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England gets its first 'dark sky community' in Suffolk

A picture taken at night of two buildings and some trees against a sky with faint green northern lights and scattered clouds.Dedham Vale National Landscape Dark Skies campaign

Thorington Street has been recognised as a great place to go stargazing

A hamlet - which is a bit like a tiny village – in Suffolk has become England's first dark sky community, thanks to its low levels of light pollution.

Only six other communities in the UK have the same special status, which is given by an organisation called DarkSky International.

The award recognises it as a great place to go stargazing as, thanks to a lack of artificial light, you can get a really good look at the stars and planets in the night sky.

Thorington Street in Dedham Vale gets "some really lovely dark skies," according to astronomer Mike Barrett, adding: "The Milky Way can be seen very clearly in the late summer."

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Because of its rural location between Colchester, Ipswich, Felixstowe and Sudbury, Thorington Street doesn't get very much artificial light - for example, from traffic, factories, offices or houses.

But it still took nine years and a lot of hard work for the hamlet to get the special status.

To become an International DarkSky community, people living in an area have to work together to keep light pollution really low.

Thorington Street did this by swapping their street lights for ones that only turn on when they're needed, and ones that shine downwards instead of up into the sky.

Other communities to have this award include Orkney, Coll, and Moffatt (in Scotland), Presteigne and Gower (in Wales) and Sark (in the Channel Islands).

An old barn which has been turned into the Dark Sky Discovery Centre against a a starry night sky with vivid red northern lights.Dedham Vale National Landscape Dark Skies campaign

The Dark Sky Discovery Centre in Thorington Street pictured with the northern lights

Locals also turned a nearby old barn into a Dark Sky Discovery Centre, where people can go to stargaze and learn about constellations and planets.

Mike Barrett, who helped with the project, said: "Everybody knows about littering, looking after trees, looking after animals, but very often you forget you need to look up as well and conserve the night skies."

Dan Oakley, who works for DarkSky, said people that living in the hamlet would "undoubtedly inspire other places to follow their example".

He added: "The level of commitment to achieve dark sky status from such a small community was amazing."