Shingle Street Books


We have been publishing a small series of short, illustrated booklets dealing with different aspects of this special place – its rich human and natural history, its past and present inhabitants, and its changing landscapes. Each booklet is both a record and a celebration of our unique community (of humans – and other wildlife), perched precariously between land and sea. Shingle Street began as a hamlet of coastguards and mariners, but in the years since World War II has attracted the interest of artists, writers, architects, naturalists and military historians as well as the many casual visitors who simply come to walk, explore and enjoy the natural beauty. 

The booklets are wholly written and produced by the local residents. Together, they provide a series of stories in words and pictures for anyone concerned to appreciate and conserve this wonderful stretch of the Suffolk coast that forms such a crucial part of our national heritage. 


Knowing_Your_Place_cover
For UK Postage only
£4.95 + £1.90 p&p

To buy the book with postage outside the UK please click on the International tab below.

Details

44 pages A5 paperback, full colour, including a map and 59 colour images
Price £4.95
ISBN 978-0-9935933-0-7

Postage and Packing
UK £1.90 (2nd class Royal Mail Standard)
(for additional copies: +£0.25 p&p per copy)
EU £4.45 (Royal Mail International)
Rest of World £6.80 (Royal Mail International)

For enquiries, multiple copies and wholesale purchase please contact us

Published in April 2016 by Shingle Street Publishing
Oxley House, Shingle Street, Suffolk IP12 3BE
www.shinglestreetsurvey.org.uk

Buy direct from the website or through your local bookseller.

All proceeds will go towards helping to conserve the natural environment at Shingle Street.

Description

‘Let’s hope Knowing Your Place is the start of a trend, because Shingle Street proves that once you do look at your place, in real detail – wherever it is – it’s likely to contain more life than you ever imagined.’
Michael McCarthy in the Independent
See full review here

Knowing Your Place: Wildlife in Shingle Street
Jeremy Mynott

Shingle Street is a tiny hamlet on the Suffolk coast perched precariously between land and sea. There are only some sixty adults and children living here – but that’s just the population of Homo sapiens. We are surrounded by a much greater number of other life forms – over 1,300 of them – which also give the place its identity and make it special. This booklet is both an introduction to and a celebration of that larger local community.

Britain’s wildlife is currently threatened as never before. It has been estimated that in the last fifty years we have lost over half of it – a staggering and shocking statistic. In this situation it is increasingly important for local communities to become aware of the natural wealth in their area, lest it disappears before they even understand its extent and value.

The booklet describes briefly all the main habitats in Shingle Street and the kinds of wildlife that have been recorded here – all 379 species of moths, 314 flowering plants, 222 birds, 59 spiders … everything down to 1 false scorpion.

Preview

Knowing your place preview

International


KNOWING YOUR PLACE: Wildlife in Shingle Street


For European Union Postage only
£4.95 + £4.45 p&p
(for additional copies: +£2.80 p&p per copy)

For non-EU International Postage
£4.95 + £6.80 p&p
(for additional copies: +£5.15 p&p per copy)
Life_on_the_edge_cover
For UK Postage only
£4.95 + £1.90 p&p

To buy the book with postage outside the UK please click on the International tab below.

Details

44 pages A5 paperback, full colour, illustrated with old charts, prints and photographs of coastguards, pilots, fishermen and their dwellings.
Price £4.95
ISBN 978-0-9935933-1-4

Postage and Packing
UK £1.90 (2nd class Royal Mail Standard)
(for additional copies: +£0.25 p&p per copy)
EU £4.45 (Royal Mail International)
Rest of World £6.80 (Royal Mail International)

For enquiries, multiple copies and wholesale purchase please contact us

Published in June 2016 by Shingle Street Publishing
Oxley House, Shingle Street, Suffolk IP12 3BE
www.shinglestreetsurvey.org.uk

Buy direct from the website or through your local bookseller.

All proceeds will go towards helping to conserve the
natural environment and historic character of Shingle Street.

Description

‘It’s a place with tragedy and mystery in its past – but as many stories of resilient determination to build a community amid its wild and isolated environment. The history of Shingle Street – a tiny Suffolk seaside hamlet up the coast from Bawdsey – goes back more than 200 years, when river pilots occupied a small wooden hut on the beach, assisting merchant vessels along the shifting channels.’
Tom Potter in the East Anglian Daily Times
See full review here

Life on the Edge: A Brief History of Shingle Street
Tim Miller

This brief history starts in about 1800 with the erection of a wooden pilot house at the mouth of the River Ore and the subsequent growth of a small tight-knit community of pilots and coastguards living with their families on a remote shingle beach on Hollesley Bay.

Life was hard. The men pitted their strength and skill against the unrelenting force of the sea, piloting vessels into the river, saving those wrecked on the shoals of the bar and guarding the coast against invasion. Their wives kept house with slender means, picking up coal on the tide line, helping in the salvage of ship-wrecked goods or taking in washing for a few wealthy visitors who began coming to pass the summer in holiday homes. Regattas were held in the bay and the idea of Shingle Street on Sea as a small resort was promoted and then abandoned.

The Life Boat Inn was the centre of the hamlet’s life which continued its traditional pattern until 1939, when the coast became a military zone, the beach was mined and the inhabitants evacuated at a day’s notice. When they returned after the war, a new era in Shingle Street’s history began.

Preview

Life on the edge preview

International


LIFE ON THE EDGE: A Brief History of Shingle Street


For European Union Postage only
£4.95 + £4.45 p&p
(for additional copies: +£2.80 p&p per copy)

For non-EU International Postage
£4.95 + £6.80 p&p
(for additional copies: +£5.15 p&p per copy)
Shingle Street Reborn cover
For UK Postage only
£4.95 + £1.90 p&p

To buy the book with postage outside the UK please click on the International tab below.

Details

48 pages A5 paperback, full colour, illustrated with 4 maps, and photographs of people, houses and events.
Price £4.95
ISBN 978-0-9935933-2-1

Postage and Packing
UK £1.90 (2nd class Royal Mail Standard)
(for additional copies: +£0.25 p&p per copy)
EU £4.45 (Royal Mail International)
Rest of World £6.80 (Royal Mail International)

For enquiries, multiple copies and wholesale purchase please contact us

Published in January 2020 by Shingle Street Publishing
Oxley House, Shingle Street, Suffolk IP12 3BE
www.shinglestreetsurvey.org.uk

Buy direct from the website or through your local bookseller.

All proceeds will go towards helping to conserve the
natural environment and historic character of Shingle Street.

Description

Shingle Street Reborn: Reconstruction and Change 1946 – 2000
Tim Miller

The outbreak of the Second World War saw the end of the traditional community of pilots and coastguards living with their families on the shore at Shingle Street. The whole community was evacuated at a moment’s notice, the beach was mined and became off-limits to everyone except the military stationed there.

The story of the hamlet starts afresh in 1946 when residents were allowed to return and this brief account covers the fifty years that followed as a new community came into being. Many of the old residents had died, others decided to stay where they had lived after the evacuation. New families arrived to join the survivors who had returned to rebuild their old homes shattered by the blast of bombs.

The post-war community was a mix of some of the old coastguard families, those working nearby in the ports of Felixstowe and Ipswich and in the Hollesley Bay Borstal and elsewhere, artists and architects, and those attracted by its isolation.

Preview

Shingle Street Reborn preview

International


SHINGLE STREET REBORN: Reconstruction and Change


For European Union Postage only
£4.95 + £4.45 p&p
(for additional copies: +£2.80 p&p per copy)

For non-EU International Postage
£4.95 + £6.80 p&p
(for additional copies: +£5.15 p&p per copy)