Undercover reporter Christopher Broadbent (oops) has news of something happening amongst the Knapweed, Creeping Bent, Common Nipplewort, Ladies Bedstraw and Devil’s Bit Scabious.
We can exclusively reveal that there is a Plot being hatched in Rye, code named ‘Iron Salts’. The Plot was initially agreed upon at a meeting at a secret location (The Mermaid Inn) last winter, and has only now come to light.
We now know who the plotters are and at some considerable risk can share their names. Simon McGurk, Philip Merricks, Martin Blincow, Dominic Manning, and me (in disguise so as not to reveal my true identity while working undercover). This group has also now recruited Dena Smith Ellis because she lends an air of legitimacy to the Plot by being a Town Councillor.
Confronted with our awareness of the existence of the Plot, the lead plotter, Simon McGurk, said, “it’s all perfectly innocent, honest. Yes, it is a plot. An actual plot. A plot of land on the Iron Salts which we plan to convert into a wildflower garden. We thought it would be a good idea to have a small splash of colour and floral diversity on this grassy area of amenity land, surrounded by trees, and enjoyed by so many residents of and visitors to Rye. So we did indeed hatch our Plot and are working hard to bring it about.”
It is entirely possible of course that this is a seemingly plausible cover for something far more sinister. So we dug deeper (sorry). Catching Martin Blincow by surprise at the Cricket Club, we challenged him on the plot. “I saw you coming a mile off,” he said. “And yes, it is quite genuinely a wildflower meadow plot. We have already secured free timber to make a raised surround, so that people can sit and enjoy the view. We have an offer of wildflower meadow hay to spread, along with bags of harvested wildflower seed. And we are hoping for the – again free – availability of chalk undersoil so the plot is raised to about two feet in height, and hence the wildflowers will be provided with a more suitable type of soil in which they will thrive. Rather than hoping, as Rother District Council seem to think, that they will flourish on the fertile, saline soil of the Iron Salts. Which of course they won’t. Rother’s mistaken belief is that leaving the area unmown will somehow help wildflowers to grow when all that will happen is that the vigorous coarse grasses will flourish and suppress everything else. Which encourages some dog owners to treat the area as a convenient dog lavatory where Rye families fear to tread. As has happened for the last couple of summers.”
We later challenged Dominic Manning on the Plot. “How big is this Plot?” we asked. “Is it a national security risk?”
“It’s about three by eight metres,” he said. “A straight eight metre rear with a curved frontage rather like a huge letter B. I’ve already sent a note to Rother District Council to this effect. And no, it’s not likely to attract the attention of MI5 unless they like wild flowers.”
So the local authority is also involved. This Plot definitely thickens. We finally managed to track down Philip Merricks on a tractor (he was on a tractor, not us). “I’ve already cut the grass at the Iron Salts a couple of times,” he said. “And I’m sorting out the chalk underlay. All we need now is formal consent from RDC, a management plan for annual cutting and clearing of the meadow, and ideally the involvement of as many businesses and residents of Rye as we can gather. We are looking at several ideas. One is that individuals or businesses can sponsor a square metre and have a plaque to that effect on the timber surround. Another is that people can contribute and we will source small circular discs with their names on to attach to the upper face of the surround. We don’t need much but it will all help affray the costs of annual management, repeated seeding, hay spreading and so on.”
We also finally challenged Dena Smith Ellis, by attending a Town Council meeting in disguise. When we asked her if she was involved in a Plot she denied it, but her spin-doctor later issued a statement which read: “Cllr Smith Ellis is a keen supporter of all efforts to improve biodiversity, both to counter the catastrophic loss of nature in this country and because ‘being in nature’ is actually good for you. The mistake people make is the assumption that ‘just letting the grass grow’ is good for nature. It’s not a bad thing – but to return the soil to a truly diverse medium, above and below ground, takes time and effort. Denutrification, the enablement of mycorrhizal fungi, bacteria, protozoa, nematodes, earthworms, and other tiny decomposers that move nutrients, build soil structure, and support plant roots are all needed. You don’t get this by just not cutting the grass.”
We put all this to a resident of Rye, Debbie Foy, who, speaking under conditions of anonymity, said “well this is really concerning. Wild flowers! How wild? We’re going to get bees I expect. And people are going to be seeing flowers they would never otherwise get to see. That might be quite a shock. I did wonder if there was a Plot in Rye, and it seems I was right. Anyway what is a mycorrhizal fungus? Can you eat it?”
If you are interested, please let the Plotters know by emailing christopher@swallowtailhill.com who denies writing this piece or being anything to do with The Great Iron Salts Plot.
Reader’s note: The Iron Salts (commonly called the Salts) in Rye is a historic riverside/shore open space that has long been used as common green land, and its more recent history centres on salt-marsh/grassland use. In medieval times it was a location for salt production (obvs) and the soil remains extremely saline. They are the grassed areas just south of the town walls stretching from the cricket club to Rock Channel.
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Image Credits: Christopher Broadbent , Rye News library .