From the Beginning

“I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.” Walt Whitman

Francis Simpson wrote “The Flora of Suffolk” and amassed a natural history collection that is now gifted to the Ipswich Museum. His collection of black and white and colour photographs and slides of flora is held by Photos Horticultural Picture Library.Perhaps his most poignant gift was the creation of The Suffolk Flora Preservation Trust, formed as a charity in 1986, to purchase an area of land to be saved as a natural habitat. Sadly, Francis’ health deteriorated while the Trust was still searching for the ideal site and he did not live to see the dream become reality. As there would be no SFPT without Francis, if you would like to know more about this remarkable man, cllick here

After much research, in August 2005, the Suffolk Flora Preservation Trust purchased 27.19 acres of land at Kelsale and named it Simpson’s Fromus Valley. This beautiful, magical valley shows the promise of return of much interesting flora and also has a medieval earthwork, , described in Norman   Scarfe's book The Suffolk Landscape as 'as formidable as Dunwich's town rampart'. The River Fromus runs through a wooded gull out into meadows. The reserve was once part of the deer park of Sir Roger Bigod, Duke of Norfolk and his successors. On a 1616 map, the land is referred to as “the late disparked park of Kelsale and Yoxford now divided into divers enclosures”.