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now presents a prarie-like aspect as there are
-few trees within half a mile of the seawall.
Many people condemn this coastline as 'bleak' —
I prefer to see it as an area where the
wilderness is only a scratch beneath the
surface.
The Observatory has had a chequered history.
It began as a Nissan hut on a chicken farm and
is now a large, purpose-built, wooden hut on
the edge of the saltings, close to St. Peter's
on the Wall, a 6th century Saxon chapel that
occupies part of the site of the Roman fort of
Othona. In between times, during the early
1960's, the Observatory occupied a barn—like
building in Bradwell village, a place so huge
and poorly heated that the cutlery used to turn
green between one weekend and the next and the
blankets had to be put through a mangle before
they could be used. Rat stoppers on the legs
of the beds was an added refinement. When the
current hut was first erected, in 1967, it was
even closer to the saltings; so close, in
fact, that it was flooded by exceptionally high
tides in both 1974 and 1978. An observer on
the former occasion, undismayed at finding the
floor of the Observatory looking like nearby
Gunner's Creek at low tide, proceeded to
identify the remains of seven species of sea-
weed clinging to the settee, which says a great
deal for his scientific training and even more
for his sense of humour. Thanks to the
generosity of the Essex Birdwatching Society,
who own the hut, and many of the members - who
contributed handsomely to an appeal — we were
able to move the hut a few yards to its present
position in 1979, the comforts to be found