Guest blog by Tony Thurston, Minsmere volunteer guide
Visitors to Minsmere today expect to arrive at the reserve, pay their entry fee or show their membership card, and have instant access to the reserve, but this has not always been the case. At one time visitors needed a permit to enter the reserve, although not on Tuesdays as the reserve was closed!
Permits could be obtained in advance by writing to the reserve warden, or obtained on the day at the reception hut, which was situated near to where the sand martin cliff is now. The car park was situated below the cliff where the pond is now.
Entrance to the reserve could not be guaranteed, however, as there was a limit on the number of visitors allowed on the reserve. If the reserve was "full" then regretfully a permit would not be issued and the unlucky visitors would not be allowed on the reserve.
This situation presented a problem for the beach hut volunteers. The beach hut was an information point situated near the beach entrance gate to the reserve, at the end of the North Wall. Here, volunteers would promote the RSPB to passing visitors, informing them about the work of the Society, Minsmere and its birds, gently persuade them to join the RSPB, and issue permits to the reserve. And this, of course, was the problem, because if the reserve was full then permits could not be issued.
The method of checking the status of the reserve was delightful. If a visitor wanted a permit, you had to take your binoculars, climb the shingle bank, and focus on the reception hut, which had a wonderful piece of modern technology: a semaphore signal! If the signal was up, you could issue a permit. If the signal was down then you had to advise the visitor that the reserve was full and they could not enter.
The system, although antiquated, worked well. However, it was eventually replaced in the late 1980s by a more modern method of communication in the shape of a second world war vintage army field telephone, complete with cranking handle!
Visitors today do not realise what an easy time they have (well, perhaps not).
[The beach hut eventually came down in the late 1990s, subsequently finding a home at other RSPB reserves - ed]
[Do you have any recollections of visiting Minsmere, especially from its inception as an RSPB reserve in 1947 to the opening of the current visitor centre in 1996? If you do, we'd love to hear them.]
Since I last posted in the blog about Minsmere memories, here's something else I can remember. When you wrote by post to apply for a permit to visit Minsmere, you could apply for a whole day permit of half a day permit on a given day. I remember arriving at Minsmere back in the 1960's and having to queue to show your permit on arrival to the warden to have the permit stamped. If I remember correctly if you only had a half day permit you where only allowed to go on one of the routes at Minsmere and it was only either the route around the scraper or the reedbed hides, of which route I'm not sure. I had applied for a permit for the whole route and after queuing to show my all day permit. The warden as well as stamping the permit wrote on all routes.
Just as an afterthought I've got that well known book by Herbert Axcell better know as Bert Axcell, Portrait of a Bird Reserve, published in the 1970's and as I had ordered that book direct from the RSPB back then that book that I have, has Herbert Axcells autograph in the front of my book.
Regards,
Ian.