Prepare, then, to be surprised. In the lee of tall-arcing Sheppey Crossing bridge lies Elmley, site of the only farmer-run National Nature Reserve (NNR) in Britain. (It can no longer be called the only privately run NNR in Britain, because the Earl of Leicester now manages the Holkham NNR in Norfolk, having followed Elmley’s example. Not bad company to keep.) If you were parachuted onto the marshes one night, you might think you were on the west coast of Scotland when you opened your eyes at dawn.
Those dawns. Storm Dennis has yet to blow itself out when I visit in February, scattering the wigeon and other wildfowl to the further lagoons; there are still rafts of them bobbing on the water near the old Kingshill Farmhouse at first light. I heard them calling shrilly to each other during the night: the French call them canards siffleurs, whistling ducks. During the day, the flocks will feed voraciously on the grass of the marsh, as they fatten themselves up for the long flights they will soon be making to Iceland, Scandinavia or Russia.
This story is from the March 18, 2020 edition of Country Life UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the March 18, 2020 edition of Country Life UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Love and logic
Two lovers who endured adversity and separation in life would become united in Paris after death, discovers Eileen Reid
Don't mock them
Plant a philadelphus, or mock orange, now for improbably lovely scent and cascades of sparkling blossom this summer, says John Hoyland
Home is where the art is
No trouble is too much for the Marquess of Cholmondeley to display to best effect Sir Antony Gormley's sculptures against the magnificent backdrop of Houghton Hall, even if it means cutting a hole in the floor, as Charlotte Mullins discovers
Bold and beautiful
The gardens at Broughton Grange, Oxfordshire The home of Sir Stephen and Lady Hester An arboretum, woodland garden, stumpery and heather garden all planted for artistic effect are among the many features that mark out this exciting garden, says Charles Quest-Ritson
Land of liquid gold
Greek cuisine-from delicious mezes to shellfish-might be 'tightly bound to the sparse soil and the blue sea', but it is sorely underrated, laments Tom Parker Bowles
An old way of life in rural France
Arcadian tranquillity, a wealth of cultural richness and a slow pace of life enchant John Lewis-Stempel as he reflects on his existence in France profonde
Deep in Hardy country
Hardy's beguilingly pretty Wessex is the setting for three houses with links to people and places that fuelled the writer's imagination
The benefit of foresight
The ability to anticipate the future is the secret of a successful building project
Nature's rarest gems
G. Collins & Sons specialises in the sourcing and setting of the finest natural fancy coloured diamonds the world has to offer
A prickly subject
Resembling a jumbo jacket potato on surprisingly long, scurrying legs, the hedgehog is Britain’s favourite mammal. Marianne Taylor takes a closer look beneath its spines