Medieval Suffolk was wealthy, well populated, commercialised and urbanised. Dunwich was a major international port. A mile or two away, Minsmere (now a flagship RSPB reserve) was a broad tidal estuary with a small port of its own. Boats must have been everywhere. Dunwich gradually declined from the 14th century and eroded into the sea; from the early 17th century a sand spit gradually blocked the mouth of Minsmere estuary, creating a huge tidal lagoon - a haven for smugglers. The spit closed up in 1780, and briefly creating a freshwater marsh, which may have looked like it does now (above). In the 1810s it was drained and the land was reclaimed for grazing. Soon afterwards local landowners, the Ogilvies, planted up the surrounding sandlings (treeless heaths used for rabbit warrens and grazing sheep), for hunting and shooting.
The grazing marshes remained until 1940, when Minsmere beach (above) was identified as an easy landing area for German invaders. Concrete blocks were lined up along the spit to keep out tanks (right), mines were laid, and barbed wire was stretched along the beach. The hamlet by the main sluice gate was evacuated and used by the RAF for target practice; grazing marshes were flooded.
After the war the Ministry of Agriculture started to reclaim the land. As flood levels dropped in 1947, four pairs of avocets (elegant wading birds which had been exterminated in the UK in the mid-19th century by hunting, drainage, and egg collecting) nested. The Ogilvies realized that protecting avocets could help maintain duck shooting enhanced by the floods. Together with the RSPB they lobbied the Ministry of Agriculture, suspended the drainage, and the RSPB started to lease the site in 1947, the Ogilvies retaining shooting rights. However through natural succession the flooded marsh quickly became overgrown with reeds (below), attracting other colonists including bitterns, bearded tits, and marsh harriers, but driving out the avocets.
To counteract this the Minsmere Scrape (below) was created in 1962, a pioneering piece of artificial habitat creation by warden Bert Axell, a great conservationist and character (read this) but not a big fan of visitors ('they're wasting my bloody time'). When I first visited on a family holiday in 1974, my father had to write off to RSPB headquarters for a permit for us to be shown round on a specific day. Health and safety had yet to appear and I fell down a hole in one of the hides and broke a toe. This was a blessing in disguise, as I got a personalized wheelchair ride round the reserve; since then I have followed the reserve's development.
The RSPB bought Minsmere in 1977, building it up to its present 2500 acres. The Scrape was enthusiastically admired and imitated by conservationists as far away as Japan, but many local people regarded Minsmere as somewhere where they were not welcome, and it was feared that increased visitor numbers would effect rare breeding species. Eventually public consultations were held about how to make the reserve attractive to locals. From 2014-16 Springwatch was filmed at Minsmere for three years, causing a massive spike in visitor numbers and public profile. On recent evenings flocks of people, not all regular birdwatchers, have convened to see murmurations of up to 40,000 starlings. Interestingly numbers of rare breeding species have risen incrementally with the number of visitors, which is now around 120,000 per year; I wonder what Bert Axell would have thought.
The RSPB bought Minsmere in 1977, building it up to its present 2500 acres. The Scrape was enthusiastically admired and imitated by conservationists as far away as Japan, but many local people regarded Minsmere as somewhere where they were not welcome, and it was feared that increased visitor numbers would effect rare breeding species. Eventually public consultations were held about how to make the reserve attractive to locals. From 2014-16 Springwatch was filmed at Minsmere for three years, causing a massive spike in visitor numbers and public profile. On recent evenings flocks of people, not all regular birdwatchers, have convened to see murmurations of up to 40,000 starlings. Interestingly numbers of rare breeding species have risen incrementally with the number of visitors, which is now around 120,000 per year; I wonder what Bert Axell would have thought.
Minsmere is part of Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Natural beauty, marketed as 'unspoiled'; its swaying reeds can conjure up an impression of remote timelessness. In fact it has frequently been 'spoiled' by both man and nature; scratch the surface and you realize that this remarkably bio-diverse landscape is in a constant state of flux. Due to rising sea levels it could to revert to a tidal estuary within this century; in the short run increased water abstraction for cooling at the new Sizewell C nuclear power station next door may alter the delicate balance between fresh and saline water.
Recent colonists: nuclear power station and little egret
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