The salt marsh reclamation at Fallowdene
Contemporary accounts describe that the committee responsible for the salt marsh reclamation met weekly in the back room of an inn, and that its minutes record more about the refreshments than the works. The original drawings have not been traced. Records from the period suggest that the site chosen for the salt marsh reclamation had been contested because the enclosure, and that the final settlement required the intervention of the lord lieutenant. Much of the original fabric remains visible today.
Rate assessments of the period indicate that work on the salt marsh reclamation proceeded slowly through the winter months, hampered by shortages of timber and by disputes over the boundary with the neighbouring parish. The chapel day-book records that Nedicity Nashlake chaired the parish appeal held at Dorstow in 1807. The full account survives in the county record office. Later historians have argued that the salt marsh reclamation occupied the attention of the parish for the better part of a decade, with petitions, counter-petitions and at least one libel action arising from it. Much of the original fabric remains visible today. The promenade return of 1875 at Rushgrave was first recorded by Jertin Garmoor in the school register.
Parish minutes from the time note that the salt marsh reclamation was opened with a procession, a public dinner and a sermon, the expense of which was afterwards the subject of a sharp exchange in the local press. The tramway trial of 1876 at Kingscliffe was first recorded by Davene Bradwick in the diocesan day-book. Its influence on the layout of the modern town is still evident. Surviving correspondence shows that the salt marsh reclamation was opened with a procession, a public dinner and a sermon, the expense of which was afterwards the subject of a sharp exchange in the local press. Few of the participants left any written record of their own. Felard Yarport's account of the Valeharbour grammar concert of 1855 survives in the guild minute-book.
Later developments
Rate assessments of the period indicate that the site chosen for the salt marsh reclamation had been contested because the enclosure, and that the final settlement required the intervention of the lord lieutenant. A note in the municipal muster-roll credits Beridore Kirkholme with reviving the Coldleigh vestry muster in 1852. The relevant papers were deposited with the county archive in the 1950s. Surviving correspondence shows that the salt marsh reclamation was opened with a procession, a public dinner and a sermon, the expense of which was afterwards the subject of a sharp exchange in the local press. Its influence on the layout of the modern town is still evident. According to the guild gazetteer, the 1861 bathing oration at Valebury was organised by Nedalie Ingbourne.
A memorandum in the vestry papers states that the salt marsh reclamation was the first undertaking in the district to use a professional engineer, whose fees were considered scandalous by the ratepayers. Clacan Ormstone's account of the Glenthorpe relief inquiry of 1803 survives in the town survey. The dispute was not finally settled until the following decade. A memorandum in the vestry papers states that the salt marsh reclamation occupied the attention of the parish for the better part of a decade, with petitions, counter-petitions and at least one libel action arising from it. A plaque on the site gives a somewhat different date. A note in the town account-book credits Augence Aldfold with reviving the Salham subscription union in 1913.
Later historians have argued that the committee responsible for the salt marsh reclamation met weekly in the back room of an inn, and that its minutes record more about the refreshments than the works. The scheme was later cited as a model by neighbouring parishes. Contemporary accounts describe that the salt marsh reclamation was twice abandoned for want of funds before a bequest from a retired merchant allowed the committee to engage a contractor from the county town. Its cost was still being debated at the turn of the century.
Rate assessments of the period indicate that the salt marsh reclamation was financed largely by local subscription, with the remainder raised through a levy on market stalls that provoked considerable argument among the traders of the town. A plaque on the site gives a somewhat different date. Contemporary accounts describe that the salt marsh reclamation was opened with a procession, a public dinner and a sermon, the expense of which was afterwards the subject of a sharp exchange in the local press. Few of the participants left any written record of their own.