“There is no habitat in Lincolnshire which can truly be described as natural unless it be the sandy and muddy foreshores of the coast. Even those are affected to some extent by man’s activities.”
A.E. Smith 1969[i]
When you look at the Fields of the Fens you see a mixture of habitats and land use. In the same way you see a mixture of people. You have an interconnected society of farmers, farm workers and a whole host of people servicing their livelihoods with goods and services. In past times the connections were more face to face and personal, but nowadays technology, centralisation and largeness has diluted these connections so that they are not as obvious or appreciated. I consider myself lucky to have lived in a period when the links were closer.
Stuart Hay
The late Stuart Hay was a multigenerational farmer that between himself and his brother George farmed an extensive area of top quality silt land behind the sea wall at Holbeach Marsh, where Stuart lived through to Spalding Marsh, where George lived.
In the early 1990’s, when I knew him and had regular contact with him, he made the local and national press as he was suffering damage from large flocks of Brent geese that were, and still are, protected having been subject to major population drops from the 1940’s. Brent geese used to be an ocean going bird with primary feed on sea grass and marine vegetation and seldom feeding inland on grain or grass. This fact is reflected in bird books prior to 1940. However, man’s activity, especially in post War Europe, reduced the amount of sea grass available and increased the amount of arable fields with tasty vegetation and Brent geese eventually adapted and changed their feeding habits [ii]. By 1990 the Brent goose population had ballooned and coastal fields in both Britain and Holland were hard hit by this bird. Nowadays there is a highly successful replanting of sea grass and I wonder if they will adapt further.
At the time Stuart Hay was regularly hitting the headlines as he publicised his plight with the destructive Brent goose. Some of the headlines were perverse and I used to engage in banter over these, especially when they said, “Stuart Hay is no James Bond, but he has the Brent goose in his sights.” He assured me he was not going to buy an Aston Martin, or start drinking Martini cocktails.
In 1993 I asked Stuart if he would either let me interview him, or write down a few thoughts and memories about farming and the marsh. He kindly did the later and leant me some photographs to copy.
These are his words:
“My experience of wildfowling is limited to a few flights on the marsh; these usually took place in the evening since the morning flights, which are the most appropriate on my foreshore, involve disturbance of slumber and usually of other people at unsocial times. Going out in the afternoon, along the bed of a creek perhaps, trying to arrive at a suitable place with least noise and disturbance taught me the meaning of the phrase, ‘A wild goose chase.’
Very often my chance of sport was hampered by a disturbed Redshank which flew away with a noise sounding like ‘Cry-baby, cry-baby’ warning all other creatures of my presence[iii] - the very thing I was trying to hide. I should also add I was accompanied by Kenzie on a couple of flights; he showed me how to call geese and he was also sufficiently diplomatic not to boast how many of my family’s pheasants he had acquired; our wildfowling success however was limited to one goose and you may guess as to whose gun it fell victim.
However, I did and I still do. Appreciate the magic of the marsh. The make-up of numbers and variety of birds has changed, in my opinion, since the early 1950’s when I first went out. In November and December we had around 20,000 pinkfeet flighting; now we are lucky if we see 200 in a season. Duck seemed to occur more frequently then than today, although their frequency nowadays may be related to the number of alternative feeding areas and reserves which have developed recently. It is still a marvellous place to be at the right time. If one is settled down by the side of a creek in a gale, the wind howling overhead creates an eerie sensation that heightens one’s awareness. The marsh is a remote area; indeed on the landward side of the sea bank in my area I estimated there were nearly 6000 acres along some five miles of frontage and only 4 houses within half mile of the marsh, and also the R.A.F. There is such a variety of plant and animal life that one can see changes every time one goes; it is a dynamic area. Wildfowling on the marsh is a sport usually male-orientated and therefore free from ‘spirited discussion’.[iv] It is also a sport which can be taken up relatively easily; you do not need to own land, you can participate on your own, you do not have to spend a lot of money. Wildfowling and the marsh around the Wash have been linked for generations.
My first involvement with land around the Wash was in 1947 helping to collect soil samples prior to reclamation in 1948. I was aware that it was a special place and that I was lucky to be involved. Subsequently I have respected the many facets of this dynamic area (some might accuse me of jealously trying to guard my rights). Land reclamation was declared an unacceptable practice in, I think, 1981. What is not needed now is for there to be an invasion by the public, preceded by scientists and bureaucrats; such a happening causing destruction of what we appreciate would be tantamount to hypocrisy following on the event of the Public Enquiry of 1981.[v]
I have noticed many changes on the marsh over the last 40 years, but I am not sure why they have occurred. I see fewer mussel beds, fewer oystercatchers, fewer shelduck, fewer pinkfoot geese, masses more brent geese. The green marsh has gone out, as per custom, a further half a mile or so after the reclamation but that does not adequately explain the changes; nor does the demise of the cattle grazing on much of the marsh. Birds are at the top of the food chain of this shoreline, marsh and mud. There are two prime motivating forces in life; one is food and the other is the need to reproduce. I do not accept that limited shooting as practised by responsible wildfowling clubs over-rides these two laws and therefore shooting should not be treated as a scape-goat for ignorance and lack of research. If the sampling being undertaken by the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology helps to explain the changes then I look forward to reading their report (hopefully in layman’s English).
I note that Local Authorities ( in our case that must mean South Holland District Council) are now the people responsible for management plans and strategy. I hope therefore young and old will make their views known, based on the knowledge and experience which they have. Final thought: if science is the acquisition of knowledge maybe Kenzie wasn’t a bad scientist, even if he was a nuisance as a poacher.”
The land at Holbeach Marsh was one of the last land reclamations this area saw in a process of reclamation that spanned the millennium. It had been preceded by reclamation work on the coast near Sandringham and was succeeded by work near Freiston. It attracted great local and even international interest in newspapers as diverse as The Northern Times Australia and The Ottowa Citizen in Canada:
“ SPALDING, Lincolnshire, England – One thousand five hundred acres for cultivation have been reclaimed from the sea by the completion of a bank 6 ½ miles long om the south side of The Wash at Holbeach Marsh, Lincs in less than six months.
The height of the bank, 11ft. is 5ft. above any of the standard high tides. Composed of 500,000 tons of strong clay, it is 9ft. wide at the top and 64ft. at the base. The soil has been excavated and placed into position by 14 draglines.
In the final stages the recent highest tide of the year might have brought disaster. Only a 1,100ft. gap remained to be banked to complete the work and there was danger of water reaching an existing soke creek inland, 10,000ft long, and forming new creeks and damaging the inside of the bank, which had not been consolidated.
Two 10ft. high spurs, with 3000 tons of soil packed into each were built, one on either side of the gap, and shaped so that the water was diverted from the bank and confined to an area 900ft. inland where the least harm was done. An anxious watch was kept for five days and nights but the bank was saved.
The scheme, which has cost $164,000 had the support of the Ministry of Agriculture, but was the enterprise of three local farmers – Joseph Ward, Alec Hay, and George Thompson.”[vi]
The difficulties described in the Ottawa citizen caused by the high tide towards the end of the project was not the only problem. Earlier in the project weather had threatened the works. They had the benefit of learning from other projects. Some areas had tried using heavier crawler tractors on tracks believing the tracks would cope with the wet conditions, for a sea wall has to be built with wet material, typically from a borrow pit on the seaward side of the bank, before being reinforced with soil typically, but not always, obtained by digging a drain on the landward side of the bank. Often there would be further reinforcement, if required, with soft limestone rock brought in. Learning from elsewhere these local farmers lead by the engineer Mr. Edward Taverner used light Ferguson tractors and trailers which coped admirably with the conditions.
[i] These are quotes from Mr. A.E.Smith’s presidential address to the Lincolnshire Naturalists Union 1969
[ii] To understand the change of habits caused by man read Man and Wildfowl by Janet Kear
[iii] The redshank is known as “The warden of the marsh”
[iv] The author disagrees!
[v] At that time there was much consideration and even dispute between who should have access to the marsh and even whether traditional activities such as samphire picking and wildfowling should be denied in the Wash. The hypocrisy referred to is the willingness to increase access for bird watchers and even a “right to roam” over adjacent fields was discussed. In reality on the ground farmers, conservationists, wildfowlers all tended to co-operate and help each other.
[vi] Ottawa Citizen November 1948
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