Titchwell Marsh is an English nature reserve owned and managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). Located on the north coast of the county of Norfolk, between the villages of Titchwell and Thornham, about east of the seaside resort of Hunstanton, its include reed beds, saltmarshes, a freshwater lagoon and sandy beach, with a small woodland area near the car park. This internationally important reserve is part of the North Norfolk Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), and is also protected through Natura 2000, Special Protection Area (SPA) and Ramsar listings.
The reserve is important for some scarce breeding birds, such as pied avocets on the islands, and western marsh harriers, Eurasian bitterns and bearded reedlings in the reeds. To encourage bitterns to breed, the reed beds have been improved to make them wetter, and the lagoon has been stocked with the common rudd. Typical wetland birds such as the water rail, reed warbler and sedge warbler also appear, and little egrets are common. The reserve has regularly attracted rarities, as its location is important for migrating birds. Ducks and geese winter at Titchwell in considerable numbers, and the reserve shelters the endangered European water vole.
Facilities include three bird hides, a seawatching platform, two nature trails, and a visitor centre. Because of concerns about climate change, a major project in 2010 and 2011 brought improvements to the banks around the freshwater lagoon and the conversion of the brackish lagoon to tidal saltmarsh, a more effective barrier to encroachment by the sea.
Titchwell Marsh is archaeologically significant, with artefacts dating back to the Upper Paleolithic, and has remains of military constructions from both world wars. These include brickwork from a First World War military hospital and 1940s artillery targets for armoured fighting vehicles and warplanes in the Second World War.
History Before 1972
Titchwell has a long history of human occupation. Populations of both Modern and Neanderthal people were present in Norfolk before the last glaciation between 100,000 and 10,000 years ago, and returned as the ice retreated north. The archaeological record is poor until about 20,000 years ago, partly due to the prevailing conditions, but also because the coastline was much further north than at present, so that many sites are now under the sea. Early Mesolithic flint tools with characteristic blades up to Murphy (2009) p. 14. long found on the present-day coast at Titchwell date from a time when it was from the sea. Other flint tools have been found dating from the Upper Paleolithic to the Neolithic. As the ice retreated during the Mesolithic, the sea level rose, filling what is now the North Sea, and bringing the Norfolk coastline much closer to its present line; the remains of submerged forests can still be detected at low tide.Murphy (2009) p. 32. By 11,000 BC, the makers of the long blades had gone, and peat marshes had formed behind an offshore barrier island or spit.Robertson (2005) pp. 9–10. A layer of peat formed between 1920 and 1680 BC and another between 1020 and 830 BC, indicating marshy conditions;Robertson (2005) p. 152. polished Neolithic axes found in those layers were blackened by exposure to the peat.Robertson (2005) pp. 15–16.
Two possible timber platforms were identified within the peat at Titchwell, and may be prehistoric. Similar Bronze Age structures are rare, and they may be significant in providing information about early timber construction methods.Robertson (2005) p. 149. Medieval and later pottery has been found at Titchwell, and the peat and silts which overlay the sediments deposited by the retreating glaciers have signs of post-medieval ploughing.
The draining of Norfolk's coastal marshes commenced in the late 17th and 18th centuries, and sea defences including the "Old Lord's Bank" at Titchwell were shown in maps from 1786 and 1797. For the next 170 years or so, the reclaimed marsh was arable, producing crops and beef cattle.Robinson (1986) p. 28. A huge influx of Pallas's sandgrouse into Britain in 1853 led to several arrivals at Titchwell, including mated pairs. The last bird seen was on the saltmarsh, and the rest were on the dunes or in marram grass; many were shot.
Thornham Marsh, immediately west of Titchwell, was used between 1914 and 1918 by the Royal Flying Corps as a bombing range. Some brickwork on Titchwell Marsh is all that remains of a military hospital dating from that period. A First World War concrete building along the west bank was let as holiday accommodation until the British Army returned in 1942.Titchwell Marsh before the RSPB. RSPB information sheet.
During the Second World War, military defences were constructed at Titchwell. The drainage of farmland behind the banks was stopped, reflooding the former marshland; Retrieved 5 November 2011. zigzag ditches were dug, and pillboxes built into Old Lord's Bank. Between 1942 and 1945, the marsh was used by the Royal Tank Regiment; an armoured fighting vehicle gunnery range was established and new banks were constructed for firing practice, with targets set at intervals. Some of the still extant islands were built to hold "pop-up" targets, operated by cables from winches in a building whose foundations lie below Island Hide. Remains of the triangular concrete track used by the tanks also survive. Military activities continued after the war, with the Royal Air Force returning to Thornham Marsh between 1950 and 1959. Bombing practice was supervised from a control tower, which was demolished in 1962, leaving only a concrete structure opposite the end of Titchwell's west bank. The remains of two Second World War Covenanter tanks, probably used as targets, are sometimes exposed at low tide.
The wreck of the SS Vina, a cargo steamer built in 1894, can be seen at low tide. In 1944, she was anchored offshore for use as an RAF target when a gale dragged her to her present location and sank her. After the war, some of the wreck was salvaged as scrap. The remains of the Vina are accessible at low tide, but visiting them is potentially hazardous as the wreck is quickly cut off and submerged by the incoming tide. A warning sign on the wreck advises anyone reaching it to return to the beach immediately.
Behind the sea wall, the marshes were drained after the war, and reverted to farmland, but the bank was breached in the North Sea flood of 1953, returning the whole area to tidal saltmarsh dominated by sea aster.Hammomd (1984) pp. 167–168. The construction of a new sea wall across the reserve created a shallow freshwater lagoon, with a reed bed on its northern side and a vegetation-free brackish marsh.
RSPB era
Between 1970 and 1972, a pair of Montagu's harriers, Britain's rarest breeding birds of prey, nested in the reed bed. The RSPB bought the reserve in 1973 for £53,000 (£,000 in 20). The Montagu's harriers did not return, but marsh harriers did, and the RSPB commenced improving the habitat and facilities, including embanking the lagoons and building a car park and visitor centre. Avocets, then still very rare in the UK, first bred here in 1984. The visitor centre facilities were improved between 1987 and 1989 to cope with the numbers of visitors.The RSPB and Titchwell Marsh. RSPB information sheet.
In 1991, the sea broke through the dunes at the eastern end of the beach near the former Tern Hide, and the dunes started to erode. The remains of the Second World War tanks first appeared around this time. In the following year the boardwalk at the beach end of the west bank was constructed to protect the dunes, and the seawatching platform was added at its northern end. of land to the east of the reserve was bought in 1993; much of this was formerly part of the firing range, and large amounts of barbed wire caused problems when the area was being converted to reed bed and wet grazing meadow. Over the winter, an old hide on the West Bank was demolished and replaced with the current Island Hide. Storms in February 1996 removed most of the dunes east of the boardwalk, and eroded those to the west. The Tern Hide, now cut off at high tide, was dismantled. Developments at the end of the 20th century included the 1997 extension of the visitor centre, which included building a cafe, and the erection of Fen Hide in 1999, together with a boardwalk path to the hide, and a dragonfly pond.
The reserve covers , and is of international importance for its breeding and wintering birds. It was designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in 1973, and in 1986 it was subsumed into the North Norfolk Coast SSSI. The larger area is now additionally protected through Natura 2000, Special Protection Area (SPA) and Ramsar listings, and is part of the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Retrieved 8 November 2011. Retrieved 6 November 2011. Retrieved 8 November 2011. This is the RSPB's most visited reserve, with about 92,000 visitors annually. Retrieved 17 November 2011.
Access and facilities
Titchwell Marsh is next to the A149 road and buses stop outside the reserve. Retrieved 10 November 2011. The main track to the beach is a public right-of-way, and the only part of the reserve where dogs are permitted. The reserve is open all year, and access is free, although non-members are charged for using the car park. The main part of the reserve is accessed from the visitor centre using the 1 km (1,050 yd) West Bank footpath. After leaving the woodland around the visitor centre, there are two short paths running from the main path; the Fen Trail to a hide overlooking the reed bed, and the Meadow Trail boardwalk loop through wet marsh and past the dragonfly pond. The main footpath continues north past the reedbed to the freshwater lagoon and the Island Hide, then reaches a bank running across the reserve. The new Parrinder hides are placed along this wall. The footpath continues past a tidal lagoon, and over another bank to a saltmarsh, formerly ending at a raised wooden seawatching platform on the dunes by the beach. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
The visitor centre and shop are open daily except Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Retrieved 10 November 2011. Retrieved 10 November 2011. Most of the reserve and its facilities are wheelchair accessible, but the last part of the path to the beach is rough, and accessed via a steep bank. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
Fauna and flora Birds
The key breeding species are reed bed specialists such as the marsh harrier, Eurasian bittern and bearded reedling, together with the avocet, the RSPB's symbolic bird. Retrieved 8 November 2011. Bitterns stopped breeding on the reserve in 1989 due to inadequate habitat and a lack of sufficient large food fish; although European eels, a favoured food, are present, the numbers are too low. These problems were addressed by managing water levels and excavating some of the reed bed to create open, reed-fringed pools, and stocking the lagoon with the common rudd; breeding recommenced in 2004. In 2011, there were 80 avocet nests, two pairs of Eurasian bitterns, and four pairs of marsh harriers, the latter successfully fledging seven young. Retrieved 8 November 2011.
Other breeding birds include ringed plovers and Eurasian oystercatchers in the sand dunes, and water rails in the reed bed. Sedge, reed and Cetti's warblers all nest in the wetland, and little egrets are now common on the reserve. In early summer, scarcer migrants like the little gull, black tern, Eurasian spoonbills and garganey may pass through on their way to breed elsewhere.Harrup (2010) pp. 246–248.