Category Archives: RDA Journal

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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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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A Two-Felixstowe-Church Walk

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Janet Harber and her sister Jackie Jones are the first to take up the challenge of linking two of more of the Deben churches described by Gareth Thomas in his four-part series last year. Their Felixstowe-based walk was published in The Deben magazine #70 and is reprinted here with additional photographs taken by Janet.

If you feel inspired to try to devise your own walks, linking different Deben Churches, you will find a list at the end of this article. Alternatively you might enjoy Sue Ryder Richardson’s circular walk from Hemley Church.

This five-mile route, a mix of coastal and surburban walking, links the churches of St Peter and St Paul in Old Felixstowe and St Nicholas at Felixstowe Ferry. The two churches are described in detail by Gareth Thomas in his RDA Journal series Churches of the Deben: Part 3B.

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Citizen Science – Fish Survey 2024

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Report from the Third Fish Survey conducted by the RDA and the Institute of Fisheries Management July 2024  by Steve Colcough

Introduction by Julia Jones

For the past three years, 2022, 2023 and 2024  the RDA has supported annual fish surveys in partnership with the Institute of Fisheries Management, represented by Steve Colclough. From the RDA side, enthusiasm and leadership come from Richard Verrill who initiated this project and has reported on it both here and in the Deben Magazine.

The 2024 survey also involved Suffolk Wildlife Trust as a new sampling site was located in the area of saltmarsh adjacent to Martlesham Wilds. Writing for the Deben Magazine Richard described the method of operating in this new site — setting a winged Fyke net across the creek at low tide, as well as using the seine netting techniques deployed at Bawdsey and elsewhere. 

Juvenile fish come in with the tide to feed on the saltmarshes and then are caught on their way out, counted and released back into the river. The quantities of fish caught at Martlesham in the 2024 survey were very impressive and a good indicator of the health of that area of the river — as well as a reminder of the importance of the Deben saltmarshes.  

Over the 2022, 2023 and 2024 numbers of juvenile fish have been good and the project is attracting interest from scientists in other areas. 

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‘Cachalot’ (1898): a ‘gentleman’s yacht’ and a Dunkirk ‘little ship’

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by Steve and Beverley Daley-Yates

Steve and Beverley Daley-Yates, current owners of Cachalot, were the first to send their yacht’s details to the RDA ‘Boats Still Floating 2025’ project. This year-long project aims to identify boats currently on the Deben which were built during 1950 or before. During the year we will be building a database of such vessels, large or small. You can find it HERE. We will also run occasional articles giving some of their histories, as they are part of our river heritage. Thank you, Steve and Beverley, for starting us off.

Cachalot came back to the River Deben in September 2005 and made her home in the Tidemill Yacht Harbour, Woodbridge. She had certainly visited the Deben prior to this and possibly spent some of her neglected years sitting in the mud of the Woodbridge Town Dock. Built in Folkestone in 1898, she has spent most of her life on the East Coast. Her major restoration took place ashore at the Tidemill, 2007 – 2017. She regards the River Deben as home.

2022: Felixstowe [Josh Masters].

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Water Quality Update

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By Colin Nicholson

Swimmers enjoying the water at Waldringfield January 2025

There continues to be much local and national interest and activity about the water quality of the River Deben.  This interest has led to a huge increase in knowledge of what is going on where, but there remains much to learn.  Below is a personal perspective of where we are now and further activity.

Introduction  – “What is the Water Quality of The Deben?” and “Can I swim in the Deben?”

“What is the Water Quality of The Deben?” and “Can I swim in the Deben?” are questions that are often asked.

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Pre-1950 Boats Still Floating, 2025

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By Julia Jones

How many boats on the Deben are more than 75 years old?

The RDA Journal is beginning a year-long project to identify our oldest boats of any type and size. The only criterion is that they must still be floating for at least part of the time — either with the tide, if they live on a beach or are in use as a houseboat, or seasonally if they are laid up ashore for part of the year. Venerable wrecks like the Lady Alice Kenlis (1867) who no longer rises with the flood, or the longer term inhabitants of the Woodbridge Boatyard’s ‘rehoming shed’, can’t qualify – unless their fortunes change.

The Dragonfly class was created for members of the Waldringfield Sailing Club and turned 75 years old last year. [Photo: Alexis Smith]

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The Last Wooden Kestrel on the Deben?

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By Ned Jones, Julia Jones and Bertie Wheen

and with acknowledgement to the book Waldringfield: A Suffolk Village beside the River Deben (Golden Duck 2020).

Kestrel Sail Emblem

Box containing the designers name (J Fancis Jones)

The birth of the Kestrel in Waldringfield  (Julia and Bertie)

The Kestrel class of small, wooden cruiser-racer yachts was conceived in Waldringfield in the mid-1950s, then spread across the country during the 1960s and 70s. 150 were built in wood, 250 in GRP. Their story began when local sailor Paul King, who had owned a Waldringfield Dragonfly, wanted a small yacht with similar characteristics. He and Harry Nunn – of Waldringfield Boatyard – built a model to embody their ideas, then took it to Jack Jones at the Old Maltings to finalise the design and provide the necessary technical details.

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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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