The Devil's Punchbowl, Norfolk.
This lake is called 'The Devil's Punchbowl' and is one of several of the 'Breckland Meres' situated in Norfolk. The lake exists in a depression in the Cretaceous chalk of Southern England and is fed almost solely by groundwater. It is basically an expression of the (underground) water table where this has been intersected by the surface of the land.
As the height of the water table fluctuates throughout the year (depending on rainfall, evapotranspiration and local abstractions) so the lake fills either more or less of the depression in which it is situated. One of the results of this fluctuation is concentric rings of vegetation with differing tolerances to flooding/drought around the lake.
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a.foley@uea.ac.uk
Page last updated Feb. 2000