Norfolk Wildlife Trust will spend some of the money clearing scrub and replacing it with reed-beds to provide a habitat for birds such as the rare bittern, as well as voles, orchids and rare butterflies.

The money, one of the largest awards to a wildlife trust, aims to encourage breeding among endangered species such as the bittern and marsh harrier.

The bittern, famous for its booming cry, has dwindled from an estimated 80 breeding pairs in the UK in the mid 1950s to about a dozen today.

The money is one of the largest lottery awards to a wildlife trust

It is now the UK's rarest bird and Norfolk and Suffolk are its last two remaining strongholds.

The Norfolk Wildlife Trust has already had breeding successes on Cley Marshes and the bittern's share of the Trust's grant aims to attract at least two breeding pairs by the millennium.

The marsh harrier, which almost became extinct in the 1970s, still numbers only seven pairs in Norfolk.

The birds, and animals like water voles, have suffered through the disappearance of managed reed beds and their replacement by creeping scrubland.