Author Archives: Bertie Wheen

Confessions of a Serial Litter-Picker: The RDA Autumn Talk, Nov 5th 2024

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By Julia Jones

I’ll be honest – I had no idea that a talk about litter was going to be so interesting and emotive. Not only the emotions of disgust, incredulity and anger — which thinking about litter evokes all too easily – but engagement, humour, surprise, compassion, admiration. Yet that’s how I felt listening to Jason Alexander’s presentation to the RDA on Bonfire Night. A good moment to be sweeping up some old preconceptions and seeing them burn away cold night air, giving out warmth and inspiration as they go.

This is the story of a one-man campaign and a movement we can all join, on our own or working with others.

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Best Wishes to Deben sailor Pip Hare as she tackles her second Vendee Globe race

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By Julia Jones and Nick Cottam

The Vendée Globe is a single-handed, non-stop, non-assisted round-the-world sailing race that takes place every four years. It is contested on IMOCA monohulls, which are 18 metres long. The skippers set off from Les Sables-d’Olonne in Vendée and sail around 45,000 kilometres around the globe, rounding the three legendary capes (Good Hope, Leeuwin and finally Cape Horn) before returning to Les Sables d’Olonne. The race has acquired an international reputation, attracting skippers from all over the world. Beyond the competition, it is above all an incredible human adventure.

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A Walk from Shottisham to Ramsholt (and Back)

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by Sue Ryder Richardson

Like the River Deben itself, this walk is one of two parts: from dry pastoral uplands to the salty, tidal marshes and mudflats. Start in the tiny village of Shottisham, a place where time has stood still; a cluster of cottages nestle around the picturesque Sorrel Horse pub, a path leads up to St Margaret’s church, and a playground. There is a white weatherboarded watermill set Constable-like amongst trees, and all this is surrounded by cornfields and pastures. The village captures the essence of Ronald Blythe, as it settles in a landscape that recalls the horse-drawn plough of George Ewart Evans.

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’Zines in the ’Teens, Part I

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by Bertie Wheen

This is one of a series of articles, the previous of which are:

  1. Once Upon a Time…
  2. News from the Noughties, Part I
  3. News from the Noughties, Part II

These are encouragements to go to our magazine page and have a look through our back catalogue. It might not seem like an interesting thing to do, but if you do, and live on (or otherwise have a relationship with) the Deben, I can quite confidently tell you that you will find interest there.

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Churches of the Deben: Part 3B

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by Gareth Thomas

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3: From MELTON and from SUTTON to the edge of THE NORTH SEA
*This might be just ten miles of estuary but it is two banks of a wide estuary and includes the ancient maritime town of Woodbridge. Consequently, for the sake of both compilers and readers, Part 3 is presented in two sections: 3A and 3B

Part 3A

Part 3B: From Melton to The North Sea

Back at Melton another St Andrew’s calls. Simon Knott describes it as ‘wayward’. A bit harsh, but I know what he is getting at. So far, we have seen churches struggling, sometimes against the odds, to maintain their medieval fabric on their original sites. In many cases their causes were advanced by Victorian wealth. In Melton, after much debate, that wealth was used to build a mock-up of medieval architecture on a completely new site, with stone not typical of this area, nearer to the developing township. It was completed in 1868. Somehow it lacks that aura of medieval mystery.

The Church of St Andrew, Melton

The interior of St Andrews, Melton. Note the rood screen
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Delightful Deben Walk

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by Jan Harber

My sister Judy and I have been doing walks around the Suffolk coast and rivers for many years. We often remark how, if we do a route at a different time of year or the other way round, it can look so undiscovered.  For this reason we are occasionally convinced that we’d never been that way before. Continue reading →

Churches of the Deben: Part 3A

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By Gareth Thomas

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3: From MELTON and from SUTTON to the edge of THE NORTH SEA

*This might be just ten miles of estuary but it is two banks of a wide estuary and includes the ancient maritime town of Woodbridge. Consequently, for the sake of both compilers and readers, Part 3 will be presented in two sections: 3A and 3B

Part 3A: From Sutton to The North Sea

Welcome back to those readers who have survived the first two parts of this three (now four) – part series. As I explained in part one, I had no idea that there would be so many churches in close approximation to the River Deben, either as it is now or as it was, before the building of the river walls. Conversations with others suggest that I have not been alone in my ignorance; ‘forty-odd ! – that surely cannot be’ they say, but forty-odd it will be by the time we have finished – more than one church per sinuous mile of river.  Continue reading →

The importance of the River Deben for birds

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By Sally Westwood

Common Buzzard

 

Deben Estuary and changing tides

The River Deben is thought to commence west of Ulveston Hall, near Mickfield, alternatively the Deben may stem from the south in Bedingfield1. The river flows along gradually turning into an estuary between Melton and Woodbridge, and enters the North Sea at Harwich Haven, between Bawdsey and Felixstowe Ferry. A significant feature of the Deben Estuary is the changing tides. The tide is described as “the ocean’s response to the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun”2 but more specifically, “it is the variation in this pull over the surface of the Earth that makes tides”3. When tide is rising and coming in, the North Sea washes heavy sediment4 into the Deben which forms intertidal flats around the area of the mouth of the estuary at Felixstowe Ferry. This produces sand and shingle beaches. Finer silt is driven along the estuary into the river to form the mudflats we see at the sides of the river near Woodbridge, and more extensively further along the river at Melton, Wilford Bridge and beyond. The tide rises and falls twice a day5. High water on the River Deben occurs at intervals of approximately twelve hours, and the tide starts ebbing to low tide about six hours following high tide. High tide occurs one hour later each day. The height of the tide is affected by both the strength and direction of wind and atmospheric pressure6.

 

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River Deben Swimming and the Elephant in the Room

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By Ruth Leach

This is an extended version of Ruth Leach’s article ‘The Deben Bluetits Swim Group’, published on The Deben #68. It’s written in her capacity as co-founder of the Save the Deben campaign group and contains an update on water quality. This topic is scheduled for panel discussion at the River Deben Association’s forthcoming AGM, April 24th 2024.

During the recent pandemic our lives were deconstructed in so many ways, ‘free time’ – that precious commodity, was suddenly in abundance for many of us. People reconnected with their natural environment and for those fortunate enough to be near a blue space the love affair with nature soon flourished. Continue reading →