A Wing And A Prayer

Good weather was forecast so we made our apologies for missing a Zoom meeting this morning & headed over to the coast, to the NT car park just south of Dunwich. In fact, the weather was even better than we expected, not the type of weather to stay indoors!

We'd done this walk before, the last time in winter 2018 - down the beach & coast path, skirting around the RSPB (no dogs allowed) reserve at Minsmere, almost south to Sizewell, then inland through the forest, & back along lanes and across Dunwich Heath. I'd been wanting to repeat the walk since I came across an article about a glass art installation by Arabella Marshall. The work, "A Wing And A Prayer", was installed in 2020, set into the ruins of a chapel which is the only remaining building on the original site of Leiston Abbey, on a grassy area in the marshes just south of the main reserve at Minsmere. The sea and the marshes provided the inspiration for the work, the name referencing both the bird reserve and the original use of the site.

The main image shows the installation itself, while the first extra shows the ruins from the south side and includes a view of a pillbox built into the wall and which was part of the coastal defences installed during WW2. The second extra shows the view back towards the chapel across the marshes from the south side. The horses are Koniks, often used for conservation grazing in our wetland reserves as they can withstand the waterlogged conditions better than modern breeds..