(bra)+Topography

The above map shows the importance of rivers in the alignment of parish boundaries.

The River Wang flows west to east across the bottom of the map separating Wangford from Uggeshall and Sotherton from Brampton. Its northern tributary stream separates Brampton from Uggeshall and then Uggeshall from Stoven.

The picture to the left is a view from the road through the small community of Uggeshall Hill, south into the fenland pastures.

The northern part of the boundary between Brampton and Stoven at the top of the map branches off along a small stream through Brampton Town Fen and gradually climbs onto the clay lands to the west of Stoven Wood to the hundred boundary.



This sketch map shows the drainage pattern between Stoven and Spexhall in relation to the hundred boundary and the eastern edge of the clay plateau. The black circles mark the positions of churches and the green areas are the main woodlands (Swd Stoven Wood; Twd Titsal Wood).

Stone Steet runs north/south along the eastern edge of the plateau at a height of about 40 metres. The line of the road separates the tributaries of the Hundred River (from the Ilketshalls, through Redisham and Shadingfield and Sotterley (S)) and the River Wang (from Westhall, through Brampton and Sotherton) from the drainage of the Northern Blyth (from Spexhall and Wissett (Wis)).

The hundred boundary more or less follows the southern branch of the Hundred River which rises in Spexhall and Redisham. The boundary is often that of the stream itself and in other places it runs parallel to it on the southern side of the valley. The northern branch of the Hundred River runs through Ellough and Willingham (W). The parish boundaries also run more or less east west along the river valleys. There terminal alignments are parallel to Stone Street and this has been taken to mean that Stone Street pre-dates the settlements on either side of it. The road is thought to be a Roman transport link between the corn growing lands of Blything and the Roman outposts of the lower Waveney Valley.

The picture on the left was taken in July 2005 and shows the dry southern tributary of the Hundred River, which forms the boundary between Shadingfield and Brampton