Snape Marshes by Steve Alward
Lying on the north bank of the River Alde, between Snape Maltings and the village of Snape, the marshes are a wonderful haven for both wildlife and people.
Frank Chrenko
A visit to the reserve is always a delight. Within a few paces of the River Bridge at Snape, you find yourself in the airy landscape that makes the Suffolk coast so rejuvenating, with the frenzied feeding of waders on the mudflats and the salty promise of the returning tide on the breeze.
With a mix of grazing marsh, reedbed, scrub and wet woodland, Snape Marshes is a rich wildlife habitat and under Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s ownership, habitat restoration has created more feeding and breeding areas for wildfowl and waders to extend the internationally important habitats along Suffolk’s Coast.
Elizabeth Chrenko
Buying a new nature reserve is one of the most powerful ways in which the Trust protects wildlife for the future and gifts in the Wills of Gloria Ford and Frank and Elizabeth Chrenko enabled us to react swiftly to the opportunity to buy Snape Marshes in 2009.
Frank and Elizabeth Chrenko were both accomplished violinists and pianists and would have been delighted by the opportunity to create a nature reserve next to Snape Maltings.
Gloria Ford
Gloria Ford had many memories of childhood holidays with her grandparents along the Suffolk coast. She would have been thrilled that her legacy gift has made it possible for us to buy Snape Marshes.
At almost 60 acres, Snape Marshes was a significant new nature reserve, but its location alongside the Alde Estuary, makes its value for wildlife so much greater. It adjoins the Alde-Ore Estuary Site of Scientific Interest (SSSI) , with our Hazlewood Marshes nature reserve only 2.5 miles to the east and Alde Mudflats reserve (315 acres) just 1mile south.