Francis Russell, Reed Cutting

Norfolk reed for thatching: traditional scything on a January morning.

A timeless scene of a man harvesting with a scythe. On Hickling Broad National Nature Reserve in Norfolk, the reeds that grow on the marshes are cut over the winter months and sold to local thatchers, 1,000 bundles at a time. Now they are harvested by machine, but warden Francis Russell demonstrates the traditional way of scything the reeds and preparing the bundles, using the old words describing the craft.

Hickling Broad National Nature Reserve has been managed by Norfolk Naturalists Trust since the 1940s, one of the wildlife treasures of the Norfolk Broads known for its swallowtail butterflies, bitterns and the return of the common crane. This film was made by the East Anglian Film Archive as a record of traditional broads management.