Ant Broads and Marshes

Barton Broad is a large lake that forms part of the River Ant which gives its name to a 164-hectare (410-acre) nature reserve north-east of Norwich in Norfolk. The reserve is owned and managed by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust. It is part of the Ant Broads and Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest and National Nature Reserve, and part of it is in the Ant Marshes Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I. It is part of the Broadland Ramsar site and Special Protection Area, and The Broads Special Area of Conservation.

Ant Broads & Marshes NNR is a national nature reserve in Norfolk, England established by English Nature. It is named after the River Ant. It is part of the "Ant Broads and Marshes" Site of Special Scientific Interest and is within The Broads National Park. The NNR includes: Barton Broad and Catfield Fen, owned and managed by Norfolk Wildlife Trust Catfield Fen Reserve, owned and managed by the British Butterfly Conservation Society.The fen is the best example of unpolluted valley fen in Western Europe.

Catfield Fen is a wetland nature reserve near Ludham in the county of Norfolk, England. Butterfly Conservation owns and manages part of this reserve. Part of the Ant Broads & Marshes National Nature Reserve, the Butterfly Conservation part of the site comprises 59 acres (24 ha). The remainder is owned privately by the Catfield Hall Estate. The nature reserve was established by the conservationist landowner Keith Arundel McDougall, son of Douglas McDougall of the McDougall of Makerstoun family. Catfield Fen is well known amongst Broadland ecologists as one of the most important areas of fen in the United Kingdom. The wide variety of plant communities support many rare species. The site is especially important for invertebrates, with an internationally important aquatic beetle assemblage including many Red Data Book species. Other rare invertebrates include the swallowtail butterfly, the lesser water measurer, small dotted footman moth and Fenn's wainscot moth. Catfield Fen also has important populations of many rare plants, of particular note are the fen orchid, the round leaved wintergreen, crested buckler fern and milk parsley. The latter being the food plant of the swallowtail butterfly. Catfield Fen has appeared in local media in 2013 and 2014 due to concerns that the site may be being affected by local agricultural water abstraction. There are two abstraction licenses up for renewal in 2014 which are being considered by the Environment Agency. Site managers, local ecologist, the Broads Authority and Natural England have all raised concerns that the hydrological modelling carried out by the Environment Agency is insufficient to conclude that it will have no significant effect on the integrity of the site. For safety reasons, the nature reserve is not open to the public, but it can be viewed from the footpath at the end of Fenside Lane, Catfield. Anglian Water recently undertook a £9m project to help protect the reserve, building a pipeline that would end the need to take local water supply from a borehole in the area.

Irstead is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Barton Turf, in the North Norfolk district, in the county of Norfolk, England. The village is situated at Irstead Shoals, on the River Ant just south of Barton Broad, the second largest of the Norfolk Broads. In 1931 the parish had a population of 113.

Barton Turf is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is 20 km north-east of the city of Norwich, on the northwestern edge of Barton Broad, the second largest of the Norfolk Broads. In primary local government the area is in the district of North Norfolk.The villages name means 'Barley farm/settlement'. 'Turf' is a late 14th century addition, probably indicating that turf cutting was an important local industry. The civil parish, which includes the whole of Barton Broad and the smaller village of Irstead at its southern end, has an area of 10.86 km2. In the 2001 census it had a population of 480 in 181 households, the population decreasing to 467 at the 2011 Census.Barton Turf's St Michael and All Angels Church, Barton Turf, about a mile from the clustered village centre, has a large, ornate medieval painted rood screen such as many medieval parishes who could afford fine artisans once had, but which have rarely survived the English Reformation. The 18th-century antiquarian Antony Norris lived in Barton Turf, and is buried at the church.

Crome's Broad is situated to the east of the River Ant, north of How Hill, within The Broads National Park in Norfolk, England. It is named after John Crome, the founder of the Norwich School of painters.

How Hill House is a large Edwardian house in How Hill, an area of Ludham parish, Norfolk, England. The house overlooks the River Ant and is within the Broads National Park. The house was designed in the vernacular revival style by the English architect Edward Thomas Boardman in 1903 who intended it to be his family's country retreat. The Boardman family owned the house until 1966 before its sale to Norfolk County Council. Years later it was sold to Norwich Union who eventually gifted the house to the How Hill Trust, an environmental education charity. The house is a Grade II listed building.

Hunsett Mill is located on the east bank of the River Ant one mile north of Barton Broad in the English county of Norfolk. The Windmill is 1.2 miles south west of the town of Stalham. The mill structure is a grade II listed building.

Smallburgh Rural District was a rural district in Norfolk, England from 1894 to 1974.It was formed under the Local Government Act 1894 based on the Smallburgh rural sanitary district. Lying to the south-east of North Walsham it originally had two small areas detached from it main body. In 1935 it took in parts of Aylsham and Erpingham RDs, thus joining up into a single extent. In 1974, the district was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972, and became part of the North Norfolk district.

The Museum of the Broads is an accredited museum and registered charity in Stalham, Norfolk, England. It describes its mission as being to "bring the story of the Broads alive". The Norfolk Broads are a network of mostly navigable rivers and lakes in the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The museum covers all aspects of the Broads ranging from the landscape, industry, wildlife, people, holidays and boats and is open from Easter until the end of October every year. The Museum has an extensive collection of boats, models, marsh working tools, boat plans, paintings, books, photographs, postcards, wildlife, and social history items and memorabilia. Their Victorian steam launch ‘Falcon’, built in 1894, enables visitors to experience the Broads by water. The museum also includes the findings and equipment of ecologist Joyce Lambert, who proved in the 1950s that the lakes and landscape of the Broads were manmade. The museum first opened in Potter Heigham in 1996, and moved to its current location at the Poor's Staithe in Stalham, in 1999. The museum is supported by their Patron, Henry Cator OBE DL, managed by a board of trustees and largely staffed by volunteers. The museum attracts 8,000 plus visitors every year.

Stalham is a market town and civil parish on the River Ant in the English county of Norfolk, in East Anglia. It covers an area of 2.82 sq mi (7.3 km2) and had a population of 2,951 in 1,333 households at the 2001 census, the population increasing to 3,149 at the 2011 Census. It lies within the Norfolk Broads, about 15 miles (24 km) north-east of Norwich on the A149 road. For the purposes of local government, it falls within the district of North Norfolk. The parts of the parish lying adjacent to the river fall into the executive area of the Broads Authority. The town's name probably means, "fish pool homestead/village" but perhaps, "hemmed-in land with a fish pool". Stalham was served by a railway station until it was closed in 1959. The nearest railway station is now Worstead. Through the 1960s Stalham's economy sank from a reduction of the agricultural labour force as a result of improvements in agricultural technology. Beginning in the 1970s, though, housing developments attracted people who took up residence in Stalham but worked elsewhere. The Museum of the Broads moved to Stalham in 2000 and is situated on Stalham Staithe. It "aims to bring the history of the Broads alive for locals and visitors to Norfolk" and is open to the public throughout the summer.In 2002 Tesco built a supermarket in Stalham, with considerable controversy, with many residents fearing that it would "kill the high street". Despite this, the High Street contains a wide range of independent traders.

Catfield is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is 19.7 miles (31.7 km) south-east of Cromer, 17.3 miles (27.8 km) north-east of Norwich and 136 miles (219 km) north-east of London. The village lies 2.7 miles (4.3 km) south-south-east of the nearby town of Stalham.