Minsmere is a place in the

English county The counties of England are areas used for different purposes, which include administrative, geographical, cultural and political demarcation. The term "county" is defined in several ways and can apply to similar or the same areas used by each ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

. It is located on the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

coast around north of

Leiston Leiston ( ) is an English town in the East Suffolk non-metropolitan district of Suffolk, near Saxmundham and Aldeburgh, about from the North Sea coast, north-east of Ipswich and north-east of London. The town had a population of 5,508 at the ...

and south-east of

Westleton Westleton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk. It is located north of Leiston and north-east of Saxmundham near the North Sea coast. The village is on the edge of the Suffolk Sandlings, an area of lowland heathland. T ...

within the

Suffolk Coast and Heaths The Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Suffolk and Essex, England. The AONB covers ancient woodland, commercial forestry, the estuaries of the Alde, Blyth, Deben, Orwell and Stour rivers, farmland, sal ...

AONB An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is an area of countryside in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of thei ...

. It is the site of the

Minsmere RSPB reserve RSPB Minsmere is a nature reserve owned and managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) at Minsmere, Suffolk. The site has been managed by the RSPB since 1947 and covers areas of reed bed, lowland heath, acid grassland, ...

and the original site of

Leiston Abbey Leiston Abbey outside the town of Leiston, Suffolk, England, was a religious house of Canons Regular following the Premonstratensian rule (White canons), dedicated to Mary, mother of Jesus, St Mary. Founded in c. 1183 by Ranulf de Glanville (c. 11 ...

History

At the

Domesday Survey Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

in 1086 Minsmere was known as ''Menesmara'' or ''Milsemere''.Minsmere
''Domesday book online''. Retrieved 2012-10-31. It is recorded as having six households headed by freemen with one plough team.Minsmere
, ''Open Domesday''. Retrieved 2012-10-31. The manor, which was in the Hundred of Blythling, was held by

Roger Bigot Roger Bigod (died 1107) was a Norman knight who travelled to England in the Norman Conquest. He held great power in East Anglia, and five of his descendants were earls of Norfolk. He was also known as Roger Bigot, appearing as such as a witness t ...

Ranulf de Glanvill Ranulf de Glanvill (''alias'' Glanvil, Glanville, Granville, etc., died 1190) was Chief Justiciar of England during the reign of King Henry II (1154–89) and was the probable author of ''Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus regni Anglie'' ( ...

, King Henry II's

Lord Chief Justice Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...

, founded an abbey on the marshes at Minsmere in 1182,Archaeology and history
''RSPB'', 2011-02-14. Retrieved 2012-10-31. but, probably due to an increased risk of flooding, this was abandoned in favour of

in 1363.Coastal levels
Suffolk Landscape Character Typology, ''Suffolk County Council''. Retrieved 2012-10-31.A stranger in Leiston
''Suffolk Magazine'', 2010-06-25. Retrieved 2014-03-04.
''Suffolk Churches''. Retrieved 2012-10-31. Peat cutting took place at Minsmere from at least the 12th centuryMinsmere peat cuttings, of at least 12th century date
''Heritage Gateway''. Retrieved 2012-11-01. and a 1237 description of the coastline describes Minsmere as a port. Minsmere is recorded in the 14th century as being a small village with around 10 homesteads, but these had all been lost to the sea by the 16th century. A survey of 1587 records that the early

Tudor period The Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603 in History of England, England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603. The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in Englan ...

'entrenchments' at Minsmere were in ruins and recommended that they be rebuilt.Medieval battery 1485-1540
''Heritage Gateway''. Retrieved 2012-11-01. During the 18th century Minsmere, Eastbridge and the

Sizewell Sizewell is an English fishing hamlet in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. It belongs to the civil parish of Leiston and lies on the North Sea coast just north of the larger holiday village of Thorpeness, between the coastal towns ...

gap were renowned as a hotbed for

smuggler Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. There are various ...

s.History
''The Eel's Foot Inn''. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
Smugglers' Britain. Retrieved 2014-03-10. A coastguard station operated at Minsmere in the 1840s in an attempt to control smuggling along this stretch of the coast.White W (1855) ''History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Suffolk, and the Towns Near Its Borders'' (second edition), Sheffield: R. Leader, p.505,
available online
The marshes along the Minsmere River were drained for agricultural use in the 1840sWhite W ''op. cit.'' p.318 but reflooded during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

to defend against invasion along the East Anglian coast. A number of military defences were built in the area, including pill boxes, anti-tank blocks and barbed wire defence lines. Cottages and a beach cafe on the coast at Minsmere sluice were evacuated, used as target practice and later demolished.A Walk around Suffolk's Minsmere Bird Reserve
Griffmonsters Great Walks. Retrieved 2014-03-10.Sluice Cottages Minsmere
Leiston cum Sizewell newsletter, Autumn 2013. Retrieved 2014-03-10. The

was established in 1947, making use of the wetland habitats reintroduced by wartime flooding.Milestones
''RSPB''. Retrieved 2012-10-31.

Geography

Minsmere is in a low-lying area of the Suffolk coast approximately north-east of

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

. It is in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

es of

and

with the parish border running along the Minsmere Old River. It borders the parish of

Theberton Theberton is a village in Suffolk, England. It is located north-east of Saxmundham, and miles north of Leiston, its post town. History During the First World War, a German Zeppelin airship, L48, was shot down near Theberton at 02:00 on the m ...

at Eastbridge to the south-west and the parish of

Dunwich Dunwich is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England. It is in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB around north-east of London, south of Southwold and north of Leiston, on the North Sea coast. In the Anglo-Saxon period, Dunwich was t ...

to the north along the coast. The landscape is largely flat along the line of the river. This is known as the Minsmere Level, an area of drained and re-flooded marshland with underlying alluvial geology. The area to the south of the Minsmere New Cut drainage ditch, built in 1812, is used as grazing marsh.Suffolk Coast and Estuaries Coastal Habitat Management Plan
''Posford Haskoning Ltd'', October 2002. Retrieved 2012-11-01. To the north the wetland areas are flooded and managed as part of the RSPB's habitat management strategy for its Minsmere reserve. This area includes drier areas of sandlings, including areas of mixed woodland rising up to 20 metres above sea level on sandy ridges.Estate sandlings
Suffolk landscape character typology, ''Suffolk County Council''. Retrieved 2012-10-31. The area provides a number of important habitats, including for species such as bitterns,

marsh harrier The marsh harriers are birds of prey of the harrier subfamily. They are medium-sized raptors and the largest and broadest-winged harriers. Most of them are associated with marshland and dense reedbeds. They are found almost worldwide, excluding o ...

hen harrier The hen harrier (''Circus cyaneus'') is a bird of prey. It breeds in Eurasia. The term "hen harrier" refers to its former habit of preying on free-ranging fowl. It migrates to more southerly areas in winter. Eurasian birds move to southern Eur ...

avocets The four species of avocets are a genus, ''Recurvirostra'', of waders in the same avian family as the stilts. The genus name comes from Latin , 'curved backwards' and , 'bill'. The common name is thought to derive from the Italian ( Ferrarese) ...

and

Dartford warbler The Dartford warbler (''Curruca undata'') is a typical warbler from the warmer parts of western Europe and northwestern Africa. It is a small warbler with a long thin tail and a thin pointed bill. The adult male has grey-brown upperparts and is d ...

s. The wetland areas include flooded lagoons and much of the area is designated as a

Ramsar site A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention,8 ha (O) *** Permanent 8 ha (P) *** Seasonal Intermittent < 8 ha(Ts) **

The grazing marshes to the south of the Minsmere Levels provide over-wintering grounds for a variety of different waterfowl species. The coastline at Minsmere consists of a narrow shingle beach and some areas of sand dune with a shingle bank protecting the low-lying coastal areas.Suffolk SMP2 Sub-cell 3c - Policy Development Zone 4 – Dunwich Cliffs to Thorpeness
''Shoreline Management Plan'', January 2010. Retrieved 2012-10-31. This area is at risk of flooding from coastal surges although, unlike areas to the north and south, it does not suffer significantly from coastal erosion. To the north Minsmere Cliffs are found within

Dunwich Heath Dunwich Heath is an area of coastal lowland heath just south of the village of Dunwich, in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB, England. It is adjacent to the RSPB reserve at Minsmere. It lies within the area of the Minsmere-Walberswick Heath ...

, a

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

property. The cliffs consist of loose, unconsolidated sand and shingle glacial deposits and suffer from

coastal erosion Coastal erosion is the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of waves, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts of storms. The landward ...

Minsmere Sluice Chapel

The remains of a chapel built on the original site of

are located on the Minsmere Level to the south of the Minsmere New Cut.38: Leiston Abbey
, ''

Eastern Daily Press The ''Eastern Daily Press'' (''EDP'') is a regional newspaper covering Norfolk, northern parts of Suffolk and eastern Cambridgeshire, and is published daily in Norwich, UK. Founded in 1870 as a broadsheet called the ''Eastern Counties Daily ...

'', 2010-04-15. Retrieved 2014-02-19. These are the only visible remains at the site of the original

Premonstratensian The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular of the Catholic Church ...

Abbey. The chapel was probably built when the abbey was relocated and stands on the site of the original monastic church, the stone from which was probably used to build the new abbey at Leiston. It is thought to have been used as a chapel dedicated to St Mary until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1537.Page.W (1975) 'Houses of Premonstratensian canons: The abbey of Leiston', ''A History of the County of Suffolk: Volume 2'', pp. 117-199
available online
. Retrieved 2012-10-31. The abbey was originally built on an island in the marshland but is believed to have suffered from frequent

coastal flooding Coastal flooding normally occurs when dry and low-lying land is submerged by seawater. The range of a coastal flooding is a result of the elevation of floodwater that penetrates the inland which is controlled by the topography of the coastal land ...

which led to its relocation to

in 1363. Geophysical surveys have shown that a number of archaeological features lie buried in the immediate area, including remains of the abbey church, cloisters and fish ponds. The chapel remains include a pillbox built in the early stages of the

. The site and its surrounding area is a

scheduled ancient monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

. The chapel remains were restored in 2011 to preserve them and to allow some public access.New life for old chapel
''Ipswich Star'', 2008-07-04. Retrieved 2012-10-31.

References

External links

3D model of the chapel on Sketchfab
{{Coord, 52.248, 1.608, type:landmark_region:GB-SFK, display=title Hamlets in Suffolk Forcibly depopulated communities in the United Kingdom during World War II