Cley Marshes

Cley Marshes is a 176-hectare (430-acre) nature reserve on the North Sea coast of England just outside the village of Cley next the Sea, Norfolk. A reserve since 1926, it is the oldest of the reserves belonging to the Norfolk Wildlife Trust (NWT), which is itself the oldest county Wildlife Trust in the United Kingdom. Cley Marshes protects an area of reed beds, freshwater marsh, pools and wet meadows and is part of the North Norfolk Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Special Area of Conservation (SAC), Special Protection Area (SPA), and Ramsar Site due to the large numbers of birds it attracts.

The reserve is important for some scarce breeding species, such as pied avocets on the islands, and western marsh harriers, Eurasian bitterns and bearded reedlings in the reeds, and is also a major migration stopoff and wintering site. There are also several nationally or locally scarce invertebrates and plants specialised for this coastal habitat. It has five bird hides and an environmentally friendly visitor centre and further expansion is planned through the acquisition of neighbouring land and improvements to visitor facilities.

The site has a long history of human occupation, from prehistoric farming to its use as a prisoner of war camp in the Second World War. The reserve attracts large numbers of visitors, contributing significantly to the economy of Cley village. Despite centuries of embankment to reclaim land and protect the village, the marshes have been flooded many times, and the southward march of the coastal shingle bank and encroachment by the sea make it inevitable that the reserve will eventually be lost. New wetlands are being created further inland to compensate for the loss of coastal habitats.

Norfolk has a long history of human occupation. Both Modern and Neanderthal people were present in the area before the last glaciation between 100,000 and 10,000 years ago, and humans returned as the ice retreated northwards. The archaeological record is poor until about 20,000 years ago, partly because of the prevailing conditions, but also because the coastline was much further north than at present. As the ice retreated during the Mesolithic, the sea level rose, filling what is now the North Sea. This brought the Norfolk coastline much closer to its present line, so that many ancient sites are now under the sea. The oldest signs of habitation on the marshes are prehistoric Clactonian flint blades possibly from 400,000 years ago, but few other prehistoric remains have been recorded here.

Fragments of a Roman vase and jug have been found on the beach. A 1797 map showed what was described as the ruins of "Cley Chapel", although it is more likely that they belonged to a barn. A 1588 map showed "Black Joy Forte", which may have been intended as a defence against the Spanish Armada. There are a number of post-medieval earthworks, presumably sea defences, and pits which may have been associated with salt-making.

Until the mid-1600s, much of the area now known as Cley Marshes was part of a vast tidal marsh and was covered by seawater twice a day. The shoreline itself was hundreds of metres north of its present location. The raised area in the north-west corner, called the "Eye", has been farmed since the earliest human habitation. It was 28 ha (70 acres) in extent in 1651, but is now much reduced by coastal erosion. Access to the Eye was by an ancient causeway, passable at low tide. John Heydon started the process of embanking the marshes to reclaim the land in 1522, and his banks were extended and improved by Dutchman Jan van Hasedunch from 1630. Simon Britiff, Lord of the local Manor of Cley, completed the scheme by building the bank on the east side of the Cley channel. Only the east and west banks have survived; the north bank was breached by the sea in 1897, then rebuilt with a concrete facing, but abandoned after another bad storm in 1921.

Cley and nearby Blakeney had been prosperous and important ports in the Middle Ages, but land reclamation schemes, especially those by Henry Calthorpe in 1640 just to the west of Cley, led to the silting up of the shipping channel and relocation of the wharf. Further enclosure in the mid-1820s aggravated the problem, and also allowed the shingle ridge at the beach to block the former tidal channel to the Salthouse marshes to the east of Cley. In an attempt to halt the decline, Thomas Telford was consulted in 1822, but his recommendations for reducing the silting were not implemented, and by 1840 almost all of Cley's trade had been lost to Blakeney and other Norfolk ports. The population stagnated, and the value of all property decreased sharply. In the mid-nineteenth century, the Lord of the Manor constructed the present road to the beach in exchange for closing the ancient right of way across the marshes.

In the decades preceding World War I, this stretch of coast became famous for its wildfowling; locals were looking for food, but some "Gentleman Gunners" hunted to collect rare birds. One of the best known of the latter was E. C. Arnold, who collected for more than fifty years, and gave his name to the marsh at the north-east corner of the present reserve.