H and I were over in King’s Lynn for a couple of days last weekend. I had a bell ringing engagement there on Bank Holiday Monday afternoon (http://www.campanophile.co.uk/show.aspx?Code=81550 if you are interested but don’t expect an explanation if you don’t know what I am talking about). It gave us the chance to see my cousin and her husband. She is my last link with King’s Lynn since my father and both of her parents passed away over the last few years. I wouldn’t normally use an expression like “passed away” but it seems to suit their generation.
We were fortunate to get a good deal at the “Dukes Head” hotel in the Tuesday Market Place. I use the word ‘fortunate’ advisedly. I wouldn’t have wanted to pay the full rate. When I was a youngster in Lynn (well, it was 50 years ago) the Dukes Head was the hotel. It’s looking a bit sad now, with serious plumbing issues in at least two bedrooms and the most boring cold breakfast buffet I have ever seen, although the cooked breakfast was good, apart from there being no smoked salmon for H. Talking to the staff, it seems to have got caught in up in a lack of investment and a potential sale which has stalled because of the credit crunch.
Perhaps you shouldn’t go back. My first bank account was with the Midland, on the corner of the Tuesday Market Place. I had to spend more time there (when it was an HSBC) while I was looking after my father’s affairs. Now it is a Nando’s. I was reminded of that Natwest advertisement, with the elderly lady saying that her local bank branch was now a wine bar. Actually, I found the new HSBC, in a new shopping centre next to Anne Summers and opposite the defunct Woolworths. Sic transit gloria mundi or something like that.
The more perceptive among you will be wondering what this has to do with islands in The Wash. Well, H wasn’t involved in the bell ringing and when trying to find something to do she came across the “Sir Peter Scott Path”. This runs from the lighthouse at the River Nene outfall where he lived in the 1930s round the sea wall to West Lynn. The idea was that I would drop her off at the start and she would walk back to Lynn while I was ringing.
We had plenty of time so I walked a bit with her. Comparing the path on the current 1:25000 map with the rather delapidated 1″ map (1954, cost 4/-) which I bought when I was at school, it is amazing how far further out the sea walls have been pushed as more land has been reclaimed. A Dutchman would feel at home here. So the Sir Peter Scott walk is on sea walls which didn’t exist when he llived there, although he may well have walked on the salt marshes or punted in the creeks while wildfowling.
It was quite misty out to sea but we soon saw what appeared to be a rather large island. “Don’t be silly” says I “there are no islands in The Wash”. Of course, for someone trained as a scientist this was a pretty stupid thing to say in the face of the evidence. But the current map showed nothing out there although there is a much smaller island closer to the sea wall a bit further round.
Well H got back OK, even in time to sit on the other side of the river for a bit listening to us ringing.
When I got back I did a bit of internet research. There are two islands, both built in the 1970s as part of an experiment on the feasibility of freshwater reservoirs in The Wash. The idea was dropped but now the larger island is a very successful seabird and wildfowl habitat.
The best reference to all this is http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/428938.html, which gives several further links, including one to Google Maps where you can clearly see both islands. I also found http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7659304.stm which is a video of a BBC Look North item about the islands.
All very interesting. But why is the larger island not shown on the current 1:25000 OS map? Is it to try to discourage people from walking out there over the mudflats at low tide (which would be a very hazardous thing to do)?
