Episode 11: A Trip To Winterton-On-Sea

Chris Skinner (00:48):

Good morning and welcome to High Ash Farm. It's a cloudy morning here. I think rain is threatening and doing my early morning rounds at the farm here, and Rat has just jumped out of the truck, my demented terrier, but in the gloom I can see where he is this morning because I bought him a high-vis jacket. And this luminous dog, he's running ahead of the truck! 

I’m just going down the track and we're just looking at some of the jobs that we'll need to be doing later on on the farm today. Now High Ash Farm is a little bit unusual as you might expect. I've got an unusual dog and a weird farmer. It's all hills, and yet Norfolk is known most of Norfolk anyway, to be completely flat. And the hills are left here by the glaciers of the last ice age. And it's really interesting because there's a whole variety of soil types here, clays on top of the hills, sands and gravels halfway down the valleys and at the bottom, deep alluvial soil where the most fertile land is. 

(02:13)

So none of the crops ripen at the same time. It's always a challenge. And on the tops of the hills, on a dry year, often the cereal crops would die on their feet if you get hot July day just before the crops are ripened and the sugar beet would always wilt flat onto the ground and yet in the bottom of the valleys they would thrive. So I'm about halfway up one of these hills and I'm just walking up a track here and beside me, lots of rabbits have been digging brown soil come out to the burrows as I walk up. And then all slightly different soil colour has come out of this rabbit burrow right in front of me and Rat’s ahead of me. He's sniffing down each of the burrows to see if there's anything interesting to have a dig at. And this burrow is quite large. 

(03:13)
Often people think when they see a large burrow, it's this one, probably a foot in diameter, it would be dug out by fox. But because the soil halfway up, this hill is very sandy, the rabbits dig the burrow out and the top of the burrow collapses and then they dig some more soil out and eventually you have quite a large burrow, which foxes could go in, but nearly always they're responsible by the rabbits digging, constantly enlarging the warren. So it's quite a steep hill coming down towards me and just walking along lots and lots of rabbit holes. I'm just looking for one that I can see right down into the depths of the ground, so to speak. There's lots of them. That's a good one. Perfect. Lots of sand has come out of the burrow, and I'm just on my hands and knees and looking into the rabbit burrow now, and I can see in about five or six feet, I'm just going to reach in a little bit and pull some of the soil out. 

(04:19)

But it isn't soil, it is pure white sand. Rat has come out out, he's going down there, but he's got his coat on so he would get stuck. Good. He's come out, the soil is just pure sand, so it won't hold any water, which explains why the crops just die away when you get these hot dry spells that we seem to be having out in the countryside during the summer months. So it's very little use, but it does tell us a history here that millennia ago, this was a seashore. It's quite hard to imagine because I'm halfway up valley. So the sea levels must have been hugely higher than they are today. Although we're worried about global warming and sea height actually increasing each year. It must've been like nothing on earth back then, millennia ago because the water in the valleys, I mean it would've been most of the towns in the United Kingdom would be underwater, certainly London and Norwich, which is just to the north of the farm, the whole of that would've been under the sea, quite amazing. 

(05:35)

And these valleys were quite deep. So where I'm standing, I would've actually been underwater and the waves would've been splashing around me because sand is formed by the constant action of the sea waves on shingle rock originally, then shingle. And you get those lovely round pebbles where the sea actually washes over the shingle and actually takes all the little sharp edges off. So you have larger pebbles, perfectly round, and then right down to pea shingle size, and then the sea on those knocks tiny little fragments off. And you have this lovely pure white sand, which is all around me here at the farm. So just to create a picture a little bit more vividly, I've invited Matthew Gudgin out to the farm this morning. He'll be heading on a little bit later on and he's going to be joining me and I'm going to take him, it's a boys' day out. 

(06:38)

We're going down to the seaside and have a look at the seashore because it's only about 14 miles away as the crow flies. The Norfolk coast line is quite close to the farm at this point, so we'll be able to actually look at some of the sand and the early formation of land where the sand gets swept up the beach and forms dunes. So it's a little area of coast that I know really well, Winterton-on-sea. So he'll be coming along sort mid-morning when he's got himself out of bed and will trundle down there and just do a little exploration of some of the different soil types. So in future podcasts we'll be looking at some of the clays, some of the deep alluvial soils here at the farm and some of the peat as well because we've got an area of bog which you can jump up and down on, and it's as bouncy as a sponge. 

(07:37)

And they've all formed from different types of habitat and different rock formations, particularly the clays, which can really good at retaining water. Whereas sand, as you know, if you put a bucket of water on it, it just goes straight through, which is what makes it so unstable as well. So Rat’s now the other side of the bank, the side, a newly planted hedge. And he's looking at me saying, ‘come on, just sitting there doing nothing’ like most farmers do. So come on, let's get some work done and we'll just wait for Matthew to arrive and then we'll head off to the coast as rain is threatening the cloud. It's hardly got light this morning yet, and so I'm expecting some rain. There we are. Come on Gudgin, I'm waiting for you. 

Plane six

That might be him in his private jet, I'm not sure. 

Matthew Gudgin (08:47):

So Chris Skinner phones me up and says, let's have a morning by the seaside. I said, oh yes, please ice cream and kiss me quick hats and all sorts of things like that. So here we are on a beach about 15 miles from Chris's farm and it is pouring with rain. It's completely deserted here. And Chris has had to improvise with, what's this? 

Chris Skinner (09:10):

It's a bin liner over my head. I did make a hole in it, I didn't bring a coat because when we left High Ash Farm it was reasonably dry and almost sunny there. And then we've hit some sort of coastal showers, but we're right by the sea here. You can hear it roaring away in the background. There's some good breakers coming in. A bit of an onshore wind this morning. And I brought us here because at High Ash Farm we had the valleys and the hills and all the way round the sort of hills about halfway up them. It's a layer of pure sand and it's always fascinated me because it's the same sand as we have here. It's only 14, 15 miles away as the crow flies to this point of the Norfolk coast from High Ash Farm and sand forms in a really interesting way. 

(10:10)

The sea's constantly pounding shingle and rocks over the millennia. All the shingle sort of butts together and eventually little tiny chips break off it and it forms sand. And so we have many parts of the Norfolk coast have sand all the way around. Some have pure shingle. And when you see the big waves coming in on the shingle, it sort of smashes them together and you have sand forming now. That's the bit that fascinates me. So we are watching, we're standing looking out to sea. The waves are coming in towards us, but can you see they're not coming in straight up the beach. They're coming at an angle from over there. They're following the wind. 

Matthew Gudgin (10:54):

Yes. You are facing north, aren't you? We're here at Winterton-on-Sea, which is very popular in the summer, not so popular today, but there's this angle, but fairly constant wave action coming in.

Chris Skinner (11:04):

Absolutely. But it's coming at an angle and that's the important thing. And it's got a particular name, it's called swash, right? That's the important thing. It's coming in sideways and I've always thought it meant sideways wash two words, kind of joint together. But it isn't that. It's really just the sound that we're hearing here, this lovely sort of constant sound of the waves coming in onshore. But something interesting happens when the waves go back down the beach, they go back at right angles. So you've got waves coming in from one direction and the water going back at another direction and over time it moves the sand further down the beach until the next point, either the next bay. So here we've got a wave coming in right towards us, but it's a different angle to the waves coming in off the sea. There it goes back and it's going back at right angles down the beach look. So it's actually moving all these little particles further down.

Matthew Gudgin (12:10):

So we are facing south and that's where the drift is, is it? 

Chris Skinner (12:13):

Yes. The drift is further southwards at the moment.

Matthew Gudgin (12:17):

And Great Yarmouth is about four or five miles up road.

Chris Skinner (12:19):

That’s right. And there's been quite a lot of erosion down there and only a mile further down the beach, the same amount of erosion as there has been at Winterton-on-sea here. And that's at Hemsby and there's been some serious erosion there. The erosion here at Winterton happened about three years ago, and where we are standing would've been about 25 to 30 feet high and it's all washed away onto the beach and further down there, just south of Winterton, before you get to Hemsby, some of the dunes were 80 or 90 feet high and they're all in the sea now. So this part of the coastline that we're standing on is raised up three or four feet. So the erosion has actually stopped here, but the old beach cafe has gone. There's still some rocks sort of 30, 40 yards out from the cliffs there. All made of sand.

Matthew Gudgin (13:12):

That brings it home, doesn't it? Yes. That you can definitely see there. 50 odd yards has just disappeared.

Chris Skinner (13:16):

Absolutely. So on dry sunny days, which makes me smile, we haven't got today, 

Matthew Gudgin (13:24):

I’ve just put a vision in your mind here. I have sat here for virtually a whole day with my wind break and my ..

Chris Skinner (13:28):

Your knotted handkerchief on your head?

Matthew Gudgin (13:30):

Yes, all of that. Yes. With the test match on the radio on happier occasions. Yes.

Chris Skinner (13:35):

Anyway, on dry, sunny days, the wind comes in off the sea and the sand layer dries very, very quickly on the top. I've been here on days when it's not always sunny, but it's been very windy and it's light standing being shot, blasted. So even at four, five feet high, and if I brought a dog with me, I just feel so sorry for the dog that we desert the beach and go up on the top of the sand dunes. So when they're walking back up the beach and something interesting happens, so when this sand blows up the beach on dry, hot, sunny days, it will reach what we call the strand line, which is the limit of the high tides any particular time of year. And 

Matthew Gudgin (14:21):

And there's some seaweed here, isn't there? 

Chris Skinner (14:22):

Exactly that, yes. So there's last night's high tide and the night before is even further back up the beach. So obviously the moon is in a balance at the moment, so the tides aren't quite so high. And usually if you get a period of long calm weather, you'll have some sea plants growing along this strand line. Things like scarlet pimpernel, we have scarlet pimpernel, at the farm, but the coastal pimpernel, have a much deeper root system. So they're able to sort of start forming what we call a foredune. That sounds like some terrible disaster foredune, but it actually starts to establish dunes, so the sand will blow in and cover those plants up and then you'll get a big autumn storm and it does away with all the foredunes, but the dunes behind here will still remain so only another 20 paces or so. And we get to the sand cliff and they say, you should never build a house on top of sand. And you can see why here, because it's all cascading in onto the beach. 

Matthew Gudgin (15:37):

That's about 15, 20 foot high, isn't it? This cliff but as crumbly as an Oxo cube

Chris Skinner (15:43):

Yeah, other cubes are available, yes, but interestingly, big clumps of marram have cascaded down and they're just trying to get another foothold. But two species of grass apart from the marram grass also start off, they're called lime grass and sea couch grass. Sea couch grass sort of starts off because the seeds will blow out down here quite close to the sea. And I’ve got a lot of respect for couch, we have it at the farm. It's a slightly different species, but it grows by rhizomes. And that's the secret of this grass growing up on top here, the marram, because as we walk up, we'll try and scramble back up. It's quite a steep climb for us. 

Matthew Gudgin (16:28):

But the marram binds a lot of this together, doesn't it?

Chris Skinner (16:30):

It does, but when you have coastal erosion, there's absolutely nothing to stop it because the sand is so crumbly underneath it, it just washes away if the sea is able to get up. And as we're having sea level rises at the moment, there's nothing to stabilise this because it's just like you're having an egg timer. It's very, very fine sand. And this is all blown up from the beach. It's quite surprising. But marram has got a trick up its sleeve. So we're right near the top now. It'll go up a little bit more. Quite a climb. 

Matthew Gudgin (17:10):

You didn't tell me there wasn't a lift or an elevator, 

Chris Skinner (17:15):

Now, this is, we've reached the top of the marram cliff and underneath there where it's all cascaded away, we've got these roots. Here's one and it's a rhizome and all the way up the little rhizome, you have little knots. And every time if the knot is exposed, it will send up a shoot like this, a sharp shoot, and that penetrates through. Then you can see some seedlings on the top here of the marram grass. They're tiny, they're not actually seedlings. They come from these rhizomes underneath. So if I scrub that away, we would find a rhizome underneath. So very few plants can stand this kind of habitat because it's so fragile. The marram grass is growing. There's virtually no fertility here on the sand. So it's an absolutely miracle plant, but it won't and it can't combat sea level rise. That's the problem of it. 

(18:16)

It will stabilise sand. And you can have these big dunes forming sometimes 60, 70, 80 feet tall, all brought in by the wind. So the wind comes in, moves the sand off the beach up here when it comes in offshore and forms these massive dunes. And they're acres here aren't acres and acres, there's several hundred acres here. But as you move in land gradually the marram grass decays down, forms humus in the soil. So you start to have other plants like seaholly, sea bindweed, all forming again in this very high salinity situation. But it's not acidic because there's a lot of shells mixed in with the sand all broken up. So it's quite a lot of lime in the soil. So absolutely brilliant habitat. So the further you walk in over the top of the dunes, the marram grass gradually drops away and you'll have grasses, then you'll have rabbits grazing and you start to have a different habitat forming. 

(19:21)

But in between the dunes you'll have hollows and they're called dunes slacks. And you'll have special amphibians living in their reptiles as well. Sand lizards, not particularly in this part of Norfolk, but we have adders here at Winterton. They love this habitat as well. And then the dune slacks, you'll have water even in the middle of summer, and you'll have a special variety species of toad, natterjack toads, and they're quite amazing. You can be quarter of a mile that way. And if the natterjack toads are calling where we are standing, you can hear them at a huge distance. 

Matthew Gudgin:

This site is so important for natterjacks, isn't it? 

Chris Skinner:

Yes, it absolutely is slightly different to our normal toad. They have a line, a yellow line down their back, but if you disturbed one and try to pick it up to put to safety, they exude a really powerful smell. It's a mixture of gun powder and burnt rubber. It's the only way to do with a little bit of sulphur mixed in. It's quite distinctive. So they're so kind of toxic that other animals will tend to leave them alone. But the habitat in those dune slacks that they lay their spawn in has to be in water. If it dries out, then the whole generation for next year dies away. So again, like all dune, it's very, very fragile. 

Matthew Gudgin (20:49):

And bird life, do we see ground nesting birds like terns here?

Chris Skinner (20:52):

Yes, absolutely. This is a brilliant spot for terns, oyster catchers, sandlings along the front of the beach here. And sometimes you'll see gulls as well doing sort of extraordinary tricks. I've seen blackhead gulls and herring gulls standing close to the water's edge just out of the water and they paddle their feet up and down like this. And that's to mimic the waves coming over. And that means if there's any worms just under the soil or cockles under there, the worms will think it's the tide running over the top of them, things like lugworms or ragworms as well. And they then gobble them up. So it's a trick that they learn. So sometimes you see unusual behaviour. Another lovely bird usually comes along here in little flocks is turn stones. And they'll be examining any of the little flints and small rocks only up to fist size. 

(21:52)

They can flick those over with their beaks and get any soil sort of any invertebrates underneath there, small crabs, shrimps, prawns as well. And at this time of the year, once we are up to middle of November, which we are and beyond, sometimes you'll sort of utter some sort of swear word under your breath because you'll see sort of white blobs blowing across the top of the beach and think, oh no, somebody's dropped a whole load of polystyrene. But it's not that. It's snow buntings which come across the North Sea to join our resident buntings. Those like yellow hammers, same family, but the males are astonishingly white and show up against the beach sand absolutely beautifully. And this is a favourite habitat for them just here at Winterton. I've often seen flocks of them just feeding on any seeds that blow off the top of the dunes. They'll eat the marram grass seed, which seeds at this time of the year. But when you look down across the top of the dune, Matthew, you can see some of the seed heads of the marram here. And that's a really important grass species for stabilising dunes that are not going to be washed away by the rising sea. 

Matthew Gudgin (23:06):

One thing I can see though, Chris, and let's just say straight away that there is some evidence of seabird out to sea, but it's very grey. And as you might be able to hear very wet here today, but sand flies, insects are still there and buzzing around, aren't they? 

Chris Skinner (23:23):

Yes of course. And any visiting birds that come in off the coast, off the near continent, it can be really cold just a few hundred miles east of us and the birds will fly westwards to come across to our more hospitable environment. Birds like woodcock will make early landfall here and they will be looking for soil invertebrates, things like worms, but other birds will come across the North Sea. And we'll be looking for those sand flies that you pointed out there still in the rain on the top of the marram grass, just waiting for the weather to dry to perhaps complete their lifecycle. A lovely silhouette of some of the flies. And we're cruising up to winter now and right out to sea just as we arrived, I saw a lovely little pocket of common scoter ducks, which spend most of their life out to sea jet black ducks right out perhaps half a mile out there, fishing for mussels out to sea. Just an amazing array. And always, you can see seals here right at this part of the Norfolk coast.

Matthew Gudgin (24:31):

But not today

Chris Skinner (24:32):

No. 

Matthew Gudgin (24:33):

Where are they? They'll be giving birth soon. 

Chris Skinner (24:35):

They certainly will. Just a little bit further down the coast here at horsey, only half a mile away from where we are. That's a good haul out point for them. And this is the time of year they give birth the common seals and it is a heck of a population here. And they'll be here over the next month or two. Lovely, absolutely lovely to see. Just remember, keep your dogs on a lead if you bring them here. 

Matthew Gudgin (25:00):

Keep away from the seals, although the numbers are extraordinary. When I was a boy 50 years ago, it was very much a rarity to see a seal. Now you can barely help seeing them. There's one!

Chris Skinner (25:09):

Look, there is one. It just popped its head up, Matthew. See only about 25 yards out. 

Matthew Gudgin (25:16):

I rest my case my lord.

Chris Skinner (25:17):

There's another one just there right in front of us. 

Matthew Gudgin (25:19):

Oh my word. Look at that. You can see the outline. That's a grey seal, isn't it? 

Chris Skinner (25:24):

Perfectly. Absolutely wonderful site. There you are. 

Matthew Gudgin:

Look at that. Just got his head up. I think he's doing the butterfly. 

Chris Skinner (25:32):

No, he's just watching these two strange men because I look a bit worrying because I've got a black bin liner over my head. I rather look like a seal. 

Matthew Gudgin (25:41):

Well, I hope you're enjoying our postcard from Winterton on sea on the Norfolk Coast on a very grey and wet day. But just painting a picture at the back here we've got the magnificent Winterton Church, one of the tallest mediaeval church towers anywhere and acres and acres, hundreds of acres of the marram grass and then the black fishermen's huts. And I know you've been to see the fishermen recently and the sea defences which are now stranded out on the shoreline because of this erosion looks almost like a latter day stone henge. 

Chris Skinner (26:12):

I think you're quite right. I'd already thought that actually it does look really strange and it's arranged in a semicircle. Those blocks weigh two to three tonnes each. The sea hasn't tried to shift them, but the sea's gone round the back of them and said, I'm coming in here anyway. 

Matthew Gudgin (26:31):

Well, we've got some questions to answer, so I think we ought to maybe repair to the farm truck. 

Chris Skinner (26:36):

Yes. And another seal over there. Look at that. So this place has got my seal of approval. 

Matthew Gudgin (26:52):

We've come inside now into the shelter of Chris's vehicle that he's brought here to Winterton today. And we've got lots of correspondence, Chris, which is lovely to see, isn't it?

Chris Skinner (27:01):

I know it always gladness the heart. I love lots of response, some praise or anything we don't mind. We'll have a go at answering any questions as well. 

Matthew Gudgin (27:12):

Well, here are some of the emails and cards that have been sent in. First hello to Jane Nicholson, also to Carl and Kai and Jane says, we're really enjoying the podcast. It's a breath of fresh air. And we liked the Woodland episode recently, Chris. And we took Kai, our grandson for a visit. He asked to go, he really loves the little stream that runs through the woods and the little bit near the seat not far from the hollow tree, he spotted a large reddish coloured bracket fungus there it was growing out of the side of the tree and was curious to know what it was. Can you say hello to Kai? 

Chris Skinner (27:47):

Hello Kai. Well done for spotting that fungus. It's a really interesting one. It's called a bracket fungus and it's proper name. It's a beef steak, fungus. And if you noticed, it's a kind of deep dark red colour. And next time if you come back and the fungus is still there, if you just get your little fingernail and run across the top layer of the fungus, it looks as though it's shedding some blood. It's a bright red juice, we'll come running out of it. And years ago, furniture makers used to infect oak trees and that's what this fungus was growing on. And it stains the heartwood in the tree and they would make really high quality, classy furniture from the oakwood and it would be a kind of mahogany red colour. So well done. And congratulations, Kai. I love your little comments about the stream. It's one of my favourite parts of the farm just there. 

Matthew Gudgin (28:49):

You had an interesting set of visitors, I gather the other day, a family from Sri Lanka. 

Chris Skinner (28:55):

Yes. And I thought they were just local, had come from Norwich and they had done a special visit to the UK and in particular to come to High Ash Farm. I couldn't believe it. And they arrived at the farm at six o'clock in the morning to watch the sunrise at seven, which they did. The whole family were there. Rackman and Tabitha Obari with Talitha and Sonita their two children. And they said hello to Rat without me introducing it. They both children said ‘Hello Rat’. And that's from the other side of the world virtually. So welcome to the United Kingdom and hope you enjoy your visit to Ness Point, the most easterly part of the UK to watch the sunrise there. 

Matthew Gudgin (29:45):

Well, in comparison, you've got a note here from someone who's really a next door neighbour. Alistair Wright from church farm in Stalham says he loves the community radio aspect of what we do and he enjoys listening to it with his small arable farm in Stalham. He watches the birds and other wildlife when he's working. He says, we've got a good selection here of raptors, sparrow, hawks, kestrels, buzzards, the odd red kite. And we've got larks as well, a joy to listen to. We always get barn owls nesting in a couple of decrepit barns we've got too. And it's marvellous to hear people keeping the habitat going for the poor barn. 

Chris Skinner (30:23):

Owls. Yes, they're are red list species and skylarks too. So we have them at the farm. We have barn owls as well. They're always a delight to see. And congratulations for helping biodiversity and just looking after the wildlife. That's a real heartwarming story. Well done. 

Matthew Gudgin (30:42):

It's still pouring with rain here at Winterton. You might've heard me closing the window just now. I was about to have to bail out there. But here's a note from Brian Williams who is in London, but he says, living here in southeast London, it makes me very jealous of listening to you on High Ash Farm. Although we've got an abundance of foxes, squirrels, magpies, and a number of other birds. I've missed the blackbirds this year. I haven't heard one in the garden sometimes I've heard them as early as January. The Blackbird song always cheers me up no matter what's happening in the world. So what's happened to the blackbirds? 

Chris Skinner (31:16):

Well, at this time of the year, they don't sing. So part of that is a normal response. Some birds sing. At this time of the year, robins have just set up territories and they'll be singing, we're well into November. Now, blackbirds tend not to sing and mark out their territory with their song until January and February. That's the months you'll hear them. And then particularly again in March and April, they can be doing second broods by then. So they are songbirds, but they have a really restricted season in which they sing in. So all's not lost. So listen out carefully, particularly if you have a mile January towards the end of January and certainly into February. They can have eggs in the nest at that time of the year. And the cock bird will sing away from either top of a building or tree, particularly if they're street lighting in the area that stimulates them to start singing earlier in the day before it's even light. And so there we are, and you're quite right. It's one of my favourite songs and it really does gladden the heart. 

Matthew Gudgin (32:24):

Next we send greetings to Meg, Meg Fernley, who lives in Bradford, Bradford, New Hampshire. And she's got a lovely card here. She's got 165 acres of woodland and wetlands and fields in New Hampshire, USA. And she loves listening to your podcast, Chris, though I hear chickadees and scarlet tanners instead of blackbird and chiffchaff. I also see black bears and mousse rather than badgers and hares. But your dedication to the conservation of the natural world has been inspiring. So there's Meg sending a lovely note from around a hundred miles south of the Great Lakes, which is the Canadian border, 

Chris Skinner (33:03):

Right over there all that way away, 3000 odd miles to get across the Atlantic there. So then thank you very much for that. So no matter where you are in the world, you'll come across all different sorts of wildlife, different species, different habitats, and each of those species are exploiting their particular habitat. And what we have here in Norfolk is a mainly arable county of the UK. So we have mainly arable species as well, but we're by the sea today. And we're going to come down and look at all the different habitats that you can see all around the Norfolk coastline. We have some cliffs, we have sandy shores, shingle beaches as well. And it is always a delight to share whatever wildlife finds a home wherever it is. Broadland here as well close to where we're sitting. And then we've got Heathland down in southwest Norfolk as well. So a whole variety habitat and all of those habitats have different creatures actually living and thriving in them. So thank you very much for that response. All the way from Bradford, but not the one in the UK. Amazing. 

Matthew Gudgin (34:15):

Thanks to all our correspondence. And if you would like to send Chris a message, ask a question, whatever you like. The email address is chris@countrysidepodcast.co.uk. 

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