Visit to Flatford Mill

pressing problems associated with nature conservation. The pamphlet designed and printed at School proved a great success. On the Sunday nearly 200 people went round the trail, but the weather rather spoilt the mid-week session.

As it proved difficult to get outside speakers during their busy Summer activities it is hoped they will be persuaded to come and address the Junior Science Society during the winter months.

The other activities were mostly concerned with looking at things in the field Visits included evenings "ponding" near Sheriff Hutton, and at a trout hatchery near MaIton; there were also Sunday visits to Bempton Cliffs and Spurn Point Bird Observatory.

About quarter-of-an-hour before the Natural History Competition was about to begin a thunderstorm broke. However some 60 specimens were quickly arranged around the biology lab. and the Competition was won by N. J. Hancock.

The final evening meeting was devoted to fihns, partly hired, e.g. on the "Fame Islands", and some taken and shown by Mr. Craine. B.P.

FLATFORD FIELD STUDIES CENTRE, 1963

Flatford Mill marks the limit of the tidal marshes on the Stour Estuary; it was thus chosen as an instruction centre by the British Council for Field Studies, since in its immediate vicinity are both the salt marshes of the East coast and the open woodlands of the Suffolk/Essex border.

The mill itself, which houses the laboratories and hostel for the Centre, is National Trust property, and once belonged to John Constable : the view across the mill pond is famous as the subject of his painting, "The Haywain".

The nine Peterites (and their mentor, Mr. Pease) who arrived in this drowsy neighbourhood last April, were to shatter its peace during a week's course of Ecological studies organised by the Centre. Unfortunately we arrived too late in the evening to appreciate the natural beauty of the spot, as we had spent most of the afternoon admiring the Stamford by-pass from the School Minibus which had broken down there.

The first two days of the course we spent with the thirty other students at the Centre, but the strain of co-education proved too great, so the rest of the week we spent on individual projects, operating from our own laboratory which was situated well out of harm's way on the river-bank.

By working away from the main body of the course we were able to tackle a number of projects in much greater detail. The varying conditions of salinity in the salt-marsh was the subject of two investigations, dealing with Gammarus and the Gastropods respectively. Another group used the minibus to make daily excursions to Stour Wood, where they made a thorough investigation of the flora under the different conditions caused by forestry control, while one boy investigated the ash-pits left by fires in the wood, and gave a report on the regaining of such areas by natural flora.