Skip to content
Accessibility
  • Text Size:
  • Normal
  • Large
  • Larger
  • Screen Colours:
  • Normal
  • Black & Yellow
Alde Valley Suffolk Family History Group
  • Home
    Home Page About us and what we do ... Constitution Data Privacy (GDPR) Early Days of the Group Leiston Grammar School Archive Leiston house plaques Leiston WWI/WW2 & POW memorials Oral History: Janet Barnes (b.1938) Our Church Records Suffolk Flag Legals
  • maps+
    Alde Valley map and placenames Alde Valley medieval Churches Alde Valley potted history Ipswich/IP postcode maps Old Suffolk maps Ordnance Survey 25"/etc maps Snape maps (1783 onwards) Suffolk Parishes: MI's and PR's Links to more maps
  • events
    All our upcoming events OUR NEXT TALK Our upcoming Monthly Talks Attending our talks Help Centre: NEW ARRANGEMENTS FH Research Drop-in (first) Tuesdays Saxmundham FHG (2nd Tuesdays) Reported talks 2023: past talks/events 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2015-17 Our Open Days
  • blog
    Our Next Talk Reports of previous talks Audio blogs
  • Help-Centre
    Our Help Centre Book an appointment to visit our Help Centre Where to find things in the Help Centre
  • Index
    Index of Resources How to use our Index Where to find things in the Help Centre Why do we have Ref-IDs? Index AV abbreviations Our Ordnance Survey 25"/etc maps Pen and Sword Publications at Leiston Library (download) PSIAH: Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute for Archaeology & History Snape Archive
  • downloads
    downloads
  • links
    links Free websites for Family Historians Alde Valley history-related news Rolls of Honour of the Alde Valley (WWI and WW2) Suffolk Archives (formerly SRO/Suffolk Record Office) Suffolk county and local links nationwide links Support our Friends & Advertisers! Zeppelin L48, Theberton 1917 useful, non-local information for Newsletters
  • membership
    Membership summary online application What we promise ...
  • Contacts
    Committee and bank Members' Surname Interests Research Request Form
  • local people
    local people The Garretts
  • archive
    archive Videos & podcasts Virtual Visit Dec.2020: Aldringham Fens Heritage Project appeal for information Open Day 2019 Fisherfolk and Lifeboat Men Open Day 2018 Open Day 2017 Open Day 2016 In Flanders Fields Leiston Abbey 2015 Open Day March 2015 Open Day January 2014 Open Day October 2013 Open Day January 2013 Aldringham Baptist Chapel Survey Open Day 2012 Flanders 2011 St Mary's Benhall MI's 2010

Home » events » The History of Minsmere

The History of Minsmere
Fri
22
Jan
2016
14
30
Fri
22
Jan
2016
16
00

The History of Minsmere

Over eighty people turned up at Kelsale village hall – the first time we have used that venue – on the afternoon of 22nd January to hear Kelsale resident Charles Cuthbert’s personal perspective on the history of Minsmere.

IMG00010 20160122 1425

 

Charles’s parents used to have the Post Office at Theberton, and Charles told us of his carefree childhood, running wild in the countryside, and showed us photos of the beach at Sizewell where he used to go swimming with the school, before the power station was built.

He was only thirteen years old when he first started volunteering at what is now one of the UK’s premier nature reserves. Minsmere has been a part of his life ever since.

He told of how the marshes had been inhabited by monks in the Middle Ages – the ruins of their chapel are still to be seen – until they moved to Leiston Abbey to escape the risk of flooding.

William Smith, “the father of English geology”, first drained the marshes in the early 1800s, after which they were used for agriculture until World War II, when the existing grazing marshes were flooded as an anti-invasion measure.  Charles showed us photographs of the barbed-wire beach defences, with a radar mast in the background.  The concrete tank traps are there to this day: one still bears the inscription “Wimpeys Defence Line 1940”. 

The flooding attracted wetland birds. Avocets (the emblem of the RSPB) which symbolise the bird protection movement in the UK more than any other species, were found nesting at Minsmere and on Havergate Island in the River Alde in the 1940s and the subsequent increase in numbers represents one of the most successful conservation and protection projects.

The bird reserve was later purchased from the Ogilvie family.  Bert Axell was appointed its first full-time warden in 1959. He developed the “scrapes”, huge shallow lagoons dotted with islands to attract the birds – a land-management system that is now copied worldwide.

In the freezing winter of 1962/3 Bert rescued bitterns and fed them fish to keep them alive; and Charles told us how in September 1965 thousands of unusual migrant birds were blown off course and literally fell out of the sky from exhaustion – a phenomenon known as The Great Fall of 1965.

Charles illustrated his talk with many photographs, some archival black and white, and some lovely colourful ones of birds.  The meeting closed with a number of questions.

This was the first time we have met in the afternoon: the high attendance suggests it was a popular move.

 

Maggie Strutt

 

Previous: Reflections on Flanders Field
Next: Stories from Saxmundham
The Details:
Kelsale Village Hall, Bridge Street/Low Road corner, Kelsale, Saxmundham, Suffolk, IP17 2PB View Map >>

Copyright © 2025, Alde Valley Suffolk Family History Group

[ f] Follow us on Facebook here! ♬♬♬ Please report website issues to the Webmaster here §

This site uses cookies to store information on your computer.

Do you want to allow cookies on this site?

Allow all cookies on this site

Alternatively, you may customise your cookie preferences bellow.
Some parts of this site may be disabled if cookies are blocked.

Allow only local cookies on this site
Block all cookies on this site

'Local cookies' are cookies generated by our site to enable some functionality. Other cookies are those used by external sources such as Google, Facebook or Youtube to enable their features on our website.

For more information about cookies click here.