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Article Number 112. This sub-section contains an article contributed by Ken Taylor.
Memories of Woodwalton Fen. Click on a photo for a popup window showing larger photo.
From Chapel Road, I cross the bridge with the trepidation of foreknowledge. It is June, 2012 and a fen, however great or small, in such a season can bring fear to any adventurer. Barely 50 yards on, a hum grows and grows. Around me, in the air, in the ear...
The hum becomes insistent.
Welcome to Woodwalton Fen. And for me, welcome to The 49 Club.
Though used to 25 years of creatures persistent in this amazing man-made fen, I find the hum of 49ers pleasant to the ear. And, better yet, they do not bite or sting!
It is my first 49 Club Event and I am meeting many Club Members for the first time. Many I knew well, and many more within NE, EN and NCC, due to my wife, Carolyn's career with the bods beginning in 1985. But, for those I knew not well, I knew the ground.
Flashback, 25 years, to evenings spent, with friends, in this modern landscape faux, watching birdlife, but mainly immersed in nature past. Twice bitten and thrice shy of mosquitoes but determined to experience this amazing nature at peak season.
And what a season spring is in this magical bed of reeds, from the eerie drumming of the courting snipe to the booming bittern and the darting hobby. Such treats of nature.
A nature, though passed, conserved today as remembrance of an earlier work of man.
Flash, more distantly, back a century. Rothschild's vision encompassed no less than 284 sites he deemed "worthy of preservation". A taunt that taught generations of thought.
But no. Go earlier still, to sporting eras when elite yachts competed on England's largest lake, a mere 3 miles north.
So began the demise of the last deep area of our greatest fen, as eels slithered way to poplar stands and fishermen cuckolded mermaids for peat. Their souls they sold for celery.
But Sirens called, across dark time, for nature to restore a precious waterlife. And, somehow, inspired by rich naturalists, poor naturalists, a pond, a bee, a dream. You, and me. And those to come.
We will re-make the great fen.
First Day of a New Job
My first day's work with the Club was very easy - a lovely stroll around Woodwalton Fen, guided by experts. Then on to a nice dinner and then another day of walking around Holme Fen and other areas of the Great Fen Project.
As the years went by, I kept a low-profile, mainly taking photos and chatting to new friends. But Carolyn had already "volunteered" to be club Treasurer and I then later "volunteered" to take-on an embryonic website.
Flash forward a decade and we now both spend much time working to help the Committee and other Organisers to keep this great Club going.
And no, it's not a job, it's a labour of love. Thank you to all who have kept the club going for years, we are now trying to do our bit. At least for a few years.
And then.... we will be working hard to find the next unsuspecting "volunteers"!
A Little History of Woodwalton Fen from the Great Fen Project website:
During the late 1960's - mid 1980's, the Middle
Level Commissioners implemented proposals for an improved
farmland drainage system locally, designating Woodwalton Fen as a flood
storage reservoir. As part of the agreement with the Middle level
Commissioners, the Nature Conservancy Council allowed MLC to construct clay
cored banks on the reserve boundary, an act that
significantly improved water retention on the reserve with huge benefits
for the wetland habitats and species.
The Rothschild Bungalow
On the site of an old farmstead and at the heart of the new nature reserve, Charles
Rothschild built a bungalow on stilts and used it as a base for his field trips
out on the fen. His activities included moth trapping at night and local people
were not quite sure what to make of the visitors from London who went out into
the fen at night with lanterns. You can still visit the bungalow today.
The ancient wild fens once stretched for miles across a huge part
of East Anglia, but more than 99% of the habitat disappeared when the land was
drained for agriculture. Now one of only four remaining fragments of the
ancient fens, Woodwalton Fen would not exist today if it were not for Charles Rothschild, a successful
banker, wildlife enthusiast and "father of modern conservation".
Becoming very concerned with the rapid disappearance of
British wildlife and habitats as a result of industrialisation, he saw that in
order to protect wildlife species and their habitats, nature reserves would
need to be established. Rothschild bought Woodwalton Fen in 1910 to ensure that
at least one part of the ancient fens would not disappear forever.
Building on the work done by Rothschild and his colleagues,
Natural England, the government’s adviser on nature
conservation (previously the Nature Conservancy Council, then English
Nature) designated the first National Nature Reserves in 1953, and
in 1954 Woodwalton Fen was designated as a National Nature Reserve. These
are some of the best sites in the country for wildlife and geology.
It was the incredible array of
invertebrate life that attracted Charles Rothschild. More
than 1000 beetle species of terrestrial and aquatic have been
recorded in the reserve, of which nearly 200 are rare in
Britain. More than 900 species of moths and butterflies have been
recorded, including the Elephant Hawk Moth and Marsh Carpet Moth.
There are more than 400
species of wildflowers that can be found on the nature reserve, particular
importance is the Fen Violet, found in only two other places the UK and the Fen
Woodrush, found nowhere else in the country.
Kingfishers
breed and can be seen along the dykes and around the meres at any time of
year. A highlight of Woodwalton Fen is the aerial display of
Marsh Harriers over the northern reed bed. The Marsh Harrier almost died out as
a UK breeding species just a few decades ago due to persecution, however since
the 1960's the population has recovered to an estimated 400 breeding pairs.
