One of the most important conservation sites in Britain, Rye Harbour Nature Reserve is a spectacular place to see and enjoy an amazing range of habitats and wildlife. Communications Officer Emma Chaplin spoke to Normans Bay resident Marylyn Elphick, who has been busy knitting to raise a fantastic £500.
Interview with Communications Officer Emma Chaplin
Rye Harbour Nature Reserve
Nanny can you knit?
The Discovery Centre will be a low-impact, accessible, purpose-built visitor centre which will support the 360,000 people who come to the reserve every year. Here Communications Officer Emma Chaplin talks to Normans Bay resident Marylyn Elphick about her funding raising efforts
The Discovery Centre is currently under construction. It will be a low-impact, accessible, purpose-built visitor centre which will support the 360,000 people who come to the reserve every year. This is a joint development between the Sussex Wildlife Trust and the Friends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, and is due to open by early 2020. It will be a hub for the reserve, offering information about our wildlife, exhibitions, events, educational activities and support for volunteers. It will house a cafe, toilets and a shop.
Sussex Wildlife Trust is delighted that many local people and businesses are supporting the Appeal to build the Discovery Centre with their fundraising efforts. Communications Officer Emma Chaplin spoke to Normans Bay resident Marylyn Elphick, who has been busy knitting to raise a fantastic £500.
Are you local?
I now live in Normans Bay but hail originally from beautiful Salisbury. I still visit regularly on ‘water vole expeditions’ to reassure myself that my favourite creatures are still in all the places I found them as a child in the city centre.
What’s your connection to Rye Harbour?
As a lifelong nature watcher, I have always enjoyed visiting Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. Since my grandson Alfie was born nearly thirteen years ago, we’ve spent many weekends there, along with his dad Russell.
You decided you wanted to support the Discovery Centre?
Yes, we thought we’d fundraise £500 to Buy a Bird in Alfie’s name.
How did you go about raising the money?
A few years ago, Alfie asked, “Nanny can you knit?” because he wanted me knit a teddy for a special baby in the family, Isla. I hadn’t knitted for 40 years.
I searched the internet for a ‘small, knitted teddy bear’ pattern and found something really simple. I found time to begin knitting again – alongside my other crafts such as up-cycling old or broken jewellery, finding walking sticks and creating things out of ‘hag-stones’ and driftwood.
Now I can’t stop, and knit constantly, especially on public transport. As someone who has cared about the environment all my life, I despise waste of any description, but especially time. It is irreplaceable and so precious now I am past seventy years of age.
So I knitted the teddy for Alfie, and just kept going. I called them ‘Bus-Teds’ as they are mostly created on the bus. Alfie came up with other creative ideas, including making Seville the marmalade cat. I then made creatures called Zonks, using wild colours, giving them crazy hair-dos.
One day, Alfie made an odd creature from a moulding clay and asked if I could create it in wool. These became the popular, strange ‘Longos’.
I mostly source materials from charity shops and boot fairs.
Some of the items I knit are directly donated to charity shops for them to sell on. Alfie decides which charities. But the £500 for the Discovery Centre has been raised by selling my creations through a craft gallery on Battle High Street, called BRITISH design BRITISH made.
Quite suddenly Alfie is almost thirteen, he is taller than me, but we still love the harbour and he is still coming up with ideas to keep me fully occupied in my dotage.
architect drawing
Notes
Anyone interested in learning more about the Discovery Centre can request a monthly newsletter to keep them posted about build news, sightings of some of the outstanding wildlife at the reserve, and ways to donate to the Appeal. ryeharbourdiscoverycentre.org.uk
The Friends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve is a charity whose 2,000 members support the Nature Reserve’s work through subscriptions and volunteering. Since 1973, it has part-funded the cost of staff, land purchase, large scale habitat creation, tools, vehicles and visitor facilities such as birdwatching hides and information centres. It provides events for its members throughout the year.
