RSPB Minsmere is a nature reserve owned and managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) at Minsmere, Suffolk. The site has been managed by the RSPB since 1947 and covers areas of reed bed, lowland heath, acid grassland, wet grassland, woodland and shingle vegetation. It lies within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the Suffolk Heritage Coast area. It is conserved as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, Special Area of Conservation, Special Protection Area and Ramsar site.

The nature reserve is managed primarily for bird conservation, particularly through control and improvement of wetland, heath and grassland habitats, with particular emphasis on encouraging nationally uncommon breeding species such as the bittern, stone-curlew, bearded tit, marsh harrier, nightjar and nightingale. The diversity of habitats has also led to a wide variety of other animals and plants being recorded on the site.

Before becoming a nature reserve, the area was the site of an ancient abbey and a Tudor artillery battery. The marshes were reclaimed as farmland in the 19th century, but were re-flooded during World War II as a protection against possible invasion.

The reserve has a visitor centre, eight bird hides and an extensive network of footpaths and trails. Entry is free for RSPB members. Potential future threats to the site include flooding or salination as climate change causes rising sea levels, coastal erosion and possible effects on water levels due to the construction of a new reactor at the neighbouring Sizewell nuclear power stations.

Landscape

thumb|The cliffs at Minsmere

The area around Minsmere consists of the wide valley of the Minsmere River with Dunwich cliffs to the north and Sizewell cliffs to the south. Two extensive sandbanks lie off the coast, and the beach is sand overlain with shingle. The cliffs have a maximum height of about and are amongst the most rapidly eroding in the UK, at an annual rate of .

From 500 BC to 700 AD, the sea level in Suffolk was about higher than it is today, and the low-lying areas of the present coast were then tidal estuaries. The river mouth was finally closed in the 18th century as sand and shingle deposits formed off the coast. The higher land consists of a deep layer of gravel and sand, the legacy of the beach formed by the sea before it retreated. The geology of the wetland areas below the topsoil is marine clay with darker freshwater deposits from the Minsmere River.

History

Before 1947

thumb|The ruins of [[Leiston Abbey chapel|alt=Old very ruined building on low hill. Roofless and no wall left higher than an adult.]]

thumb|The beach with WW2 tank traps|alt=Area of grassy sand dunes with a row of large concrete cubes across it. People at a bridge in the distance.

In the Domesday Survey in 1086 Minsmere was known as Menesmara or Milsemere. It is recorded as having six households headed by freemen with one plough team. The manor, which was in the Hundred of Blythling, was held by Roger Bigot. The lower section of the chapel was built soon after the demolition of the abbey in 1363, and the brick upper parts are thought to have been added by former abbot John Green, who lived there as a hermit when he retired from his post in 1527. The site was abandoned in 1537 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the only further construction being a pillbox that was built inside the chapel during World War II. The ruins are a scheduled monument of national importance.

Peat cutting took place at Minsmere from at least the 12th century, and a 1237 description of the coastline describes Minsmere as a port. In a survey of 1587, an early Tudor period artillery battery, constructed sometime after 1539 at Minsmere, was in ruins; the survey recommended that it be rebuilt. A coastguard station operated at Minsmere in the 1840s in an attempt to control smuggling along this stretch of the coast.

In about 1780 a sandbank closed the mouth of the Minsmere River, creating a large freshwater wetland on its inland side. The reeds that grew there were cut for thatching, and access was improved by using sand from the higher alluvial areas to build tracks across the marshes. These marshes were enclosed and drained for agricultural use in 1812 and 1813, following the passing of the relevant Act in 1810, with the main sluice being built to control drainage to the sea. These were made by Richard Garrett & Sons of the Leiston Iron Works. The Eastbridge Windpump was a smock mill built in the mid-19th century, probably by the millwright Robert Martin of Beccles. It stood north of the New Cut. The mill worked a three throw pump with square pistons. The windpump was working until 1939 and collapsed in February 1977. The Sea Wall Mill stood north of the New Cut but closer to the coast than the Eastbridge Windpump. It was a smock mill built in the early 19th century. The mill worked by wind until it was tailwinded in January 1935, breaking the windshaft and rendering the mill sail-less. The scoopwheel was subsequently worked by a Hupmobile petrol engine, and later by a diesel engine. The mill collapsed in the summer of 1976. A third smock mill stood south of the New Cut and seaward of the ruins of the chapel. Built by the millwright Collins of Melton, it was blown down in the 1920s and a Titt windpump was erected on the site to drive the scoopwheel. This windpump had sails diameter. Another Titt windpump, with sails diameter stood 1.6 km (a mile) south of this. Both Titt windpumps were standing in 1938. The Army also used much of the heathland for military manoeuvres, including preparations for the invasion of continental Europe.

Before the war, the Ogilvie family had owned and managed the area as farmland and as a shooting estate, planting many deciduous trees as part of their hunting management plan. After the war, they decided to leave the marshes undrained, realising their ornithological value. males were counted but the population at Minsmere has varied over time, reaching a low of only one booming male in 1991. During the 1990s the existing reed beds were managed specifically for bitterns; when grazing marshes known as the North and South Levels were purchased, the North Levels were converted to reed bed and the South Levels to wet grassland. a Ramsar Site, a Special Area of Conservation and a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The site is also included in the areas covered by the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and the Suffolk Heritage Coast.

Access and facilities

[[File:Minsmeremap 600.jpg|thumb|200px|Simplified map of the reserve<br />

Woodland <br /> Acid grassland <br /> Sand <br /> Heath <br /> Wet grassland <br /> Reed bed <br /> Main visitor trail<br /> Car park-visitor centre-toilet complex and eight bird hides|alt=Colourful reserve map showing usage of different areas and how the reserve comes out to meet the coast.]]

The reserve is accessible by car from the A12 via the village of Westleton. It is also connected to Route 1 of the Sustrans National Cycle Network by the Suffolk Coast Cycle route. The nearest bus access is in the town of Leiston away and rail access is in Darsham distant. Coastlink, a demand responsive bus service, is available from these places to travel to the reserve but requires booking a day in advance. RSPB Minsmere is accessible on foot from Dunwich Heath, Sizewell Beach and Eastbridge, and there are of public rights of way around the reserve. Two long-distance walks, the Suffolk Coast Path and the Sandlings Walk, also connect to Minsmere.

The reserve was originally conceived as a protected site for rare breeding birds, and before 1980 permits were needed to visit. Only since 2005 has Minsmere opened every day of the week. The visitor centre was built in 1996 and expanded in 2012 using National Lottery and European Union funding. Visitor access to the various habitats has also been improved.

The reserve was featured in the BBC Birdwatch live TV broadcasts in 1980, 1981 and 1989, and on Springwatch from 2014 to 2016.

The heathland and acidic grassland areas of Minsmere are managed by grazing, heather and scrub control and removal of trees and unwanted western gorse. The areas of gorse and scrub remaining are cut in rotation to keep the gorse short and dense, providing a scrub structure optimal for nightingales. Methods used to acidify the land, which had been arable farmland for 150 years, included grazing by sheep or the addition of sulphur, either with bracken and heather waste, or on its own, followed by reseeding.

Fauna and flora

Minsmere's large size and variety of different habitats, some of which are scarce elsewhere in the UK, make it attractive to many species of animals and plants; around 5800 species have been recorded on the reserve. a black-browed albatross in 2015, and Audouin's gull and red-flanked bluetail in 2011.

Other animals and plants

thumb|Male [[silver-studded blue butterfly|alt=Extreme close-up of blue and purple iridescent butterfly on a flower, perhaps heather.]]

Mammals found at Minsmere include a herd of about 300 red deer, otters, badgers and water voles, Other vertebrates include adders, small numbers of natterjack toads and 13 species of fish, of which common rudd is an important food source for bitterns. The shingle ridges on the beaches hold a variety of uncommon plants including yellow horned-poppy, red-tipped cudweed and round-leaved wintergreen.

Minsmere faces threats from rising sea levels, caused by climate change, which adversely affect the drainage of the reserve and can lead to river flooding. although work by the Environment Agency at the north end of the reserve should hold the sea at bay there for 50 years.

An article written on behalf of the RSPB suggested that any damage to the wetlands at Minsmere is likely to have a major effect on UK bittern numbers since the reserve holds a significant proportion of the national breeding population. In 2018, expansion plans for Sizewell were called into question by National Infrastructure Commission proposals to scale back the nuclear power programme on safety and environmental grounds.

Notes

References

Citations

Cited texts

Further reading

  • Historic England map of the former abbey site.