Woodbridge Regatta – an intergenerational event

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Interview with Geoff Holdcroft, former chairman by Julia Jones

Geoff Holdcroft moved to Suffolk in 1985, working for BT. At first, he missed the hills of North Staffordshire where he had grown up but soon discovered the different beauty of the River Deben. He learned to sail on the BT boats at Waldringfield, then bought himself a Mirror dinghy – and after that, a Jaguar 22.

(courtesy Alan Comber)

Within ten years Geoff had joined the Deben Yacht Club in Woodbridge and was involved with people who were involved with the Woodbridge Regatta. His first job as a volunteer for the DYC, however, was to gain advertisements for the annual handbook. This put him in touch with many more interesting people running businesses around the town and surrounding area. Among them was Alan Readhead, a colleague at BT who introduced him to the Regatta committee   ‘We need someone to do the same for the Regatta programme,’ said Alan. The Regatta handbook then ran to eight pages so the revenue from advertisements also helped support the costs of the Regatta infrastructure – items such as the public address system and First Aid attendance. Geoff took on the job.

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Conservation and Climate Change: The National Trust on the Suffolk and Essex Coast

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By Matt Wilson

RDA co-chair Colin Nicholson, NT countryside manager Matt Wilson and RDA vice chair Liz Hattan at the AGM

The speaker for this year’s River Deben Association AGM was Matt Wilson, countryside manager for the National Trust for the Suffolk & Essex Coast. His subject was Conservation and Climate Change: his topics were varied, reflecting the varied nature of his responsibilities in this area.

Matt’s title is countryside manager – and that gives him a wide remit, which he’s still exploring. He’s already spent 25 years working in Local Government, within green spaces and blue spaces including for Essex County Council, the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham, and Exmoor National Park authority. Now, with the National Trust for the last 2 and a half years, he has a team of Rangers (currently six) who undertake the practical management and wildlife monitoring on the ground while Matt’s remit is slightly more strategic. He has a particular interest in developing partnership work with other local conservation and environment groups, working at a landscape scale. The area for which he’s responsible runs from Northey Island on the River Blackwater in Essex, to Darrow Wood, over the Suffolk / Norfolk border.

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Flood Defence of the Estuary.  Are we facing a catastrophe?

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By Robin Whittle

Several articles have been written in the Deben Magazine concerning the river wall defences1,2,3,4.  This article concentrates on the immediate need for action on the river wall of Flood Cell 1: Bawdsey to Ramsholt.

The clay river walls of the River Deben have provided landowners and the local community with grazing marsh and arable land for the past five hundred years.  During this time the walls have been raised by about 0.6m/century to compensate for sea level rise and clay wall settlement (see Figure 1).

Figure 1:  River wall at Ramsholt being enhanced in 2015

Where breaching occurs, the wall is either eroded down to saltmarsh level or, where there is no saltmarsh, down to the embanked fresh-water marsh level.  The latter is very difficult and extremely costly to repair, usually requiring the use of helicopters.  Overtopping is not necessarily damaging to a wall providing the wall is largely level and the overtopping is less than 200mm over a landward slope of not less than 1:2. (see Figure 2).

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Update on “Leisure on the Deben Estuary” Survey Results

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East Suffolk Council’s rejection of the commercial hire of personal watercraft on the Deben Estuary (a decision with NO effect on the private use of personal watercraft) brought into focus several issues regarding the use of the estuary.

A survey was constructed by the River Deben Association and Deben Estuary Partnership that concentrated on everyone’s use of the estuary and in particular how its leisure users and wildlife can best coexist.

The results are now in! (Detailed Survey)

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I just want to record my memories of this area

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A review of Shingle Beaches and Tidal Rivers: the River Stour to Southwold by Robert Simper

Published Creekside Publishing £16.50

By Julia Jones

This is Robert Simper’s farewell to the stretch of Suffolk coast that he has known and loved over more than 80 years. In its introduction he recalls his wartime childhood living at Bawdsey watching bombers coming and going and sometimes aerial dogfights between the RAF and attacking German planes. He was clearly an inquisitive child and one who was shaped by his East Coast environment. ‘The North Sea was in front of us. It looked a cold and unwelcoming place and as time when by I found out it was just that. However, I was fascinated by the rivers and places beside the sea and felt I had to explore them.’

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Maid Marion

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by Julia Jones

Maid Marion passing HMS Severn with the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships (ADLS).

Maid Marion (PZ 61) has been a familiar sight on the River Deben for over 60 years. It was in 1964 that her new owner John Hunt, together with David Mellonie of Small Craft Deliveries brought her from her original home in Cornwall to the mooring at Ramsholt, just down river from the Quay, which she has occupied ever since. This year, 2025, she reaches her 100th birthday.

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Leisure on the Deben Estuary Survey

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What’s your view on how the river can be best enjoyed by everyone? Please complete the Survey we have created and let us know 

Deadline 31st March 2025.

The recent rejection of the commercial hire of personal watercraft on the Deben Estuary (a decision that does not affect the private use of personal watercraft) has brought into focus several issues regarding the use of the estuary.

We have constructed a survey that concentrates on everyone’s use of the estuary and in particular how its leisure users and wildlife can best coexist.

Please take a few minutes to answer the questions in the survey at https://forms.gle/syjXdAfPABNzGVVW7. It has been distributed by the Deben Estuary Partnership to 40 organisations and individuals with connections to the estuary: please do send it on to anyone with a connection to the Deben so it circulates as widely as possible to interested parties.

We’ll use the findings to help steer our engagement with local councils and authorities.

The survey will close on 31st March, and we will aim to publish our results on the River Deben Association website around three 3 weeks from then.

Environmental Protections for the River Deben

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By Liz Hattan, RDA Vice Chair

We are so lucky to live near the River Deben – many of us enjoy sailing and kayaking on it, walking by it, or swimming in it. It’s also special for its wildlife and landscapes resulting in it being designated under international and domestic law to help conserve it.   

The Deben Estuary is designated under international law by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and under domestic law (England and Wales) as a Special Protection Area, as well as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and as part of the Suffolk and Essex Coasts and Heaths National Landscape (previously known as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty AONB).[1]  But why has the Estuary received such designations and why does it matter?  In summary, it is designated because of the Deben’s unique and invaluable biodiversity and special landscape features; by having such designations it makes it easier to protect and conserve the area, both legally and because it helps remind us all to take extra special care of it.[2]  

Curlew (courtesy Sally Westwood)

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