92
THE ESSEX NATURALIST
October, 1959, and the inaugural meeting was held shortly after-
wards in the Council Chamber of the Essex County Council at
Chelmsford, with, appropriately, the portrait of John Ray, 'the
father of English natural history', above the assembled company.
In a list of twenty-eight county and regional naturalists's trusts
founded by the end of 1962, Essex comes ninth in chronological
order. The formation of trusts in a further three counties (and
one in Scotland) is still under consideration and, in fact, only
Somerset and Rutland in England and Wales are without trusts
in being or formation.
What has the Trust achieved so far? Perhaps first mention
must be made of the Fingringhoe Wick Nature Reserve; with
about £300 in the bank, the Trust purchased this area for about
£4,000! It is an area of some one hundred and fourteen acres on
the south bank of the Colne. Basically disused gravel workings,
there are also areas of saltings, foreshore, heath, woodland and
freshwater pools. There is also a pier. The Wick, the old farm-
house, is occupied by the Honorary Warden and the outbuildings
are being adapted as bunkhouses, field laboratory, stores and the
like. The story of the purchase and development of this reserve
will perhaps one day be fully recorded in some detail and what a
wonderful story of foresight, determination and ingenuity it will
be. Its future is now assured and it will not be long before it is a
place of pilgrimage for naturalists in many disciplines—and not
only from our own county. Its education potential has not yet,
I think, been thoroughly investigated or even assessed.
At Two Tree Island, in the Thames estuary off Leigh-on-Sea,
the Trust has what amounts to an access concession from the
owners, the Corporation of Southend-on-Sea. This island, giving
as it does on to the extensive mudflats, is of great ornithological
interest—but the entomologists, botanists and others also find
much to attract them.
Another area in respect of which the Trust has recently re-
ceived a concession comprises a number of small water meadows
on the south bank of the River Chelmer (the River Chelmer and
Blackwater Canal) in the parish of Little Baddow. These contain
a fen type of vegetation and with a large population of small
summer migrant birds, including the very scarce and extremely
local Grasshopper Warbler.
Nature reserves may be established by purchase, lease, agree-
ment or gift—and it is hoped that examples of typical Essex
habitats may be so protected.
So far as nature reserves and The Nature Conservancy are
concerned, it seems to me that Essex has to all intents and pur-
poses been written off the conservation map. In this county,
where the pressure of development is as great if not greater than
in any other county, one would have thought that a life-saving
operation would have been carried out before it is too late. We
have one National Nature Reserve—Hales Wood, a small area of
about twenty acres in the north-west of the county, established