Winchelsea Wednesdays

The human experience

I am always amazed at how short sighted people are about retirees. “I could never retire, I like to keep busy” or “What do you do all day'” are some of the strange and irritating statements I hear.

Restoring a sailing boat or biodiversity to a churchyard, replacing the beams of a community hall, running a food bank, organising an arts festival, fêtes or film nights, running a parish magazine or a local newspaper; these are just some of the things that retired people I know, are doing. And by the way, if you want to contribute to Rye News, be our guest and send us something.

Most of these people and from a personal perspective, Sergio and I, have never been busier. The difference between gainful employment and retirement, apart from the obvious, was pointed out to me by Barry Yates, last Second Wednesday; “When we retire we don’t do less, we just have the freedom to choose exactly what we do, do.”

As you are well aware, Dr Yates was the manager of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve for 40 years and continues, in retirement, the important work he was doing there, by writing, lecturing, advising, supporting, promoting and protecting all aspects of the natural world. Which is what brought him to the Winchelsea New Hall in February.

Established in 1970, the nature reserve stretches across 465 hectares, or 600 football pitches, if that makes it easier to visualise. It has four special seaside habitats; shingle, coastal grassland, saline lagoons and saltmarsh.

On the Sussex rare plant register, 48 species can be found at RHNR and 19 of those are flowers.

He spoke to us of Babbington’s orache, who live nearest to the sea, of yellow horned poppies, whose flowers only live for a day and of the red hemp nettle, the exclusive food of the extremely rare flea beetle. Even the most common plant of all, the sea kale, was able to surprise us; who knew its roots went down three metres into the shingle. All easy to walk past, but all critically important to the health of the reserve and ultimately these islands.

He finished by explaining the importance of the paths, walks and hides that have been created for the nearly half a million annual visitors; quoting Sir David Attenborough: “No one will protect what they don’t care about and no one will care about what they have never experienced.”

And the lived experience is where Imogen Corrigan will be taking us on March 13. As you read this on International Women’s Day, Imogen, a former major in the British army, will be returning to Winchelsea. When she retired, she went to university and got a degree in Anglo-Saxon and medieval history; clearly another retiree with too much time on their hands. Her speciality is bringing back to life true stories of medieval heroics and ingenuity; never the dry, dusty pages of history, but the vibrant and vital lives of real people.

Her talk is based on her book, Stone on Stone: the Men who built the Cathedrals or ‘Master Masons’ as she abreviates it to. Not the how long or how high of the guide books, but the extraordinary tales of how, why and by whom these monuments were built. The real stories of human endeavour, organisation, leadership, hubris, deceit, resourcefulness and craftsmanship, behind those architectural masterpieces.

So mark down in your present-day diaries, the second Wednesday of March, to meet those who made their mark in stone, all those centuries ago. The Second Wednesday Society meets at the New Hall in Winchelsea at 2:30pm. The talk is followed by afternoon tea, where you will have the chance to ask Imogen anything you didn’t during the Q&A session. Jump on the bus and make new friends, or car pool with your neighbours, either way you’ll receive a warm welcome, spend a great afternoon and most certainly leave knowing more than when you arrived. Talk £5, tea £2.

Image Credits: Barry Yates , Barry Yates , Wikimedia Commons .