Drainage ditch, Horsey

Another lovely day. We went for a walk on the Horsey Estate with K. and T. In the early 1800s the land was of little value and generally flooded. Being wild and desolate, it was known locally as Devil’s Country.

Purchasing the estate in 1803, Robert Rising repaired the sea bank and drained the marshes with a series of drainage ditches, as well as planting quickthorn hedges and constructing a road to Somerton. 
The area is well known to bird watchers and naturalists and was bequeathed to the National Trust in 1948.

There is something hauntingly beautiful about the land with its meres and ditches reflecting the sky, the reeds glinting in the sun. Down on the beach we went to see the seal colony where there were about 500 grey seals and a horde of visitors. The seals are raising young but they did not seem unduly troubled.