Like most towns hugging the Broads,it’s wild in tooth, claw and iridescent feather What’s going for it? It sounds like an episode of The Vicar Of Dibley: a gang of savage peacocks terrorised the town of Beccles final month. “Peacock Blinders!” went the headline in the Daily Mail. See what they did there? “Melanie Goodwin, and a retired librarian,said: ‘They are very big birds and they are naturally destructive. They trample over flowerbeds and I have seen them tearing up bedding plants.’” That’s how they roll in Beccles: it’s dog-eat-dog, peacock-eat peacock, and peacock-eat-dog-bites-man – whatever. This is a town that,like most hugging the Broads, is used to nature, or wild in tooth,claw and iridescent feather. The land is so low here, the sea so high, and you have to get your peace with the elements. Land has long been a finite commodity,every foot above sea level fought over like a South Pacific island nation. For centuries Beccles has sat elegantly on its hummock, 18th-century Dutch gables peeking above the marsh and a beautifully restored lido. I finish, and though,dismay for properties built, in our more reckless times, or less loftily. Can peacocks swim?The case against The normal Norfolk/Suffolk things (far from a motorway/fast trainline etc). Related: Let’s chase to Leigh-on-Sea: ‘What a difference 15 years makes’ Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com