20 Years of the ASSOCIATION

Spring 2010 NEWSLETTER

No: 40 RIVER DEBEN ASSOCIATION OFFICERS AND COMMITTEE March 2010

Chairman Ed Stanford, 21 Road, Woodbridge IP12 4BS 01394 386362 [email protected]

Vice Chairman Robert Simper, Plum Tree Hall, , Woodbridge IP12 3AD and History 01394 411273 [email protected]

Treasurer Chris Brown, 4 June Avenue, Ipswich. IP1 4LT 01473 259674 [email protected]

Secretary Wendy Brown, 4 June Avenue, Ipswich. IP1 4LT 01473 259674 [email protected]

Newsletter David Bucknell, 6 Ferry Road, Quay, Woodbridge, IP12 3AX Editor 07803 612 059 [email protected]

Felixstowe Leigh Belcham 45A Western Avenue, , IP11 9SL Ferry 01394 285674 [email protected]

Rowing Paul Lacey, 4 The Granary, Tidemill Way, Woodbridge IP12 1BY 01394 386481 [email protected]

Wildfowlers Adrian Judge, 29 Street, Woodbridge IP12 4NH 01394 383350 [email protected]

Denzil Cowdry, The Mews House, 105 New Street, Woodbridge. IP12 1DZ 01394 383625 [email protected]

Simon Read, Barge Jacoba, Robertson’s Boat Yard, Lime Kiln Quay, Woodbridge IP12 1BD 01394 384060 [email protected]

Anne Moore, 2 Road, Woodbridge IP12 4HG 01394 383559

Neil Winship, Sandcliff, School Road, , Woodbridge IP12 4QR 01473 736423 [email protected]

Peter Clay, (Associate member) 83 Ipswich Road, Woodbridge IP 01394384374 [email protected] EDITORIAL to realise that there are natural For many years the processes that we do not fully Newsletter dropped understand and cannot control. Some through my door. I of the cycles we are dealing with read it, enjoyed it occur over a hundred or more years. and thought We tend to look at issues in the ‘There are some present without the historical context - good people protecting the interests a ‘pinprick’ in time. of the River Deben. I can leave it to them.’ Then I saw Ed’s appeal for an How we respond to the current threat Editor and thought now is the time to of global warming, coastal and river make a contribution - so here goes! bank erosion, pressures on the river resulting from new housing Anyone who has been involved with development in the area, is going to an association like the RDA will be very important. There will be appreciate what has been achieved infinite points of view and vested over the 20 years. The RDA has a interests and these will be the content large, subscription based, of the debate about the future of the membership, a Newsletter in its 40th River Deben. It will be important to edition and a website. The RDA has learn more about the issues and their been involved in many campaigns dynamics and to understand the and has lobbied effectively over the problems and difficulties faced by the years. This has mainly been the work agencies who represent us. At the of a small group of active committee same time we should hold them to members, and in particular past and account. We need a dialogue that present Chairman; some of whom progresses beyond jargon and have once again contributed to this buzzwords and moves from positional Newsletter. statements to a consensus. We need debate and discussion and the We are entering a period in which RDA can play an important role in this fresh challenges will mean that the process. role of the RDA is as important as it has been over the last 20 years. The Deben Estuary Partnership Since the war we have not had to face (DEP) has been set up to consider major external threats. The and act on some of these issues. It is catastrophe of the 1953 floods is in recognition of the RDA as a source etched on the memories of those who of knowledge and sound advice that it endured them. We have grown has two representatives on the DEP. accustomed to being in ‘control’ of However, in order to maintain this everything or at least the illusion of status the RDA needs to strive to control. However, we are beginning reflect the views of you the members,

1 who care about the river but do not have a statutory role. The RDA But an Editor without copy is’...up the Newsletter can be a vehicle for Deben without a paddle.’ So I hope reflecting your views together with you will not wait ten years, as I did, to debate and discussion. As Leigh become an active contributor. Belcham has said we hope to develop communication through email and the David Bucknell website with the aim of making the RDA more ‘interactive’ with the David Bucknell first sailed to the membership. Deben from Kent in 1994 when he was told by Ron ‘It isn’t all mud up In this edition of the Newsletter Ed there, there are some golden sandy and Leigh take us into the next period beaches.’ Since then he has spent of the RDA and Denzil Cowdry looks most of his time in the Airman’s back over his time as Chairman and Married Quarters at Bawdsey Quay gives us his thoughts on future enjoying the Deben. He was formally issues. Simon Read’s article a university lecturer and is involved in highlights some of the issues that the conservation of a harbour in underpin the debate around coastal Cornwall. He swims, sails walks, defence. Robert Simper provides a rows, kayaks and motors on the reference guide to the walls of the Deben and keeps it up throughout the Deben and their historical year (not the swimming – hopefully!) importance. John White’s piece about Ellen continues the series on Boats of the Deben and connects us with the craft skills and traditions of those who livelihoods depended on the river and whose knowledge is so relevant today. News from the Hard updates us on some recent developments and we have a light hearted look at litter picking in the Caribbean continuing the traditions of the RDA worldwide.

As in previous Newsletters the contributions cover a range of topics, interests and styles. They help us to explore the many facets of the river and thus enrich our understanding and enjoyment of the River Deben.

2 CHAIRMAN’S REPORT wade through this bureaucratic You will see from treacle. I have concerns beyond the elsewhere in this river banks, in particular the newsletter that appearance of the riverside volunteers have especially the Woodbridge come forward to take riverside. One of the sights of over from me: Leigh is that of Woodbridge Belsham as from Sutton Hoo. At the Chairman and David moment Whisstocks is a Bucknell as Editor of continuing eyesore and the the Newsletter. I am very grateful to Trustees of the Tide Mill are facing both of them and I am sure that the their own bureaucratic treacle. Fred RDA will be in good hands over the Reynolds of the Trustees tells me that next few years. Assuming that their even with the most favourable appointments are approved at the progress through the National Lottery AGM in April I shall formally resign as application process it is highly unlikely Chairman although I will still remain that any restoration work could begin on the Committee. You may feel that until June 2011. In the meantime the we have gone through a relatively Mill continues to deteriorate as quiet period, for instance there was evidenced by the water wheel coming no Maritime Woodbridge this year, but off its axle quite recently. a lot of work has been going on If you are interested in the preparing for the future. The Deben position go to the internet Estuary Partnership has held www.woodbridgetidemiII.org.uk. numerous committee and working The Tide Mill is part of the most party meetings and has had meetings attractive view of Woodbridge as I've with representatives from Suffolk said but there are other challenges. Coastal, the Environment Agency. Members may have seen the steel and Natural England. For better or work going up for the new rowing club worse (usually the latter) the task of premises. At the risk of annoying repairing the river walls has become some members i'll have to say that less simple than I thought. Any work the industrial type building being may require a Planning Consent. an erected may be just what the club Environmental Impact Assessment, requires but it cannot be said to Land Drainage Consent, or a Flood enhance the quality of the riverside. I Risk Assessment. All these take time understand that there has been and require forms to be filled in and discussion about the rebuilding of appropriate fees paid. In some cases Eversons. No doubt this is long external consultants may be required overdue since the existing buildings for an EIA or an FRA. We should all are neither waterproof nor draught be very grateful to the various proof; but it would be nice to learn that landowners for their willingness to any new building would enhance the riverside. 3 These sorts of issues will, I hope. DEP (but do things which they involve many members of the RDA cannot) and we have a sufficient more closely. One of Leigh Belsham's cushion of funds to enable us to plans is to record the e-mail undertake small studies or works. As addresses of as many members as I've said before (and will undoubtedly possible so that when planning issues say again!) the Sutton Shore Project arise we can canvass your views and shows what can be done with limited then submit a more broadly based funds and a strong commitment. This representation. I can't emphasise commitment is demonstrated not just enough that planning matters should by paying your RDA subscription but not be left to the committee for by expressing your opinion on all and a response, after all the strength of any proposal which affects the river. I the RDA is to be found in its 800 have enjoyed my time as Chairman plus membership. My remarks and am confident about what the RDA about Woodbridge apply equally can achieve. Thank you both to the to Waldringfield, to the Ferry and Committee and to the membership at anywhere else on the river. large for your support over the last On an entirely different subject some five years. Ed Stanford members attended our half yearly meeting at the Ferry in October 2006 Editor’s Notes: at which our speaker was Prof. Tim O'Riordan of the UEA. At the time he The DEP currently has three Working gave us the generally accepted line Groups – on climate change, rising sea levels, • The Saltmarsh Group – looking coastal erosion and so on. At the end at the management of saltmarsh of the meeting I was chatting to him and future areas for protection. and asked what weight he and his • Landowners Group – currently colleagues gave to the influence of assessing the value of protected geological time citing in particular the land. mini ice age in the 16th century. • Data Group – assessing quality Totally irrelevant' he said and walked and height of defences. away. Would I get the same Contact: Ed or Simon answer now? In conclusion it is fair to say that the RDA is in good shape. Our role in relation to the river is clear. We can work with the

4 LOOKING AHEAD to be! Seven years as Secretary to the Forum, and five Leigh Belcham, standing as RDA years as its representative on the Chairman for the next three years, is RDA Committee, have ensured that excited by the opportunities. current concerns and future needs have dominated my thinking for some time. Recent excursions up river in our elderly Wayfarer and latterly our equally elderly Pandora, have left me in no doubt that increased silting, eroding saltmarsh, degraded river walls and speeding powerboats are all issues that cannot be ignored. The stated aim of the RDA is “to represent and reconcile the interests of all concerned with the future of the River Deben and its environs” (my italics). Our memories may well fuel our motivation in caring for the river we love, but it is today’s realities and tomorrow’s needs that must inform our policies and actions. My first contribution to this magazine, Nostalgia has certainly not hampered entitled something like ‘Surviving the the work of our retiring Chairman, Ed Fifties’, was a nostalgic portrayal of Stanford, and it is in no small idyllic teenage years at Waldringfield measure due to his influence that the in Dragonflies, Cadets and Fireflies. association is taken seriously in high I had written the article a year before places. During his five years leading moving back to the area in 2002 with the association, he has tirelessly my wife, Jill, after an absence of well represented us to such bodies as the over 40 years. Much had changed but District and County Councils, Suffolk the Deben was still recognisable, and Coast & Heaths AONB, the memories of long-forgotten people Environment Agency and Natural and events came flooding back. More England, and has been a voice for the than once, Jill had to take me to task association whenever planning for boring our friends with too much applications affecting the river have harking back to the good old days! been considered. Now, with the possibility of becoming Over the past 12 months, together the association’s Chairman, I want to with Simon Read and Robert Simper, assure members that nostalgia, for Ed has been a major influence in me at least, is no longer what it used establishing the new Deben Estuary

5 Partnership, through which significant • initiating projects to address them progress is already being made in directly; repairing river walls and restoring lost • updating the association’s image; saltmarsh. Relieved that Ed is willing and to continue representing us on the • promoting the association more DEP, we owe him our appreciation widely. and gratitude, and acknowledge that his will be a very hard act follow. With a background in both local Following a SWOT analysis a few authority - and church-based youth months ago (Strengths, and community work, the Weaknesses, Opportunities and management of residential holiday Threats in normal English!), the RDA and adventure activity centres, and of Committee believes that several two not-for-profit national Christian specific and potentially exciting steps organisations, I should welcome the need to be considered if the opportunity now to work with the association is to continue to fulfil its Committee in guiding the association aim. These can be looked at in more through what could be an important detail at the AGM on 22nd April but and exciting stage of its development. suffice it to say now that they include But to do so successfully, each of us will need your presence, active • broadening the age range of the participation and support, not only at membership and the number of the AGM but throughout the coming bodies represented; months. Leigh Belcham • improving communication with members and from members, Membership. The Secretary Wendy especially electronically; Brown, is updating the RDA • developing a Forum through membership list. If your details have which members’ concerns can be changed please will you contact her. identified more easily; We would like to be able to contact • acting upon those concerns by you on occasions via email, and it representing them to other bodies; would be helpful if you would also or forward your email address.

6 LOOKING BACK: LOOKING expansion continue, and even, who FORWARD. were all these people? Social change was reaching East Anglia. Could the Twenty years is a good life for a lobby old order be maintained? While not group. As a member and twice spoken or written down, these were Chairman during that period I have the attitudes that were driving some good authority to make members. Happily, sensible Terms of considerations. The overcrowding Reference were written, still in use issue first came to my attention on a today. Our aim was to keep the Summer’s day when I was searching peace, giving everybody a chance. for my dinghy at Waldringfield, to get There was much talk about access, out to a Squib for an imminent race. the limitations being the main reason Rosemary Schlee wanted £2 for the for not being overrun. Deben Association, evidently wanting to talk; mainly to rid myself of delay I The Association thrives when causes paid up immediately. Rosemary was a crop up. One of the first was a strong character, absolutely proposed Marina at Felixstowe. This determined once settled on a course. was against the local grain at the time Thus, with others, the Association and was eventually stymied by the was formed. Ian Batty was at the purchase of the foreshore, to which start line, together with Anni Healey, RDA contributed. We are still part Anthony Mason, Anne Moore and owners. With this first success the Mike Atkins. role of the Association was established. The root problem was that more people and more activities were The knock on my front door came taking place on the river…it was about six years later. At that time I getting crowded. Dinghy sailing was had rather forgotten about my booming and there were more and membership and was surprised to more, ever bigger, plastic yachts! find that it was Anthony, looking for a Would the old environment be spoiled, could

7 Chairman. He had a good Committee policies to counter the damage being but the Chair was proving difficult to done and foreseen by ever increasing fill. I needed an excuse to resist a less tide levels. Proactively, with financial congenial voluntary appointment and, help from Suffolk Coast and Heaths hey presto, I agreed to serve. and muscular help from Simon Read, he governed the building of a Eventually I did two tours of duty. The structure on the Sutton shore which is first was made interesting by a preventing the washing away of proposal to turn Bentwaters into an marsh by strong ebb flows. An international airport with the outbound interesting wall with holes could flight path down the Deben. The provide the method for saving turning point was above my house on threatened marsh anywhere. Ipswich Road! We had by that time established ourselves as a Leigh Belcham is the next occupant of responsible lot and the Council the Chair. What will he and others that Committees took account of our follow have to face? The plan to build views. Members and money came in 2,000 houses at the BT site will bring quite freely. Frank Knights found £250 a flood of potential river users, from a previous fund which he had walkers and dogs. If we really believe administered to prevent French in conservation then dogs should be fishermen from setting up oyster beds on a lead on the sea walls. I can on our river. The outcome was no, affirm with total conviction that the salt and the concrete from the longest marsh that I knew thirty years ago in runway in Europe went to building the top half of the river is slowly being sites. drowned. First the reeds decline, then gaps enlarge and the mud increases. Anthony intervened in the Chair and Where the river banks were breached then it was my turn again. Within in earlier times there has been no weeks we were engaged in a battle to sign at all of marsh regeneration, just prevent Whistocks site from more mud. We are suffering long term becoming a large housing change. Only investment of development, dwarfing the Tide Mill. enormous effort, similar to the coastal Great views to the front of course but work undertaken in Holland, can no access along the river for people. counter this force. Minor work can That appeal against local decision provide a little help and much also went to a Public Enquiry and was opportunity for conversation! Nature thrown out. This site is still in debate is one enemy and man quite another. and is under careful watch. I see the main problem for man as being a matter of education. This is The present Chairman, Ed Stanford, something we can manage. The has for five years worked to establish Association is large enough to have

8 influence in schools and with parents. world in the Southern Ocean. New Unless the Committee are diverted by Zealand to New Zealand. Well, most a new pressing engagement, then it is will know that he failed because in only a question of making a start. heavy weather the 20 foot boat went They have my very best wishes in sideways! I learned that his will to their effort to preserve a rather special accomplish this endeavour is not place. diminished and based on his 80 day experience he is thinking in terms of a Denzil Cowdry larger multi crewed attempt.

Nice that they all come home. One of News from the Hard………. the far flung boats from Waldringfield Walking to the top end of the tidal is, I understand, leaving Sardinia for a river on 1st March, "each moment southern French port in the summer sweeter than the one before", it was to come home by road. That will not not just the weather change that filled be possible for Anthony and Celia my mind. Every scrap of space in the Mason, currently in Falmouth, Marina and the yards was full of Antigua and thoroughly enjoying the boats, most of them covered and well second spell of their long escape. kept, with not a sniff of recession Celia has a great blog: try anywhere. How lucky we are in this Voyageoftomia on Google. Recently corner of the land. I popped inside the Celia did some self examination "The Marina and looking at all the boats oddest thing about coming back here and the newish Headquarter building, is that it feels so known, not all shining in the Spring sun, reflected something that exists only as a day briefly on the slow but deliberate dream or a two week holiday cut off growth of this great asset. Further from real life.” They have great fun. along the river path I could see work being done to the wet berths in the At the very top of our river Mel upriver extension, evidently filling up Skeet’s yard was very tidy and very as they are completed. full. We talked about changes to the river (the word mud is banned) and Robertson’s yard never disappoints he confirmed that the depth of the for interesting unusual work. Two very channel is the same as it was 30 large lee boards were being cut out. years ago when he started, but Not many places in the whole country deposition has increased at the sides. who would tackle this sort of work so Also, the banks on the far side, confidently. I asked about Oliver previously enclosing a field, were Hicks, the young rower for whom gradually disappearing. He would like Robertsons had finalised the boat to extend his hardstanding and has with which he planned to round the all the permissions to do so except

9 the Council who hang on to the idea improved with better access from the that the few yards involved would be shore. However, on both sides of better left wild. Do I see a discussion Everson’s delightful main building the pending with Association word spectacular can be applied. The involvement? Rowing Club shed has gone and is being replaced by a modern building My final call was to Larkmans. Again on a steel frame, certainly long a full yard but without significant enough for boat storage but also to change in numbers of boats from provide facilities attaching to the main earlier years. The biggest change, drain. On the other side The Deben new to me, was the very clever Yacht Club has been given a wider adaptation of two containers to house front deck and the pontoons have the office and chandlery shop. Double been made independent in that they doors at the front, lining, a broad travel up and down with the tide on staircase, and a grand window at the their own legs and connect to the front so that Dawn can keep her eye Club by a new broad passage. The on things, in comfort too. Clever old building no longer takes the chaps the Larkmans, perhaps with weight, but retains its character. too little time to devote to their own summer sailing. Again, how lucky we Talking of work, Moray MacPhail of are to have such competent advisers. Classic Marine says that things are going well at Heath Woodbridge has been the centre of a Industrial Park where he has installed lot of hard work this winter. At more machinery and can make most Eversons the progress has been traditional yacht fittings to any size. “steady but not spectacular” (words of He is even recruiting. the Yard Manager) in that the Denzil Cowdry pontoon layout has been

10 WHISSTOCK’S BOATYARD have the International Boatbuilding and the Woodbridge Training College in working Riverside Trust. as an active partner in the project and their presence in Woodbridge would be a significant asset. There has been little noticeable progress in the fortunes of the empty During the development of these Whisstock’s boatyard over many ideas the Trust has involved many years. During Heritage Open Days in interested parties and received September the whole site comes to unequivocal and widespread support life like the Australian desert after for the project not only from rain- teeming with life and activity for individuals but also from the a couple of days before lapsing back following:- into semi dereliction. The formation of the Woodbridge Riverside Trust District Council sprang from the concern about the The Haven Gateway Partnership potential loss of riverside sites on the Woodbridge Town Council Deben- and of immediate importance Woodbridge Town Trust the Whisstock’s site. Woodbridge & Melton Riverside The aim of the Trust is to buy the site Action Group and so secure its future. The planned Woodbridge Town Centre use for the site derives from the Management Ltd research that WAMRAG did on the The Tide Mill Trust subject showing a strong public wish Sutton Hoo for the site to retain a maritime usage. Suffolk Coast and Heaths The Trust would like to create a River Deben Association community facility on the site and is Deben Yacht Club exploring the many possibilities for Woodbridge Rowing Club traditional marine training skills, Budgens Store Woodbridge. developing it in time into a “centre of excellence”. The Trust is delighted to

11 There is much work and negotiation bow; they merit encouragement but yet to be done before a full picture of do they know the rules for the the project can be presented. The avoidance of collisions? Hard a Trust welcomes support and interest starboard and Argo should just in the project and of course includes weather Nautilus moored over there the RDA members in that welcome. but then we must tack real quick or we shall be aground and there is so Contact: The Woodbridge Riverside little wind that with this ebb tide it is Trust, Sun Wharf, Deben Road, going to be touch and go squeezing Woodbridge, IP12 1AZ - or the between the Sirens and Whirlpool. Trustees: Pete Clay- Besides does that motor cruiser know [email protected], that Argo is under sail so has right of John Gibbins- [email protected], way? Jeremy Clarkson would have Martin Wenyon- long since resorted to a beastly, noisy, [email protected]. polluting ‘donker’; but what about those ‘twitchers’ in the saltings and Waldringfield the walkers on the sea wall photographing the serenity of an old The Deben was sparkling at sunrise gaffer under sail?” today when I remarked to the photographer that it would be even Waldringfield Sailing Club recently more enchanting if the mooring buoys presented an open meeting of the could also be removed over winter. Parish with its revised proposal for a Surprisingly he felt they add a touch pontoon just upriver from the dinghy of colour and interest. Symmetry and park’s hards. The pros and cons order appeal to me as a former were thoroughly aired in forthright but soldier so I wondered if they could be well mannered style by protagonists positioned more precisely along for and against. Space precludes any smooth curves, but then I am not résumé here, besides Waldringfield paying or standing for election! Fairway Committee, the Parish and District Councils, RDA and no doubt But seriously our Fairway Committee others are still to discuss the face real difficulties balancing the proposal. If SCDC, under orders from interests of bird-watchers, walkers, Government, approves BT’s proposal dinghy racers, ‘yachties’ and lawful for a new town between Adastral Park navigators. Jason might well be and Waldringfield Heath, we must reciting: expect more pressure on Waldringfield beach in front of the “I must go down to the sea again, to Club. Global warming may well excite the lonely sea ...” but heck! There’s a more swimmers and paddlers with fleet of cadets closing on my port every right to enjoy the Deben.

12 Personally, I suggest no one should been subject to the Merchant add to climate change by investing Shipping Act 1995 and the ‘collision energy and CO2 on nice-to-have but regulations’. Moves are a foot to inessential artefacts made of metal or bring these craft under the Act, and concrete or burning fossil fuel for their thereby subject to enforcement by the leisure. Even if we can afford the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. money, that does not justify that This will help those seeking to control utterly selfish ‘Because you’re worth speeding and dangerous activity. it!’ However, it seems that the forthcoming election means that the Neil Winship amendment order is not likely to come into force until later in the year. The PS. Waldringfield Fairways group is also looking at ways of Committee has a new secretary Paul tackling speeding powerboats in the Beaumont, Deben Cottage, Cliff Road river. The group would welcome your Waldringfield IP12 4QL views. Contact: Leigh Belcham

Felixstowe Ferry

The Felixstowe Safer Neighbourhood Team has set up a working group to consider issues of speeding on the river, particularly at the Ferry. The group includes representatives from Felixstowe Ferry Forum, Suffolk Coastal District Council and the Police. There are particular problems at the Ferry in the summer when the water is congested and there is considerable risk of an accident. Attempts nationally to control the misuse of jet-skis or PWC (Personal Water Craft) have not been helped by the fact that jet-skis have not been classed in law as ‘ships’ and consequently have not

13 Between a Rock and a Soft lines of human control. At the Place entrance, one sweeping curve that Seen from above, our river is totally should chase itself on to the golf captivating; more so for us because course is constrained by a filigree of we know it and because the stone that belies the brutality of the unaccustomed view allows us to see structure at eye level. it afresh. At Felixstowe Ferry it is Google Earth is a tremendous tool possible to see the transparency of and a boon to the imagination, but it land and the ephemeral character of cannot prepare you for the time that the activities we have imposed upon you must navigate that entrance on a it. Beneath the surface is a clear flooding tide set in by a strong North- shadow-land; the intestinal wriggle of Easterly wind. Then those rocks are ancient watercourses that once intimidating and unpleasantly close, it drained the huge Kings Fleet Marsh is with a sigh of relief that you are at present no more than a trace, straighten up for the run parallel to but in the fullness of time, might the beach. reassert themselves long after golf It seems a long time ago that “Rock has become a vague memory. We Armour” entered the vocabulary of can see the great meanders of the sea defence to become, as it is now, river as it describes its course, the preferred material where there is restrained here and there by the hard a need for resilience. It may have the same mass as concrete, but it is

14 generally not a self-supporting it is difficult to get fired up by it, structure and therefore can be only as especially when it proves impossible permanent as what it is stacked upon to apply uniformly. By the time we and against. Although it can be placed have listed all of those sites on our with extreme precision, it can also be rivers and coast that it would be picked up and taken away again. It is foolish to leave to their own devices, a material in tune with the uncertainty such as towns, villages and a nuclear that bedevils our grasp of coastal power station, there is precious little processes. that we have left to be ‘sustainable’ On our coasts and estuaries, what with. The Shoreline Management used to be called defence is now Plan for the Suffolk Coast has just shoreline management and flood risk been published. (2) It may be a management, the key to both is the carefully considered document but term “sustainability”. We know that once all the priorities for protection (or Defra (1) does not have the available hold the line) have been established, cash to maintain our defence systems there is such little scope for a in their present configuration and we sediment supply to stabilise the could substitute the word “affordable” beaches that something has to give. for sustainable. “Sustainability” is a So goodbye ! Although (or catchword in contemporary culture; because) this is a pragmatic decision, its usage comes with a heavy dose of the result of a dispassionate analysis ‘realism’ and represents an of coastal processes, and part of a unwillingness to continue devoting national programme, it appears resources to structures and strategies iniquitous and will certainly be that do not work with natural unacceptable to the people of processes. It is the antithesis of Covehithe. idealism; based upon common sense, The response to the catastrophic

Rock Armour at The Ferry

15 floods of 1953 was that this must defence. A fundamental flaw of rock never be allowed to happen again. armour is that it might appear The mantra then was defence of the resilient, but if either the beach is lost realm, a residual echo of the or groundwater softens the structure psychology of a nation at war, applied behind it, it will collapse. The up side to a new battle against natural forces. of this is that it is reversible; it can be Our coasts, especially those facing dismantled and it is possible to think mainland Europe, were already again. From above, it is evident that armoured, but with a different the defended wall is an awkward antagonist in mind. Consequently, it is bulge into the channel. Ultimately not a big leap to see that the hugely there might be little alternative but to advanced know-how in concrete remove the rock altogether, build a technology and a highly developed bund on the golf course as a backstop civil engineering infrastructure could and let the river do the rest. This is an be re-deployed in the event of a aspect of ‘adaptation’ (another of national emergency, be it military or those words), which is when you natural. Whilst the disadvantages of understand that what you would like this approach are now becoming to protect is not within practical or clear and things have changed affordable limits that you must bow to philosophically, this has not filtered the inevitable and seek ways to down to coastal communities who absorb the impact. expect, as a right, consistent Because we are culturally tuned to standards of protection and that this measuring misfortune financially, should be a duty of central where the decision not to maintain government. Consequently, the defence is made as a local indiscriminate application of that application of a national strategy, “sustainability” word has come as a culpability becomes an issue and shock and left behind it a huge sense of betrayal. Old and New at East Lane. Meanwhile, back on our river, the rock that was put in place to prevent the clay wall at Felixstowe Ferry from breaching is beginning to slide into the channel. This has swung so far south that it has eroded away the beach that the rock was stacked upon leaving a steep drop that affords no traction to this kind of

16 human rights the battle cry. This has So far on the Deben, permission has happened in more than one place on been granted, and work carried out our estuaries and coast: most notably on the wall immediately upstream of at Easton Bavents and on the Blythe, Ferry Cliff below Sutton Hoo and with the outcome that the landowners there is a proposal approved to have forced the hand of Defra into stabilise the wall on the downstream absorbing their interests into the corner of Kirton Creek. Taken overarching scheme. It is no together with the River Deben coincidence that the Environment Association tidal protection scheme at Agency has since come up with a new Sutton Saltmarsh and the ongoing protocol that fosters private initiative. exploration of further saltmarsh (3) Whilst on one hand this could be stabilisation initiatives, there is a new seen as a major triumph for local found harmony in the relationships communities, cynically it could also between the Environment Agency, be interpreted as “you can waste your Natural England and local money if you insist but we will not communities. This must be to the commit public funds”. It would be good and is the result of our efforts to unfair to assume that this is find ways to raise awareness and universally so, because in recent promote a new sense of ownership of years we have seen audacious the estuary environment and crucially, schemes set up, such as at East Lane the determination not to let decisions at Bawdsey, where the landowners about the dynamic of our river be undertook to finance their own taken at a level that excludes proper defence scheme using a fund public consultation. generated by selling plots of land for Once the Alde-Ore Estuarine development within the village Strategy has been agreed, it will be envelope. This is being used as a our turn. We are working towards this model for a kind of public-private as a partner in the recently partnership that has lent weight over established Deben Estuary the last year to an initiative to simplify Partnership to ensure that the best the process by which landowners interests of the community are duly might be empowered to maintain their built into the plan. There has been a own defences. A lesson learned from great deal of misunderstanding in the the Blythe is that it is more cost- past and there are bound to be some effective for landowners to maintain contentious issues, especially over their own walls than for the the creation and retention of Environment Agency to come up with saltmarsh habitat. However, it seems a definitive plan that would never to be accepted that any proposal to pass a cost-benefit analysis and carry out ambitious habitat creation would be unjustifiable in the wider schemes, especially on the lower scheme of things. reaches of the river, would have a

17 detrimental effect upon its systems Editor’s Note: and possibly make the entrance unsustainable in its current form. A survey is being carried out to It has probably always been the case assess the erosion of the beach in that a prerequisite for any new front of the ‘rocks’ and any strategy is that an appropriate associated movement of the ‘rock language must be created to couch it armour’. in. This can have the effect of putting recipients at a disadvantage. The consultation period for the Additionally the scientific community Suffolk Shoreline Management Plan that we must engage with is so highly (SMP2) has ended. The plan has to specialised that it is problematic be formally adopted by Local finding a middle ground where we are Councils, the Environment Agency equipped to effectively contribute to and the Secretary of State. the debate. One thing we have discovered is that its very The Estuarine Strategy for the Alde sophistication is a stumbling block to and the Ore is under discussion and communication; the danger of which when this has been agreed the can be that a strategy is adopted Deben Estuary Strategy will be before its implications have been fully considered. More information can be grasped. This is something that all found on the Suffolk Coast Futures parties are aware of and wish to web page. remedy. There is plenty of work to be done but it is getting better and this is The Environment Agency and the partly because, if we don’t get it right, Shoreline Management Plan public outcry can derail the process, frequently use the term sustainable, which then means that nothing for example, sustainable happens, and everyone is a loser. assessment, sustainable Simon Read development, sustainable structures, sustainable defence and so on. For 1. Defra – Department for a discussion of Sustainable Policy Environment Food and Rural Affairs. and the different usages see Section 2. Suffolk Shoreline Management 3.2 of the SMP2. Plan (SMP2) – (see the www.Suffolk smp2.org.uk/policy.) 3. Flood and Coastal Risk Management (FCRM) external contributions. Issued 16.06.10. (See the Environment Agency Website.)

18 DEBEN RIVER WALL had a disastrous record with women HERITAGE and dieting, did everything in his The river walls hold the fabric of life power to protect England, and that together in the Deben valley, but just included encouraging sea defences. out of historical curiosity, when were History has clearly recorded that the they built? I have had a stab at dating Dutch were heavily involved with them and I hope you will tell me the reclaiming land in The Fens and parts I have got wrong. On the purely South Essex, but there is no real practical side the earth banks holding evidence of them on the Suffolk coast back the tide protect property worth until the building of the first East well in excess of £121,000,000. Lane, Bawdsey defences in the Without their protection the homes twentieth century. The Suffolk Rivers lost through flooding would result in all appear to have been reclaimed by having to build another small town on local men working with shovels and open countryside in the area. The barrows. Sometimes they just cost and social upheaval would be shovelled a bank up and in other enormous. The loss of revenue to the places they put in a row of posts and Government if the area protected was then shovelled dirt around them. It lost, far out weighs the cost of was not rocket science but it was keeping the defences in place. extremely beneficial to the local Without the river walls the damage to community. In the summer the high wild life habit behind them would be land dried out, particularly on the immense, and some species might ‘sheep walks’ (heaths), and there was well vanish from the Deben Valley. a real need to create summer grazing One thing is certain; it took over three for sheep, cattle and horses. hundred years to construct the Since there was very regular present system. It is possible that commercial contact between the East some small areas were walled off of England and The Low Countries before the Norman Conquest. If the new ideas from The Netherlands Romans had made walls it is unlikely were taken on board. The Dutch word they would still have been there some ‘sluice’ was used for places where seven hundred years later when the fresh water escaped into tidal water. powerful landowners, monastic and However, some of the language got aristocratic, started to develop their mixed up. The ‘ditches’ draining the coastal property, in the middle of the grazing marshes were often referred medieval period. to as being ‘dykes’ while in The The next burst of walling seems to Netherlands the actual walls keeping have happened in the late Tudor and out tidal water were the ‘dykes.’ The Elizabethan era. Effective defences wide ditch/dyke immediately behind against the tide always happen when the river walls are called ‘delfts’ in there is a strong central government. Suffolk so perhaps the idea came For instance Henry VIII, although he from that town in Holland. In Suffolk,

19 Essex and Kent land on the tidal side 1550 the Duke of Norfolk, who had of a river is called ‘saltings.’ In the already walled off 400 acres at past decade incomers have tended to , reclaimed the Falkenham use the Norfolk term ‘salt marsh’ for marshes up to Falkenham Creek. It these areas. The soft grey mud below would seem that the Kirton Marshes, the saltings is usually referred to as up to Kirton Creek, were walled off being ‘ooze’ leading down to the ‘cant shortly after this, possibly as a edge’ at the low tide mark. speculative venture by the It is always assumed that the Corporation of Ipswich. marshes at the lower end of the River King’s Fleet is thought to have got its Deben were walled off first. This is name from King Charles I, because because the saltings, which took he probably gave permission for it to centuries to build up, are higher on be walled off, after several centuries the Black Stakes and Ramsholt of silting. The remaining channel Reaches. However, we are told that through the saltings, Perkin’s Creek, much of the silt in the Deben comes stayed open as a drainage ditch for in from the sea and it doesn’t appear the sluice, but in the modern period that this silt goes higher that the this kept silting up. One of curious Ramsholt Reach. pieces of modern nonsense was that Hoskinson’s map of 1786 appears to English Nature refused to allow the show Kings Fleet, Bawdsey Fleet, silted up King’s Fleet drainage Kirton and Creek all channel to be cleaned out. Instead in walled off. King’s Fleet, on the about 2001 a new pumping station Felixstowe shore, was a very deep had to be built up river near Red creek leading almost up to Trimley St House Farm, Falkenham. Instead of Mary. This was known as Gosford the environmentally friendly sluice and the medieval kings used it as a emptying the fresh water, as it had safe place to gather fleets when they done for centuries without using any were fighting the French kings in the power, the new pumping station has Low Countries. On one occasion the to be powered by electricity. French Fleet crept into the Deben While the Walton Marshes around and burnt the English king’s ships at Holmhill appear to have been ‘inned’ anchor in King’s Fleet. There are or walled off by the 1200s they were accounts of brakes in the river wall at still liable to flooding with the tide Walton in 1287 so that the Felixstowe coming over the land where side of King’s Fleet must have been Felixstowe Ferry and the golf course already walled off. More land was now stand. Before 1786 a wall was being enclosed at Walton in 1321. built, at the back of the present golf While King’s Fleet was too deep to course, to prevent flooding of Walton wall off, the saltings on either side Marshes. In 1876 this wall was were ripe for development in the eyes rebuilt and named the Tomlin Wall, of Elizabethan courtiers. In around presumabley after the owner of the

20 Orwell Park Estate that then owned much of the Felixstowe peninsula. In the 1948 Flood the Tomlin Wall held, but in the 1953 Flood, when all the Ferry, but the Harbour Villas, flooded, this Wall broke in two places. It was still possible until the 1950s to stand in front of the ‘Ferry Boat Inn’ at Felixstowe Ferry and look out to the boats on the river and out to sea, but Felixstowe Ferry flooded with a very The present Bawdsey Ferry to high tide. The Tomlin Wall was Ramsholt Dock wall (above) appears heightened again with soil taken from to have been built outside the Butley around the beach huts on the sea Priory wall, in about 1525. Since the front, but the protection of the Ferry land enclosed belonged to the Manor houses was archived by piling up of Peyton Hall, owned by the Wallers, shingle in front of the ‘Ferry Boat Inn.’ presumably they built this wall. Since then the sea front and the old Although a wall across the mouth wall has been heightened, but some appears on a map at Bawdsey Fleet, buildings outside the wall are still in the Victorian period a coal barge liable to flood. The river mouth front at used to go up to Alderton Kiln until the Felixstowe Ferry was further ‘rock about the 1860s. It could still have armoured’ in 2001 and 2006. The been open, for a schooner battle is not won yet. discharged coal at Bawdsey Ferry Butley Priory owned manors in and it carted to a barge to go up the Alderton, Bawdsey and Ramsholt and Fleet. in about 1340 they walled in a piece After the 1953 Floods the of marshes below Alderton to the Government was keen to bring all the west of Bawdsey Fleet. The word former grazing marshes into ‘fleet’ in Suffolk just means ‘shallow’ cultivation and Jim Mann and Norman and was usually applied to main Simper had the part of the inner drainage ditches and creeks. On the Butley Priory wall beside upper opposite side of the river to Bawdsey Bawdsey Fleet bulldozed out. The Fleet is King’s Fleet and after 1953 rest of this wall remains under the Floods engineers started to call track leading across the marshes. Bawdsey Fleet, the Queen’s Fleet, to The land on the tidal side of the inner match the King’s Fleet on the other wall was about 2ft higher than the side. 21 original reclaimed marshes. In fact the law appears to state that The Ramsholt Dock Marshes, a small the Board had the right to enter land area of marshes between Ramsholt to repair walls, but were not legally Dock Wood and the church, appear to obliged to do this. The landowner had have been walled off in two attempts. a long dispute with The Board and the A small area at the top was walled gap remained open for years. The first and later the present wall was Shottisham Creek gap was eventually added. According to local legend closed, and closed again after the ships used to anchor in the river and 1953 Floods, but on the opposite their crews rowed up to Ramsholt shore the Hall marshes were Street, where the old school is, to get flooded and are still flooded by the water from the well there. This would tide. suggest that the present wall, which did not have any saltings on the riverside until the present decade, was constructed much later than the other walls. Again the Shottisham Creek Marshes were walled in two ventures, the first, on the Ramsholt side of the Creek, probably in the medieval period, but there was an oyster fishery in Shottisham Creek before it was walled and sluice fitted. The saltings are much higher When I first rowed into the gap in than normal here, but this bight in the Hemley wall in about 1951 it had river does appear to collect silt clearly been flooded for sometime, coming down river. but when did this wall break? In 1770 Until the twentieth century all the John Cross bought Hemley Hall and river wall maintenance was the his family were there for three responsibility of the landowners. generations. In 1888 Porter bought Actually it appears that few of them the farm and went on to enlarge the paid for this, but got their tenants to house. At some point the wall broke do it as part of their rent. However, and flooded the marsh and Porter the Catchment Boards were set up took Government departments, to maintain river defences and responsible for walls, to court and landowners had to pay them a levy. lost, resulting in him having to sell the When the Shottisham Creek Marshes house and farm. In the 1930’s the wall broke in 1904, the landowner, Sir farm was owned by Wilding with Harry Cuthbert Quilter, demanded that the Kent farming it until 1956. The Catchment Board should fill in the Hayward family have since farmed gap, the old mouth of Shottisham the upper land and the gap in the wall Creek. 22 has turned into a major channel. didn’t have any money to buy it. Further up river there is an account of All the levels of Deben marshes were land being walled off at Melton in flooded in the 1953 Floods and flood 1600, by which time most of the work started by pumping out the present walls were in place. The one marshes and repairing the walls. The area of saltings that was never walled Bawdsey-Ramsholt wall and off, but was grazed until about 1914, Felixstowe Ferry-Kirton walls was around Broomeswell Common. protected important agricultural land The Melton wall seems to have been so that they got the most attention. If fairly successful, but the Sutton Hoo my memory serves me right there marshes, opposite Mel Skeet’s yard in were about 23 gaps in the Bawdsey- the old Melton Dock, had low walls Ramsholt wall alone. Also these walls and were constantly flooding. These were heightened by about 3ft, were over topped several times in the although the Government report 1930s. By then the agricultural recommended up to 5m above low depression, which had started in water mark. By the time Stonner Point about 1870, meant that the river walls was reached the money was running were in really poor shape. When a out and the upper walls didn’t get the bomb hit the Sutton Hoo wall in same attention. The process of Hackney Hole, at the beginning of heightening the river walls has been World War II, it was realized that the going on for centuries. whole wall had to be made higher and A small area of wall, at the bottom there were not the resources during field below Methersgate Hall, was left the war to do this, even with the food at the original low height. Just up shortages. river of Methersgate Quay a small The same was true of the river wall area of grazing marsh gaps were left near Cross Farm, Waldringfield. and the land abandoned. Sir Damaged bombers coming back used Raymond Quilter, a man who loved a to jettison their bombs over empty new idea, then used this flooded countryside before landing and one marshes to lay up his ex-Cornish hit this wall. Again the wall was not fishing boat Silver Darling during the repaired because of wartime winter. shortages. This then flooded, through The nation was well rewarded for the a 40m gap, right up to Martlesham capital invested in the reinstating the Creek. river defences Part of the rise in living After the War serious work started on standards, which really got going in wall repairs. I remember seeing the 1960s, was as a direct result of prisoners of war working with shovels cheap and plentiful food being making up the river walls in front of available in the shops. Peyton Hall, Ramsholt. I remember At Waldringfield Norman Mayhew’s this because one of them tried to sell Cross Farm marshes have remained me a model of a ship in a bottle, but I flooded, but the other end of this level

23 has been reclaimed. In Groynes and sheet pilings at Bawdsey Quay about 1972, John Symes of Hill Farm, Martlesham bought a digger and built a short piece of new wall that prevented the tide from flooding his land right up to Martlesham Creek. Since then the marshes have returned to grazing and the area is popular with walkers. The last major piece of wall repair was at Woodbridge in 1992 when the height of the wall was Coast marshes would increase the raised between Kyson Point and the available habitat for wading birds. Melton railway bridge. Doors were However, when the Deben Estuary also fitted in the wall so that in some Partnership, formed last year, came to places boats and cars could be taken look closely at flooded marshes it was down nearer the water. In 2009 Peter found that the increase in sea level Waring repaired the river wall at was resulting in silt being washed out Sutton Hoo. This was the first time a of these lands, in fact reducing the landowner had paid directly for river amount of bird habitat. wall repair work for over a century Robert Simper although landowners all pay flood rates. BOATS OF THE DEBEN In the modern world any long-term ELLEN project is scrutinised to see if it is Having worked in the Boatyard for 42 ‘sustainable’ so that this should be years building wooden boats of all applied to present river walls. In about types, I then, at the age of 60, had the 1950 the Northern Point below chance to take on the Ferry service Bawdsey Manor at the Deben which ran from the Ferry - Bawdsey entrance was protected by sheet Quay. The boat I obtained for this was piling. This worked brilliantly for half a the motorboat 'Ellen'. century, but the piling is now rusting Ellen's pedigree goes back a long badly, making it not sustainable in way. In 1960 the Boatyard was part of modern thinking; however, the earth C H Fox and Son of Ipswich and a walls have been in continual use new yard boat was needed. Trevor since the medieval period. Moore, the manager at the time, drew Conservation lobby has forcefully some lines out for an 18' motorboat. argued, and the Government has This was lofted out and a boat was believed them, that flooding East built using an assortment of timber.

24 This boat was rather narrow beamed. One other boat was John and Andrew Moore Building Ellen built on these lines for the Felixstowe Ferry Sailing Club. After that we decided that a boat with an extra foot of beam but with the same shear would be better. Several of these boats were built as lobster boats for the local fishermen, the first of these 'Eileen R' was for Duncan Read. Bearing in mind at this time an 18' boat Methersgate in 1990 and was used as with a Lister diesel in cost £750. At a family motor launch for trips up and this time we were also building down the river. passenger boats to Board of Trade At about this time Peter Weir was specification for Charlie Brinkley to running river trips from Orford in a run the Ferry and several for trip boat built by Frank Knights of boats at Blakeney and Morston on the Woodbridge. He then acquired the north Norfolk coast. licence to run the Bawdsey Ferry and Besides these motor vessels we were bought an 18' boat called Puffin to run also building Folkboats and small the service. This boat had been built yachts to Alan Bucannan' s design, as by us some years earlier for Blakeney. well as all the repair to mainly wooden In about 1995 he acquired Ellen for boats. use on the service. Being a bit bigger In 1989 the yard boat was getting past she was more suitable for the job. In it’s best after 30 years of very hard 1999 I acquired the Ferry licence and work and so the keel of a new one bought Ellen off Peter. was layed down. At the same time we I ran the Ferry for 6 years and then thought it prudent to build another on retired, retaining the boat for my spec, so two were set up and built. Harbour Master's duties and also to These were made on the same run river trips. The boat has a S.C.D. moulds as the previous 18' boats but Council licence to carry 12 persons we pulled the length out to 19’. and carries all the appropriate safety These boats were built of larch equipment to do so. planking with oak keels, stems and I use the boat to regularly check the timbers and were fitted with Vetus 22 Bar and to survey the knolls around HP engines. The engines were a the estuary entrance. In this way I can basic Mitsubishi engine marinised in give the best possible advice to Holland by Vetus. yachtsmen on entering or leaving the Ellen was sold to a gentleman from Deben, how much water there is over

25 the Bar at any particular time, etc. September 19th, is International When I was running the Ferry the Coastal Cleanup Day, and, like all engine would do at least 1000 hours good members of the River Deben running a season. This led me into Association, we are filling black bin replacing the engine in 2002, keeping liners with rubbish from the the old one as a spare. Apart from that waterfront. The scene is just like the everything about the boat is original. ones we've known for the past twelve Ellen is in use almost every day years: keen volunteers stretched in a throughout the year except for an raggly line along the water's edge, annual refit and inspection to retain variously tutting at the stuff that some the passenger licence. people seem to think they can just It's a great feeling to be using a boat chuck into the sea, and calling their that was built by myself and the neighbours over to examine a particularly juicy find - a lump of metal that could once have been a hand-turned Singer sewing machine, or a rusted enamel basin with the faint remains of a pink-petalled flower design. Lumps of wood, broken glass bottles, a couple of biros, quantities of decomposing polystyrene, a great hank of unravelling enjoyment of being on the finest river nylon rope, a broken plastic beer on the East Coast adds to the crate, has anybody got any more bin enjoyment. Long may it remain. liners? . . . plus ca change . . . several John White large sheets of rusty corrugated iron, brown glass bottles that once Litter picks - the same the contained Mauby Drink or LLB, more world over. bottles, with the faded labels of Members will recall that Anthony Clarke's Court and Westerhall rum Mason was Chairman of the RDA distilleries ... the remains of a white before Denzil Cowdry. In 2008 plastic bucket that will be good to Anthony and his wife Celia set off in store the dinner-plate sized white their yacht Tomia to sail the Atlantics. land-crabs before they are cooked. .. Celia sent us this note from Grenada. our shoes may be rubbing, but there is no way we can walk barefoot on the

26 burning sand. .. pausing to wipe the banks, so the locals set to with their sweat from our faces as the sun beats cutlasses (the local machete, vital for down on the clear blue water of anything from gutting fish to clearing Flamingo Bay... noisy banter in patois undergrowth, and carried as as cane and manchineel trees are ubiquitously and casually in the hacked back by boys wielding countryside as a mobile phone). As cutlasses... we are a long way from they cut, a team carry the debris familiar wind swept marshes. away, and another rakes the revealed “Welcome to Grenada!” rubbish down onto the beach to be The clean-up was scheduled to start sorted, noted by the visiting at 10.00, but this is GMT (Grenada academic, and bagged. A snake of Maybe Time), so when we arrive at porters carries the resulting bin liners 10.30, having managed to track down along the beach, above their heads, a maxi bus going the right way, things like a convoy of ants. are just about thinking about getting A host of small children, belonging to started. A couple of guys from St the cleaner-uppers, are splashing in George's University and the North the shallows, playing with a rubber West Development Agency are tyre and a tired tennis ball we having a last drink of iced water unearthed (and, inevitably, leaving the before setting to. Flamingo Bay has cleaned beach strewn with straws and not been "picked" since Hurricane cartons from their drinks). Over at the Ivan devastated the island in 2004, far end of the beach, an octopus has and there is a bar just above the cliff been caught, and is being beaten to half way along, so we are expecting death - or perhaps tenderised - on a plenty to cart away and there is. rock. There are sheets and sheets of rusty Gradually as the day wore on, our "galvanise" - that is, corrugated iron - trips to the cool box got more and each one formerly the roof of more frequent, and we were all someone's house or chicken shed or increasingly loath to leave the shade. loo. The sewing machine too, Was that another couple of empty probably got blown over during the bottles of rum just appeared? We've hurricane, along with all the other filled two skips; time for a celebratory contents of a house; there is no way party. And we think of you all going something as valuable as that would home in your gumboots to tea, and just have been thrown out. raise a glass from the other side of the For the rest, well, it's pretty much what (slightly cleaner) ocean. you'd expect when there's a bar above the beach. The added Celia and Anthony Mason . complication is the dense growth of You can follow their voyage on sugar cane and poisonous http://voyageoftomia.blogspot.com manchineel trees all the way up the

27 RIVER DEBEN ASSOCIATION ANNUAL ACCOUNTS FOR YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31 2009

INCOME AND EXPENDITURE 2009 2008 Income £ £ £ £ £ £ Subscriptions inc arrears 2,777 2,811 Donations Inc BBC 450 256 Woodbridge Society 0 200 Bank interest 6 345 Refreshments 36 35 Sundries inc cash 15 Suffolk Coastal DC 2,500 5,784 3,647 Expenditure Postage 342 287 Secretary's Honorarium 300 100 Offices services/stationary 0 25 Newsletters 768 798 Other printing 7 2 Hire of hall/meeting room 120 100 Meeting costs 80 75 Insurance 190 183 Civic Trust 200 200 Other 260 11 Maritime Woodbridge 0 249 Sutton Shore Project 1,615 5,870 Bank charges 0 15 3,882 7,915 Excess of income (Deficit) 1,902 -4,268

BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31 DECEMBER 2009 Assets Bank 11,342 9,297 Cash 130 57 9,354 11,472 Less Liabilities Creditors Advance subscriptions 168 152 Civic Trust 200 368 152 Net Assets 11,104 9,202 Representing Balance brought forward 9,202 13,470 Surplus(Deficit) 1,902 -4,268 Balance carried forward 11,104 9,202

C J L Brown (Hon Treasurer)

I have examined the papers and vouchers of the association for the year ended 31 December 2009 and confirm that the above income and expenditure account and the balance sheet are in accordance therewith.

T J Moorby, Chartered Accountant (Hon Independent Examiner) Woodbridge 28 RIVER DEBEN ASSOCIATION ANNUAL ACCOUNTS FOR YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31 2009

Notes to the accounts: 1.Generally the Association’s finances are sound but not capable of supporting any extensive projects. Although the balance is strong the income is small.

2.The Sutton Shore project has been completed. The total expenditure for the project over the two years amounted to £7485. The sum of £2500 was granted for the project by Suffolk Coastal DC. Making a net cost to the association of £4985.

3. The grant has thus enables the Association to return a small surplus on the income and expenditure this year thus restoring the Balance to £11104

4. Subscriptions: The subscription income in 2008 was £2777. This was a small decrease on last year. About 13% of members are still not paying the subscriptions approved for 2004 and not since changed. A proportion of the income paid was arrears.

5. The subscription income that the membership represents was £3010. The subscription yield is some 17% less than this. The Association is grateful for the generous donations paid by some supporters.

6. This year the members who show on the Association’s record not to have paid the full subscription over a period have been asked to clarify this and get either the records or the subscriptions up to date. Failure to do so in persistent cases, on the grounds of fairness to the majority, may not receive further copies of the Newsletter.

7. A statement or letter about underpayment was sent to members this year in April. These showed how the last subscription was paid so that any action to ensure the correct payment this year should be clear. There are some members who have changed their standing order. This seems to have resulted in a new standing order for the new amount being opened but the old standing order has remained in place. Any members who notices that there is more than one standing order in favour of the Association are advised to cancel that which is for the wrong amount. The Association cannot change Members standing order. Those that do pay twice are making a welcome but possible inadvertent donation to the Association.

29 THE RIVER DEBEN ASSOCIATION

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

on Thursday 22nd April 2010

at 7.30pm in Woodbridge Community Hall

The AGM will be followed by a talk given by Mr Robert Simper historian and author of 37 books including 5 on the Deben

entitled “Behind the River Walls” Land ownership along the tidal Deben down the years

30