NATURE CONSERVATION: ESSEX
91
Watching and Preservation Society and the Colchester and the
South Essex Natural History Societies, and our own Club—to
name the chief organisations—had to 'go it alone' in fighting
development threats and initiating conservation measures affect-
ing their particular interests. It is a matter of history that, work-
ing in isolation as they did, they were able to achieve little, no
matter how strongly their case was put or how hard their officers
worked in the process.
The outstanding exception was the work of the South Essex
Natural History Society, formed in 1934 and having as its main
object the formation of a nature reserve from part of Belfairs
Wood. The idea was to persuade the Corporation of Southend-on-
Sea to purchase the site and to have it as a general nature reserve,
free to the public but closed to collectors. It was a piece of the
fast-disappearing ancient forest of south-east Essex and contained
very many local flowers and insects. At the inaugural meeting of
the Society, the following resolution was passed, "In view of the
extremely rapid growth of this town and neighbourhood, this
meeting is of the opinion that it is advisable, in the best interests
of the district, to set aside a suitable tract of country as a Nature
Reserve, and that the Committee be instructed to investigate every
channel for this purpose, and to deal with this matter".
Before the end of the year it had been ascertained that the
owners were prepared to sell between forty and fifty acres but the
Corporation could not be persuaded to buy. The Society, in 1937,
decided to increase its agitation and to launch an appeal for £1,000
to assist the purchase. The appeal was successful, with the result
that the Society, the Essex County Council and the Benfleet
Urban District Council each offered £1,000 and with over ten
thousand signatures from townspeople pressing them to do so the
Corporation reconsidered its former decision and agreed to pur-
chase about half the present Reserve. After the War, the Corpora-
tion, without further pressure, decided to purchase an additional
portion of the wood, doubling the size of the Reserve, making it
about ninety acres in extent. Again, The Essex Naturalists' Trust
has been fortunate in having two of the pioneers of this scheme
closely connected with its early life—Mr. H. R. Tutt, as its
founder-President, and Mr. H. C. Huggins, as a member of the
Formation Committee and later of the Council.
So we come to the formation and work of The Essex
Naturalists' Trust. Its formation can be dealt with quickly. To a
meeting of the Council of the Essex Field Club in 1958, Mr. B. T.
Ward brought the idea from a meeting of the South-eastern Union
of Scientific Societies. A small committee of three was appointed to
make arrangements for an Invitation Meeting. This was held in
Chelmsford on 28th September, 1958, and a Formation Committee
was appointed representing, as far as possible, all the natural
history and allied interests in the county. After a further year's
work the Trust was incorporated as a public company, limited by
guarantee, without share capital and not for profit, on the 2nd