REPORTS OF MEETINGS 275
The Essex and Suffolk Borderlands
Meeting with the Suffolk Naturalists' Society (975th Meeting)
SATURDAY, 28 AUGUST, 1954
A party of thirty-five members and friends, most of them arriving by
coach from Wanstead, were met by Mr. and Mrs. Harley at Nayland in
Suffolk, at 11.30 a.m. and went at once to see the Church.
The "horse-box" pews, the series of painted panels from the ancient
screen and the altar painting—"The Last Supper"—by John Constable
were examined. Afterwards, the many ancient and lovely cottages of
Nayland were seen and admired.
The coach then took the party up the hill to Stoke-by-Nayland. The
Church, dedicated to St. Mary, held the interest of all by its beauty and
magnificent proportions, its brasses, memorials and details of wood and
stone, which were explained to the party by Mr. Francis Engleheart and
Mr. Harley.
The day being fine and sunny, lunch was taken al fresco in the
"Camping Field", sports ground of the medieval village—named from the
"kemping" game, a fierce, struggling predecessor of football. The steep
earth banks and ditches in this field, and its situation, suggest a possible
site for the defended stockade which gave the village its Saxon name.
After lunch, the party went by coach along the winding lanes to
Withermarsh Green, where they were met at about 2 p.m. by a party of
thirty-five members of the Suffolk Naturalists' Society. The combined
party walked and motored along the drive to Cliffords Hall, where by
the courtesy of Mrs. Brocklebank, the early 16th century gateway and the
finely preserved banqueting hall were seen by all. After a brief examination
of the 13th century Chapel nearby, the party returned by coach through
Scotland Street to Stoke and so to Thorrington Street (another hamlet
of Stoke) where a botanically and entomologically profitable hour was
spent at the gravel pits. The great sarsen boulders of the Reading Beds
here deposited stimulated a considerable discussion on the occurrence of
such sarsens at fords and by ancient roads.
Floodwater had inundated the road to Boxted in Essex to a depth of
several feet and after getting as far into Essex as the Stour Bridge the
coaches had to retreat and reach Nayland by another route. Tea was taken
at the "White Hart" and after the meal Professor Bennet Clarke
commented on the botanical finds. He was supported by Essex members
in other fields of natural history.
After tea the Suffolk Naturalists returned to Bures, leaving the Essex
Field Club members to pay a brief visit to the Stour marshes and to Court
Knoll (a medieval and perhaps Roman site) before taking leave of the
leaders, Mr. and Mrs. Harley, and setting out for Essex and home.
The Broomway (976th Meeting)
SUNDAY, 19 SEPTEMBER, 1954
There is in Essex an expanse of sand eighteen miles in length and four
miles wide at low tide—good hard sand on which a motor truck can
travel easily—and so level that the sea water does not quite drain off
but remains in shallow sheets and puddles an inch or two deep. Landmarks
are few, mostly of military significance, and without meaning for the
visitor to this little-known region. It would surely be a brave man who
would undertake to guide a party of Field Club members across such a
featureless wilderness. What if it had been a rainy, windy day—what if