Author Archives: Alan Comber

The Deben Quiz 2020 with answers

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By Julia Jones

At the time of writing (Jan 2021) many families are involved – willingly or not – with home schooling. The RDA editorial team decided to join in and set this quiz to check whether you’ve been reading your Deben magazines and RDA Journal articles carefully. All the answers will be found in magazine issues 60 & 61 and in RDA Journal articles between September and December 2020. The magazines and the Journal articles are all on this website and no different answers will be accepted. If it ain’t there, it ain’t right!

Anyone can do this quiz – answers will be posted on the RDA Journal site next Friday (Jan 29th)

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Tales from the courts

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Murder on the Deben by Peter Wain

The Deben is such a peaceful river but its tranquility masks deeds of theft and even murder on its banks.

On Thursday the 20th December 1352, in Bawdsey, Robert Fille, aged 32, and William Crey had an argument[1]. It seems that this argument took place at one o’clock in the morning and it may be that both men had been drinking.  It seems they were arguing over two ‘botewond’.   

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Drawing on Water

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by Claudia Myatt

It’s 3,600 nautical miles from Easter Island to Falkland, and on this day last year I was a long way from the Deben, six days into a voyage that would take 21 days or more. Dutch sailing ship Tecla set sail from Easter Island on 6th December 2019  bound for Cape Horn, our next landfall the southern tip of South America. Our 13 day passage from Galapagos to Easter Island had been in tropical waters alive with flying fish and in calm weather we had a ‘swim stop’, jumping over the side to experience the thrill of swimming in clear sapphire water over 4km deep.  Now, at 30 degrees south, we could feel the tropics slipping away. The nights were chilly and we started to unpack some of the warm clothes we would need in the colder waters of the Southern Ocean. Continue reading →

RDA 30th Anniversary Video

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This video was made to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the River Deben Association.

In it, Robert Simper, its President, is interviewed in the Autumn sunshine at Ramsholt by ex-Chair, Joeske van Walsum, and the video includes footage of the spectacular river scenery. This video was first shown in November 2020 at the RDA Zoom AGM.

Alternatively click on the link below to view the RDA 30th Anniversary Video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L84QobrCunk

 

 

 

Sutton Hoo: the real story – or how Woodbridge never changes

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Discovered in the EADT of March 15th AD 650 and translated by Moray McPhail

It was a foul day as Hrotgut made his way along the river to Aeverson’s workshop. He supposed that he couldn’t expect much better in mid October, but it was a hard easterly, known as a lazy wind because it couldn’t be bothered to go around you, but went instead straight through. It drove spiky raindrops into his face and every crevice of his clothing. All in all he couldn’t help thinking that it was pretty inconsiderate of King Raedwald to go and die in the early winter. Continue reading →

Winter Birds on the Deben

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by Sally Westwood

A walk along the bank of the River Deben can be interesting whatever the weather. The birds are there, going about their business, searching for food, and perhaps squabbling and arguing about temporary feeding territory. I had a walk along the riverbank towards Wilford Bridge from the direction of Woodbridge, to see what birds were about. The tide was coming in. The weather was bright and sunny. I immediately spotted two huge flocks of Lapwings (Vanellus vanillas) swirling around in the sky. Commonly, Lapwings flock together in the winter months on marshes (Svensson, 2009). They can be identified by their white and black rounded wing-tips showing dark above and white below, moving in a flapping motion. Close up views when stationary, reveal a long thin, wispy head-crest. The winter plumage shows a scaly pattern on their dark upper parts and coverts. This contrasts with their summer plumage, which has a beautiful purple and green iridescence. As they turned, I could see the flickering of the black and white of their wings.

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Waldringfield

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by Leigh Belcham from Newbourne in short trousers © Leigh Belcham 2014

Sheltered from the prevailing westerlies, the sandy beach at neighbouring Waldringfield was always an attraction for Newbourne children. On the banks of the River Deben, the village had been a popular sailing centre since the 1920s. The waterfront was was inaccessible to the public during the war, but once hostilities ceased, boats soon returned to the river and children to the shore. Most parents were tied to their smallholdings, but older children could roam free, with many heading to the water by bike or on foot.

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Barge Wharves on the River Deben

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by Robert Simper

Part 1:  Bawdsey Ferry up to Hemley Dock

When I was young, in the early 1950s, there were still people who talked about the places where Thames barges loaded on the River Deben. Most of these were still clearly visible as loading wharves, but nearly seventy years later most of them have been reduced to just a few pieces of rotten wood sticking out of the mud. Continue reading →

The other side of the mirror

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By Stephen Thompson

I’ve long enjoyed the Deben estuary – my “hole in the water lined with wood or fibreglass into which you pour money” lives there (or to be strictly accurate, it lives propped up on wooden blocks in a yard beside the Deben while I fettle it). However I’d never actually seen a paper copy of “The Deben” magazine until very recently. It’s very impressive – and in particular the photographs and paintings of this gorgeous area. The beautiful scenery reflected in the mirror surface of still waters capture the peace and tranquillity.

But my own interest in such locations has always been driven by a desire to know what’s happening “on the other side of the mirror”. I think this probably started watching Jacques Cousteau on “The World About Us” on Sunday evenings (and if you can remember that, you really are dating yourself!), and poking about in streams and ponds to see what was down there. Fishing, and later on SCUBA diving, fed this ambition, and when it came time to choose I selected a Marine Biology degree. Continue reading →