Country diary: Beaver-style flood defences take root amid a hosepipe ban | Kate Blincoe
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- East Anglia has been declared the driest region in the country, prompting a hosepipe ban as hay yields come in below last year and the ground rings hard underfoot, ruling out a second cut without rain.
- December 2020 flooding overwhelmed the village's drains, turning the street into a "fast, shallow, brown river" that submerged homes despite sandbags — making it the worst Christmas on record for residents.
- Norfolk county council installed four wooden "leaky dams" or logjams along Wash Lane at a cost of more than £35,000, designed to collect debris and naturally slow the flow of water.
- The dams mimic beaver engineering: beavers fell trees to construct dams and lodges, reducing water flow and creating pools where dragonflies and amphibians can breed.
- The village itself has no beavers — though a handful released elsewhere in Norfolk have bred successfully, none live nearby.
- Surrounding fields have been proposed for a large-scale solar development that could alter rainwater runoff, a tension the author flags between climate adaptation and land-use change.
Why it matters: Norfolk's £35,000 bet on four logjams signals councils reaching for nature-based flood defences as climate extremes stack up — drought and catastrophic flooding now hit the same parish within four years. But the proposed solar farm on adjacent fields shows how land-use decisions still cut against the very rewilding logic the dams embody.
