Tides and the weather conspired to devastate lives and shape attitudes to the coast for generations. This is the legacy of the floods of 1953, still vivid on the eve of there 60th anniversary.
As the anniversary approaches there are so many stories of tragedy and heroism and I’ve been reminded of one story told to me 25 years ago by a long-retired RSPB warden, Dick Wolfendale. I got to meet Dick in his home in Stalybridge on the edge of the Peak District when I was researching stories for our Centenary year in 1989.
By then Dick was in his 90s having started as a ‘watcher’ employed in the 1930s to look after a small RSPB nature reserve near his home. His love of nature had a developed while he worked in a mill – and he grabbed an opportunity to live a very different life.
After the end of the second World War he was summoned to RSPB HQ in London and sent on a top secret mission to the Suffolk coast – when he got there he found his role was to guard the avocets that had started nesting on land at Minsmere flooded as part of wartime defences.
So started Dick’s connection with the east coast.
For several years he was the summer warden at Minsmere, spending the winters back in Stalybridge. By 1953 he had a new job further down the coast at Havergate Island (another site where avocets had recolonised after the war. And he was on the island on the 31 January.
After the storm the local boat man Reg Partridge (later also to work for the RSPB) went to look for him, fearing the worst. But he found Dick sat on the roof of his watchers hut.
He told me this story calmly in a matter of fact way, adding to the impact of such a dramatic story.
Minsmere and Havergate Island and a multitude of wonderful wildlife sites dot England’s East Coast, and we are working to restorer lost coastal landscapes. The dark memories of 1953 and our continued connection with the East Coast all frame our reaction to it. This was in my mind at a meeting of our Wallasea Island Wild Coast project team earlier this week (I do tune out of some of the technical bits) – Wallasea Island is being restored as a dynamic part of the Essex coast in an innovative partnership with Crossrail. By giving the sea space, our project will help to reduce flood risks and by making space for nature will inspire new generations; for this wild coast has people, as well as nature at its heart.
Follow me on twitter