THE CHARLES WATSON MEMORIAL VIDEO PRESENTATION
My Marshland Year - presented by Bob Reed
Frid 13th October 2006. 8.00pm.
Wetland nature reserves rapidly deteriorate unless intensively managed to keep open drains,
preventthe accumulation of dead reeds and sedge, and control the invasion of osiers and sallows.
Bob Reed's riveting video of the way that Andrew Sapsford's team go about managing the joint
Herts, and Essex Trusts' Sawbridgeworth Marsh reserve all year round, using modern and
traditional tools, is a must for anyone interested in nature conservation or involved in wetland
management.
Bob also documents in incredibly vivid close-up, the rich flower, bird and underwater life that
responds so spectacularly to this intensive management. If only all of our wetland reserves were
managed in this way, we wouldn't be seeing such a dramatic decline in biodiversity. He takes his
camera 'under water' to film the invertebrate life of the tufa springs which well up all year round
with constant temperature water from beneath the reserve; stares down the throat of a visiting
Cuckoo, and even captures a Water Rail skulking along one of the drains. The spectacular flowering
of Early Marsh Orchids, now virtually extinct elsewhere in Essex; the swathes of golden Marsh
Marigold, Marsh Valerian, Skullcap and Hemp Agrimony are all vividly filmed together with
spectacular close-ups of hoverflies, colourful spiders, butterflies; and Great Diving Beetles,
freshwater shrimps and fish, swimming under water.
Buy a ticket! Come and see this super video and support our efforts to establish a Biodiversity
Centre, a resource for all wildlife enthusiasts in the region. Charles Watson not only studied the
wildlife and worked for many years on the Sawbridgeworth Marsh Reseive, - just a few days
before he died he visited Rainham Hall to see if it would fulfil our dreams as a venue for our
Biodiversity Centre.
Venue: Hall of the Blessed Sacrament Church. Melbourne Avenue (north side). Chelmsford.
Tickets £4.00. in aid of the Essex Field Club Biodiversity Centre Project.
Tickets available from Ken Adams, 63 Wroths Path, Baldwins Hill, Loughton, Essex. IG10
1SH . 020 8508 7863 or Shirley Watson, 18 Thorley Park Road,
Bishops Stortford. Herts. CM23 3NQ. 01279 505309.
Corrections to programme:
Sat 7 October Fungus Group - phone number correction 01279 505309.
Sun 15 October Fungal Foray is to Marks Hill not Marks Hall
Visit to Wooton Bassett Mud Springs, Wiltshire.
I am arranging for a limited party of six people to visit the site of these remarkable artesian
springs, which well up ammonite and other fossils from the full range of strata from the Ampthill
clay, and to the nearby Hancock's Brook where they have collected over the years. The date will
be mid-week and dependent on the extent of up welling from the springs, which follow a cycle
several months behind the rainfall on the feeder strata exposed on hill tops nearby.
If you are interested in joining the party please phone or e-mail me on/at 020 8508 7863

Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 50, May 2006
1