Broads marshman collects his MBE
The Broads Authority's last reed cutter, Eric Edwards, will be swapping his smock and waders for top hat and tails when he visits Buckingham Palace to receive his MBE from the Queen on Thursday October 14th.
Eric, 64, who has been cutting reed and sedge and managing the marshland at How Hill Nature Reserve, near Ludham, for 37 years, receives the award for services to the Broads.
He will be attending with his wife Ruby who works as a cook at How Hill Environmental Study Centre.
"It's a great honour and a big surprise for an old marsh man to get recognition like this," he said. "I love my job. I love the different seasons and the wildlife - to see the bearded tit flitting about in the reeds. Winter is hard, working in the water, the cold winds and the snow and ice, but it's fascinating. I like the outdoor life and the old fashioned ways. To cut a bunch of reed and think it could last on a roof for 70 or 80 years. There's a lot of job satisfaction. I'm really regretting the day I am going to have to leave."
Eric, who has an infectious passion for keeping his centuries old craft alive has become something of a celebrity over the years. He has appeared in the Generation Game with Bruce Forsyth and Jim Davidson three times, was interviewed by Sir Harry Secombe in Highway, Pam Rhodes in Songs of Praise, and Pam Ayres for Radio 4, and has featured in Countryfile, Rosie and Jim, Anglia TV's A Way with Words, and recently in This Morning with Fern Britton as well as in numerous television documentaries, on postcards, calendars and in print.
Eric is no stranger to royalty. He showed Prince Charles how to stack reeds and famously told Lady Thatcher she was "doing it wrong" during a visit to How Hill. Last year Eric attended the Sandringham Garden Party and this summer Prince Charles made a point of speaking to him at this year's Royal Norfolk show.
Eric, who was a county footballer in his younger days, has his own collection of traditional marsh tools and traps some of them 100 years old, and likes nothing better than to enthuse school children staying at How Hill Environmental Study Centre and local groups with his talks.
Eric is one of the few marsh men who still uses a scythe, particularly at this time of year for cutting sedge in high water. His work involves cutting reed in winter and sedge in summer, and maintaining the system of dykes, which is vital, not only for thatching, but for conserving the Broads landscape and its wildlife.
05/10/2004
