By Sue Ryder Richardson
Introduction
Some thirty-four miles inland from the mouth of the Deben, the village of Debenham nestles in quintessential Suffolk landscape. It is one of the unspoilt medieval gems of high Suffolk. To the west of the village, around Mickfield meadow, lies the source of the Deben, a sometime trickle of water in a field of flowers.
Continue readingby Mark Taylor
Editor’s Introduction (Julia Jones)
I’m aware that we offer surprisingly little disabled sailing (or other diversity projects) on the Deben. (Shout at me if I’m wrong because I’d love to hear from you – [email protected].) HOWEVER there are many people from the Deben who volunteer at the Woolverstone Project on the Orwell and also at EAST, the East Anglian Sailing Trust. Among their activities they have a Visually Impaired Section which welcomes additional volunteers and yachts to get involved in their cruising programme. If you are interested in helping please email [email protected] or leave a voice message on 0333 0883278. This article by Mark Taylor, sailing secretary of the Nancy Blackett Trust, describes the day Nancy got involved. (Reprinted here by kind permission of the Trust.)
Nancy alongside at Suffolk Yacht Harbour.
Continue readingInterview 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.
Continue readingBy 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.
Continue readingby 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.
Continue readingby 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
By Beverley Yates
On Bank Holiday Friday evening, 24 May, 2024, a total of 36 boats arrived by road, sea and river at Waldringfield on the River Deben. Why were they all converging on this quiet village to moor up and sleep aboard or set up camp in the ‘top field’ above the Boatyard?
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
By Alice Thorogood
Credit: Corinne Whitehouse
The UK Cadet Class World Championships take place in Plymouth this summer. They are completely volunteer run. Alice Thorogood of Waldringfield Sailing Club explains what’s involved and how you can show your support for these young sailors:
How did we get into this? A personal introduction
My eldest, Gwen, was just eight when she first stepped onboard a Cadet with Waldringfield sailor Hattie Collingridge and disappeared across the Deben. We didn’t plan it, we had never thought about sailing as a hobby for our children; I’m not from a sailing background at all and though it turns out that my husband, Frank, has the water of the Deben in his veins, he too had very little experience of dinghy sailing. That world felt “other” to us, with its strange new language and an elitist image that felt slightly difficult to navigate. However, we were charmed by Hattie and her clear love of the sport, that teamed with the easy welcome of Waldringfield Cadet Squadron and we were as hooked as Gwen clearly seemed to be when she came bouncing up the beach all wide eyed and exuberant from her first taste of Cadet sailing. Continue reading
By Julia Jones
Tim Curtis.
On November 12th 2023 the Riverside Cinema Woodbridge will show two wartime documentaries by Woodbridge-based director Tim Curtis. Tim is probably best known to RDA Journal readers for the highly successful Life on the Deben project – 6000 DVDs and Blu Rays sold in the first year, more than 15,000 cinema and festival viewers and over £5000 donations made to Deben good causes. Earlier this year (2023) Tim made a short film ‘How Polluted is the Deben?’ which was shown together with ‘A Surge of Memories’ (not by Tim) commemorating the floods of 1953 and tidal surge of 2013. Continue reading
