Memories of Essex Wildlife Trust

During the late 1970's my mum, Betty, was the Maldon district sales agent for the Essex Naturalists' Trust as it then was. She went to local Christmas sales, fetes and carnivals selling wildlife related goods to raise money for the Trust. We sold things like jigsaws, tea towels, notebooks, badges, keyrings, bookmarks, wrapping paper - small things but it all added up. I was in my mid teens and used to enjoy helping on the stalls. I still have the "I'm for Wildlife" badge set, with a different animal on each badge, and there's probably a notebook and a tea towel or two squirrelled away somewhere too.

The photo was taken in 1979 in the Jubilee Hall, Maldon. Betty and Bill Chittenden are on the left behind the table.
 

In the early days of Fingringhoe Nature Discovery Park we used to take our family to stay in the bunk house (slept 4 at 5/- per person per night). On one such occasion we found a very excited Laurie Forsyth (resident warden) as they'd found a new species for the reserve ~ a relatively rare species of mouse, the yellow necked ! However our daughters were none too impressed with their wildlife experience when they learnt where the mice had been found. Yes, you've guessed  ~ in the bunk house ! Worse still, they'd made a nest in a mattress .Fortunately all slept that night as quiet as mice (or should that be as quiet as the mice).

From 1986  I became a volunteer at Two Tree Island while still recovering from a serious motor accident some years earlier. Fresh air, open spaces, exercise are just what the doctor ordered! I looked forward to the work parties on Sunday mornings and visited the reserve whenever I could. In 1987 we acquired a rescue dog and  she quickly became Wicked Wanda the Warden's Dog when in 1993 I was appointed Warden, upon the retirement of the late Roy Smith. Part of my function was to produce brief notes for the local group Newsletter and it is fascinating to re-read them all these years later. Here are just two extracts:
Winter 1994:
Brent geese arrived on schedule on the 25th September and built up to around 10,000 before dispersing earlier than usual. There were two separate reports of a Bittern on the fleets. Other bird sightings included a Barn Owl, Short Eared Owls (3 together, seen by yours truly). Kingfisher, Sparrowhawk, Merlin and Stonechats. The post and rail fence enclosing the filter beds was completed. A long section of fence was renewed along the road-side down to the creek and planted with 150 hawthorn. Together with previous planting we will have in time a continuous new hedgerow of some 700 metres for wildlife to inhabit.
Winter 1995:
Although Brent numbers were disappointing, there were good shows of Wigeon, Shelduck and Teal. The shy Water Rail has returned to the island. Sightings of Greater, Lesser Spotted and Green Woodpecker prove that there are certainly more than Two Trees on the Island!
 

I thought I would share my early memories (1950s) of visiting the chalk quarry in Grays, which has subsequently developed into your Chafford Gorges Nature Park. It was a wild place in those days, and still out in the countryside prior to all the housing development. 

As a young teenager in the mid sixties, I joined in with Ken Crawshaw, on weekend workgroups at Fingringhoe Wick reserve. There were features not seen today like a Sand Martin colony in the banks over the large lake, and the jetty with a hide at the end, which was excellent for viewing wildlife on the river Colne.
I remember our first Warden arriving, Paddy and Pat Lunt who put in a tremendous effort to improve the reserve in times of very little monetary resource to work with. I have very fond memories of all the people and events from that period in my life.

In 2005, the Brentwood and Billericay (B&B) Local Group was approached by Warley Place reserve to see what might be done to stabilise the old conservatory. This is the only standing part of Ellen Willmott's once grand house.  An initial donation of £5000 was given by Phyllis Gregory, whose father was taught horticulture by Ellen Willmott. He then went on to work at Kew and RHS Wisley. Another £1000 was donated by the Great Warley Conservation Society.  The Local Group wrote an appeal letter  to all B&B and Havering members. These very generous donations helped to achieve the required total of £33,000.  An incredible feat. A grant was also obtained by EWT Head Office. The Local Group found a suitable  contractor, and work was completed in April 2006.

Reminiscing about the Art Exhibition which I helped run at Thorndon visitor centre for 4 or 5 years in the 2000s.  We sold lots of pictures and raised money for the Local Group. One year, I can remember one picture being stolen but I didn't mind too much because it wasn't terribly good! 

I've worked for the Trust for nearly 18 years and one of the most striking memories was seeing the first beaver dam in Essex for 700 years at Spains Hall after 18 months of preparation for the release of this iconic mammal. I am still blown away by what these rodents have achieved in a few short years on that site and how much it has helped relieve flooding to the village downstream. I never imagined I would be part of a project like that when I switched from being a touring and recording musician in my 20s and 30s to a career in nature conservation.

Organising my first plant sale at the Thorndon Visitor Centre in 2009 and taking over from the successes of the late great Bill Tidmus I wanted to get away from the general perception of "cheap and cheerful" charity sales - I was in it for the money! In those days we did have the cake/ home baking stall (thanks to Shirley Jonas and Co.) and the craft stall of Olive Baldwin And Thelma Wilson -  all of the required standard! We did also have some top quality plants, one of which was a large pot (very big instant garden border size) of Day Lily. I suggested to helper "X", (a valued and respected volunteer) that we did not let this treasure go for less than £10.00. 

   Later in the day "X" came up and reported the sale of this item.

  "Oh! Good, for how much?

  "X" said, "£2.00"!!

  Perhaps I am "a man who knows the price of everything, but the value of nothing" (Oscar Wilde).

  The sale was a great success.

I joined in 1969 after visiting Fingringhoe Wick, and being impressed with the idea of having nature reserves in the Colchester area. At that time you could walk right down to the sandy beach and have a swim if you wanted to. It was great to see sand martins nesting. It was the first time i heard nightingales and learn about all the winter visiting seabirds. I went on to have a family and often walked the reserve with my children as they grew up. Its astonishing  and heart warming to see how the Trust has grown and flourished, and one of the few things that have improved in my 80 years. 

Reflecting on Kate Gibbs who looked after the Trust's Watch Group for youngsters in Blackmore. She was a biologist. She ran nature expeditions for the children. I can remember her creating plaster of paris moulds of deer prints which they found when they were out & about. Fascinating for the children.  

Remembering fondly Jim Jarmy MBE who died earlier this year. In the 1990s, he was volunteer warden at Warley Place. He used to manage the working parties as well as the Spring Bulb Spectacular as it was in those days. He was a lovely man.

Visiting Stondon Massey Church as a Local Group in Summer 1998 to see the long-eared bats come down into the church from the belfry and fly around to warm up before going outside.  We had torches and could see them sitting high up, and peering down with their big eyes and lovely big ears.

Spotting an adder while volunteering at Langdon.

Thinking back to the time, in the 1980s, when Warley Place had one open weekend a year, in April, with a tea marquee.  It always seemed to rain and one year there was snow on the ground, and we stood on straw in the tent when serving tea and cakes, and the lady in charge cheerfully and shamelessly watered the milk (full cream then!) because we were running out. 

One of the first memories I have is going with the children to Fingringhoe Wick for a pond dipping session. Such fun and my husband who was a sailor thoroughly enjoyed watching the boats in the waters around the site. a great day out.

Today I volunteer at Abberton, helping out with the education team - but my memory is not concerning volunteering, it goes back almost the full 65 years!

As a young child I was taken by my father to Fingringhoe Wick. I think this would have been around 1960/61 as the site was not yet open as a reserve, and possibly was at the stage when the then ENT was purchasing it. My dad was a early member and very involved in the establishment of the Trust with a group of like-minded naturalists . There were no bird hides, just piles of gravel and rusting machinery left over from the works and a few overgrown paths. There was a dilapidated bunkhouse (where future work parties sometimes stayed overnight) and the beach with a jetty and a boat wreck. Today this wreck, in front of Robbie's Hide, has all but disappeared.

We thought it was a wonderful place, wild but not quiet, as the marshes were full of the sound of bird calls. It seemed to be the ideal place for a nature reserve and I remember many discussions at home about the possibilities for its use and the expansion of the Trust. The Wick was so different from where we lived at that time, opposite the ancient Pound Wood in Daws Heath which in the future was to become another Trust reserve.

A later memory concerns that of the devastating fire which swept across the Fingringhoe site in September 1972 as a result of stubble burning on the adjacent farmland. We were all so upset to see the blackened remains of the swathes of scrub and nature trail and the area took a few years to recover. I think this experience helped bring about changes in local laws and eventually a ban on stubble burning.

All this seems so long ago... but thankfully new generations have stepped up to expand the work of EWT, to encourage interest and to keep more corners of Essex for nature. You can still hear the birds call on the Fingringhoe marshes, and long may they remain.

I love working for the trust and making a real difference for nature with a fab group of staff and volunteers working toward the same goal. I'm lucky that at Chafford Gorges Nature Reserve the site is relatively young and there has been lots of restoration works here, which are really satisfying. We have restored many, many hectares of biodiverse Calcareous grassland here, with our success borne out from the orchid counts every year, numbers increasing and orchids spreading to new areas of the reserve every year. 

We have removed over 20 skips worth of building waste and fly tipping as well as 440 litres of rubbish fortnightly for the past 8 years, Which has really made the site a more inviting place for people and wildlife. 

We have installed trails and interpretation boards around the whole reserve to link all the areas together, as well as steps and rope rails to make traversing the old quarries easier. 

Too much to write in here but some of the best days of my life are spent here at Chafford Gorges Nature Reserve.

I have two memories of early Trust days.
No 1.
During the 1960’s my wife Susan and I enrolled for an evening class titled ‘Wild Life in Essex’ at the local junior school in Hadleigh. the tutor was very knowledgeable and full of facts. At the end of every lesson was a slide show which was of superb quality.
The tutor was the late Don Hunford who was a founder member of the then Essex Naturalist Trust. Not surprisingly Don encouraged us to join the Trust.
There were few reserves in those days - the HQ was at Fingringhoe Wick. Together with our two young sons we manned the shop on a Sunday rota. The boys loved playing shops and it tested their mental arithmetic handing cash with no electronic help. At the end of the day we locked the shop and handed the cash and keys to the warden who lived on site.
No 2.
In the late 1970’s our eldest son came home from Cubs very excited and told us that they had been given a talk about coppicing by a man who invited the Cubs into Belfairs Wood to help with felling trees on the following Sunday. The proviso was that they must be accompanied by a parent.
Leading a busy life the thought of losing half the weekend raised an eyebrow but just to be supportive decided to give it a go.
The first Sunday was such fun and the work party so friendly that as a family of four we attended regular work parties for years.
The man that gave the talk to the Cubs was Cliff Moore, who will be known to many Trust members.
For my sins I still work for EWT as a Voluntary Warden of a local small reserve.