https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/homes-and-gardens/places-to-live/history-of-rspb-minsmere-7017822
This is a brief article published in 2018 about Minsmere in a countryside magazine in 2018 and does include the great Bert Axcell one of the great pioneers during the 1960’s and 1970’s in paticular as Bert Axell was the first full time warden at Minsmere and it was Bert Axell who’s idea about creating the scrape at Minsmere in the early 1960’s he actually received the MBE for his work in conservation. I can remember the days when Minsmere was just open 4 days a week and you had to apply months ahead for a permit and the deadline for applying for a permit wa siix months ahead and you weren’t guaranteed a permit even applying that far ahead as I found when applying well in advance for a permit at a reserve in Wales much more than 6 months ahead as all the permits had been taken up and so I had to try for another day of which I had success at Ynys-Hir in Wales.
I forgot to say that at some RSPB reserves, members also had to pay to get into some RSPB reserves including Minsmere. If I can remember, I think RSPB members had to pay half the admission charge, to what non-members paid the full admission to Minsmere with there permit. Again that all changed for RSPB members during the early 1980’s with those few lines in the Birds magazine that RSPB members received and RSPB members then got free admission to all RSPB reserves.