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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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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