From Source to the Sea Life on the Deben, a Book by Woodbridge Residents Nick Cottam and Tim Curtis, Goes with the Flow of a River Steeped in History
From source to the sea Life on the Deben, a book by Woodbridge residents Nick Cottam and Tim Curtis, goes with the flow of a river steeped in history Words: Nick Cottam Photos: Tim Curtis CPD-Lab/ Getty Images/iStockphoto 44 Suffolk: May 2020 life on the deben t’s hard to imagine the pretty village of Cretingham falling victim to a Viking invasion. I This is Suffolk heartland but the colourful, mosaic village sign shows a Viking ship under sail. Standing by the sign, in front of The Bell public house, there’s no evidence that any kind of ship could have got this far. Here we are along the upper reaches of the Deben, where the river is no more than a stream skirting the north of the village, on its 25-mile journey from its source at nearby Debenham to the powerful North Sea. But this is no single spring-fed river. Rather, it’s an accumulation of downward flows – numerous streams and ditches, gulleys and culverts – around the land above Debenham. “The Deben is a bit like a tree trunk,” says local resident Joan Freeman, “with its upper boughs and branches radiating out (and up) from Debenham.” Walk towards the secluded churchyard of Our Lady of Grace, Aspall, and you cross a pretty, half-hidden bridge. There’s the river again along Derrybrook, with a secretive wave flowing south and away from the village. Watery Debenham, at least Left: of Roman and Saxon times The Deben offers nothing when it rains and the Deben Abstract hand- to the present day.
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