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.
Rye News invites letters and opinions from readers on all aspects of local life. If you would like to write for us email info@ryenews.org.uk
Image Credits: Christopher Broadbent , Rye News library .
I think it is a wonderful idea! The Salts has been crying out for wildflower planting for too long.
This would be a huge boost to the biodiversity of the area and an ideal, and picturesque, way to encourage and support our vital bees.
It would also encourage people to linger and enjoy the beauty of nature.
Hear, hear! I fully agree with you and sincerely hope the plot is successful.
If it is only 3m by 8m that’s not too bad, but why not simply grow it as the understory to the fruit orchard that has been planted?
Good point Andy, the Community Orchard group and the fantastic Graham Ellis have been very helpful in practical ways and are I think doing their own work to help encourage wildflowers in the community orchard. The project has developed in this way because the soil analysis shows that the salts are saline and fertile, exactly the opposite of what wildflowers like, we rely on the expert advice of Phillip Merricks and Christopher Broadbent who between them know pretty much all there is to know about soil, flowers, nature regeneration and in addition are hugely generous with time and resources.
Brilliant !!!!!
Jane Conlin
Sounds like a solution that will please people far more than leaving the Salts unmown! Although I do hope there will be a patch of unmown grass somewhere as a refuge for insects and small animals.
The most important point is that there are a group of plotters willing to think about the ways in which this lovely green part of Rye can be best shared by townspeople, visitors, and wildlife. Well done to you all, and please keep up the good work! “Wild” plantings do need a lot of thought and planning, as our wonderful Great Dixter just up the road in Northiam has shown.
Thank you all for your comments. To Andy Stuart’s point a woodland wildlfower plot is a different thing entirely to open meadows and has different species. And putting a raised bed among the trees would not be simple. Creating it at ground level would also fail as the soil is saline and ov er fertile. So nice idea but an entirely different sort of Plot.
Why do you insist on changing the names of places?
The Iron Salts (commonly called The Salts)
It’s been the Salts ever since I can remember, rewriting history does seem to be the British way these days.
I agree with you. Born in Rye, I spent a good part of my life on the salts.
Me too, I walked across them to go to work on the fishing boats many a day and night.
Nobody ever mentioned anything about “Iron”. And that was when the foundry was still working.
That’s a reasonable point -what does “Iron” have to do with the Salts?
The Salts are so-called because, for nearly a thousand years, prior to flood defences preventing the tide from reaching them, salt was extracted from the salt-marsh here to use as a preservative for fish caught by local fishermen.
The mud – known as Marl – extracted from the Salts would be transported uphill, to be cooked & washed to extract the salt, at the hamlet now known as Cock Marling (the name literally means “the people who cook the Marl”).
Interestingly, the salt didn’t always preserve the fish as well as intended – in Tudor London, stale news, which everyone had already heard, was referred to as “as stale as a Rye fish!”
“….We don’t need much but it will all help affray the costs of annual management, repeated seeding, hay spreading and so on….”
Good thinking. Build in a(nother) criminal offence, affray, far more interesting than defraying, any day.
Anne Barker
We could always go back to calling is Baddings Marsh
Well, we now have The Iron Salts, The Fair Salts and The Cricket Salts. I guess it just takes all Salts.
Iron salts commonly cause constipation!