The making of the heaths
The early hunter gathering people who lived here would have had little impact on the landscape - The area would have become largely wooded with open areas along the coast and in clearings created and maintained by fungi, diseases, fire and large herbivores.

Change began some 5000 years ago when the first Neolithic people moved into the coastal region of Suffolk and settled and cleared areas of the 'wildwood' for agriculture. The light soils that developed here were easy to work. However repeated cropping and exposure to rainwater leaching meant the land quickly became nutrient poor.

Few crops could survive on these acidic, free draining, low nutrient soils but as wild plants re-colonised domestic and wild grazing animals were able to exploit what food there was available. Eventually sheep farming became the dominant factor in the local system of agriculture.

Grazing prevented the regeneration of tree cover and this encouraged the growth of heathers and acid grasses which would have previously existed in woodland clearings.

Heathland vegetation cannot support intensive grazing in one place for any length of time and the flocks were moved around the heaths daily in search of food, which gave rise to their local name of 'the Sandlings Walks'. Sheep were often folded overnight on arable fields adjacent to the heath where their dung would improve the fertility of the soil and crops were grown to feed the animals.

While wool and mutton were valuable crops and labour costs were low heathland grazing was economical and continued. Other crops were also taken from the heath - heather and bracken for bedding and thatch, gorse and turf for fuel, trees for construction materials and firewood and sand and gravel for construction.

Rabbits were introduced by the Normans in 11th century and managed for meat and fur. The names North Warren, and Warren Heath reflect this practice. They became naturalised over the centuries and their large numbers helped to shape the heathland landscape.

All these activities were inter-related - trees were prevented from regenerating and nutrients were continuously exported from the heath, creating conditions in which the heathland flora and fauna could thrive and providing a living for local people. Over the centuries many plants and animals adapted to live on these open heaths, and today many species are found nowhere else. This makes these species particularly vulnerable to heathland habitat loss.

The decline of the heaths
The extent of heathland changed over the years as the fortunes of agriculture changed due to diseases like the Black Death, wars creating a demand for food, and pushes for agricultural improvement and economic down turns lead to areas going in out of production. However, the greatest losses and particularly the fragmentation of the heaths have happened during the 20th century and particularly since World War 2.

Economic and cultural changes in the early part of this century meant that the close links between people and heaths were broken as the agricultural system no longer included heathland.

With the decline in the market for wool and mutton large scale sheep grazing was no longer financially viable . By the 1920's sheep farming had largely ceased in the Sandlings along with most other heathland management. . Sheep fodder no longer needed to be grown on farmland; fuel, timber and animal bedding came from other sources and fewer people had their own grazing animals. Large areas were ploughed during and after the war as demand for food and national self-sufficiency increased and improved agricultural technologies such as agrochemicals and irrigation allowed marginal land to be cultivated. There were also strong demands for land for other uses such as forestry, building, airbases and recreation.