AN Essex landowner who has spent three decades helping nature reclaim parts of his family estate has told why he is waging war against the litter that is blighting the county.

Duncan Clark, owner of Braxted Park Estate, is a self-styled "anti-litter champion" after becoming increasingly frustrated by the amount of rubbish being discarded across the Essex countryside and the damage it causes to the landscape and wildlife.

Braxted Park is known as a luxury wedding venue where Essex boy Rylan Clark and Nick Knowles had their weddings, but the 500-acre estate also has serious environmental credentials.

Nature recovery at the Braxted Park Estate stretches back around 30 years, beginning when the Clark family set aside its farm and subsequently entered Countryside Stewardship. Around 50 acres were later deliberately left unfarmed, allowing scrub, woodland and wildlife to regenerate naturally. The estate says that land has since seen oak trees mature, scrub return and bird species including turtle dove and nightingale establish themselves. ( Braxted Park BNG )

That approach has now been expanded dramatically through the Braxted Park Biodiversity Net Gain Habitat Bank, created by Clark across approximately 70 hectares – 173 acres – more than a third of the estate.

Registered with Natural England, the scheme will create and enhance grassland, woodland, hedgerows, ponds and other habitats, with the land legally committed to habitat management and monitoring for at least 30 years. Its location has also been designed to improve ecological connectivity between Tiptree SSSI and Whetmead Nature Reserve. ( Braxted Park BNG )

But for Clark, protecting and restoring habitat highlighted an increasingly obvious contradiction: there was little point creating more space for nature while accepting a culture in which littering the countryside had become commonplace.

But, he realised he needed to turn his anger into action.

He said: "I suppose I have become a bit of a self-appointed anti-litter champion, because it genuinely drives me mad. We have spent decades at Braxted watching what happens when you give nature space to recover. You see trees establish, habitats return and wildlife come back – and then you drive along a country lane and see cans, bottles and rubbish thrown into that same environment.

"I realised that getting cross about it wasn't going to change anything. If we really want to change our relationship with litter, waste and the countryside, we have to start much earlier."

His response was to set up the Let's Talk Trash event – an environmental education initiative built around the belief that changing attitudes early is one of the most effective ways of changing behaviour in the long term.

Created around the message "Empowering young minds to clean up the future", it features interactive workshops, activities and challenges exploring everything from litter and recycling to water pollution, biodiversity, food production and climate change.

The historic estate near Witham was recorded as a Deer Park in 1342, when owned by the Countess of Pembroke.

Cloth merchant Peter Du Cane lived at Braxted Lodge until 1803 when his son inherited the park.

The estate was passed to his cousin, Charles Du Cane, In 1841 and went into decline after his death in 1889.

It was bought by William Boulton and then the former Plessey Company in 1947.

Duncan's grandfather Sir Allen Clark, chairman of the company occupied it and subsequently his son, Michael Clark. The estate is now owned and managed by Duncan.

The latest Let's Talk Trash event was held on Tuesday, September 22 (2026) when more than 450 Year 5 and 6 pupils from 11 Essex schools descended

on Braxted Park for the latest Let's Talk Trash festival, transforming the estate into a giant environmental classroom.

Rather than being lectured about the environment, children raced, performed, experimented and built their way through activities exploring litter, recycling, water pollution, biodiversity, food production and climate change.

The day included a recycling race, a "Junk Funk Orchestra" using recyclable materials, water-pollution experiments with Anglian Water and biodiversity challenges. A centrepiece was Plastic Mountain, supported by Maldon-based Green Recycling, which confronted pupils with the volume of material society throws away and the message: "Refuse it first. Recycle it right."

Mr Clark added: "That is why Let's Talk Trash is about children having fun rather than being lectured.

We want them racing, shouting, experimenting and asking questions – and then going home and challenging the adults.

"If 450 children leave Braxted thinking differently about dropping a piece of litter, using something once and throwing it away, or what happens to the natural world around them, that is potentially 450 little environmental ambassadors going back into homes and communities across Essex.

"Young people have an extraordinary ability to challenge the way the rest of us think, and that is really what Let's Talk Trash is about. We didn't want to lecture children about climate change or tell them what they were doing wrong; we wanted to give them a brilliant day where they could get involved, ask questions, have fun and discover for themselves that their actions really do matter.

"Seeing more than 450 children filling Braxted Park with so much energy and enthusiasm was incredibly rewarding. The important part now is what happens next.

If every child takes just one idea home, into their classroom or into their community, the impact of the day can reach far beyond the gates of Braxted Park.

"Rewilding isn't only about what landowners do with acres of land. Ultimately it depends upon all of us valuing the natural environment enough to look after it."

The festival, which launched in 2023, brings together organisations including Clean Up Britain, Anglian Water, The Country Trust, Wilderness Foundation, ecoACTIV, Green Recycling, Drama Geezers, One Day Creative and The Paper Birds.

For Clark, however, the ambition extends beyond a single day at Braxted Park. The aim is to build Let's Talk Trash into an ongoing movement that gives schools practical ways of continuing the conversation and encourages children to become advocates for cleaner communities and a healthier natural environment.

From restoring hundreds of acres for nature to persuading a ten-year-old not to drop a crisp packet, Clark believes the principle is essentially the same: changing the countryside starts with changing what we do with it.

The free festival formed part of a wider ambition to make environmental awareness something children carry with them beyond a single day — challenging attitudes, creating change and empowering young minds to clean up the future.