irvine with teachers’ support

Collection Date: September 2014 to January 2015

Collection Details: Either in classroom discussions or as take home activities

3

My special place in Broads VillageB is the blackberry bush down Church Dam crossing. It is down a nice quiet road and is lovely to look over the marshes.

This bush is special to me because when I was younger, I used to go down there and would pick lots of blackberries. I would make them into pies, crumbles, biscuits, and lots more.

It has lots of spikes on it and is where lots of creatures like to live, for example a marsh spider because the blackberry bush is on the marsh and lots of flies come to eat the blackberries.

You can hear birds tweeting happily and there is a dike with two swans on it, so it is nice to hear it flow.

The smell of bitter, sweet blackberries fills your nose and tempts you to eat one. Sugary, juicy, yummy blackberries are very nice to eat and taste delicious.

You might get a prick but it is a nice place for me. I walk down there with my friend Jenny and we often pick some if they are ripe.

It is close to my house so we often scooter or bike.

The cows are often in the fields so the strong smell spreads around.

This is my favourite place that I've known from a child and has become very special indeed.

4

My special place is about halfway down Church Dam. It is a narrow drainage ditch but I like to think of it as a "stream." I often walk down there with my friend and stop to admire the swans if they are there. They only two I see come and go of their own accord. I named the pair Simon and Tracy but I don't know why. I regularly smell the sweet, molasses kind of smell that drifts over from Cantley Sugar Beet Factory. I think swans are like fairy tale characters because they stay together forever. The "stream" is a perfect scene. Long, brown reeds frame either side of the "fairy tale scene" and sway gently in the cool breeze. I most always hear swallows and starlings twittering away around me. Whenever the wind is blowing in from the sea I can taste just a hint of salty sea air on my tongue. The "stream" is perfect for me and I know I will never find a better, more wonderful place.

7

I like the woods because it makes me happy and I walk there with my Mummy and Erwin in the summer because it's warm and sunny and it's got lots of birds and steps. You can walk up them because there's another walk up the top and there's a field of cows. In the autumn there are lots of leaves and when you walk on the leaves they make a crunching sound. In the winter it is cold, icy and snowy and you have to wrap up warm and wear a coat, hat, scarf and gloves and when you walk on the ice it makes a crunching sound under your feet. The top path is icy, very slippery and the field is foggy and muddy. You can see your breath in the cold and sometimes it is wet and windy. You need to wear your welly boots and thick socks that keep you warm.

8

The park is special to me because I have my den there. There are trees covering it from the rain in the summer. After the grass is cut I get some of the remains and make a seat. I go there when it gets a bit cramped in my house.

9

My favourite place is the forest in low common. it is my favourite because even when I am with my friends I feel like I could stay there forever and it is so close to nature. Usually in the summer there are loads of daisies. And there is a gigantic hill called the 6 foot hill. I usually go there with my friend Abbie and her mum Sara. But recently friends and family from Sheffield come so I take them there. I go there to rewind and think about things. I love it there because it is all so calm and peaceful.

12

This is a picture of the river in Broads VillageB at sunset. I like going to the river to see the ducks and it cheers me up when I go there. The river is peaceful and I like feeding the ducks. Sometimes my friends and I go on a bike ride and we stop to look at the river.

Me and my Dad go fishing on the river and really enjoy it; we go at 11 o'clock and we take our lunch with us. We take ham sandwiches, a banana, a chocolate bar and a flask of tea and it tastes delicious. Sometimes I give the ducks my bread. We normally catch Perch then at about 3 o'clock we go home.

My and my mum sometimes walk my dogs Gerard and Willow along the river front. It makes me feel happy and when Gerard tries jumping in the river I laugh my head off.

The only thing I don't like about the river is when it floods the road. That is why the river is my favourite place.