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 Sally Westwood
I observed a large damselfly in late July whilst walking alongside the slow flowing, fresh water stream that runs parallel to the Deben, near Wilford Bridge. Banded Demoiselles Calopteryx splendens are mostly seen during June and July on sunny afternoons, although you may see them in August and September. Male and female Banded Demoiselles have a striking pattern and colour. The female in the image below, has a metallic emerald thorax and abdomen, with a bronze red tip to the abdomen. The last three abdominal segments have a yellow line1. The males and females both have translucent light green wings. The females have a small white mark, or pterostigma at the wing tip, whereas the males have no pterostigma2. Both males and females are 48mm or 1.4 inches in length and their hindwing can be 36mm or 1.4 inches long. This species is present throughout Britain but not in the Scottish highlands. It is common in much of Central Europe including Germany, France, and Poland but absent from European countries that are cold, for example, Scandinavia and those countries that are dry, such as Spain. Their range extends into central and Western Asia. Habitat becomes problematic when flowing freshwater is scarce.
Banded Demoiselle Calopteryx splendens
Continue readingMatt Lis
If a mast breaks in a marina, and nobody is there to hear it, did it really happen? Well, sadly, yes and it won’t take long for everybody to hear about it.
In my case, it took about 10 minutes to hear about it when, late on a Sunday evening, the work mobile rang and I answered to find Julia close to tears. A misjudged approach into a marina berth in semi-darkness had led to ‘Peter Duck’s portside mizzen shroud catching on the cranse iron of a neighbouring boat. For those less familiar with the particular peculiarities of traditional boat rigging, the cranse iron is the fitting on the end of a bowsprit on to which the bobstay, forestay and bowsprit shrouds attach and it is designed to handle immense loads so it had no trouble winning this particular battle.
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 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.
Continue readingBy 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).
Continue readingBy Janet Harber
We did this 4.5-mile circular walk in late March 2025, starting and finishing at the pay and display car park behind the Maybush Inn, Waldringfield (parking is free for patrons). We went clockwise but it can be done either way and from other starting points. OS Explorer 197 Ipswich, Felixstowe and Harwich is the relevant map.
Continue readingA 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.’
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.
Continue reading