I made a brief pilgrimage to a very special place in Essex today. My longstanding friend Steve came to visit today as he had not seen my sister and William for far too long. Steve just works too many hours repairing boats in a very busy marina on the Orwell estuary outside Ipswich. This machine is his chosen mode of transportation:
After profuse apologies for his long absence over a cup or two of tea, we decided on a trip to Burham-on-Crouch, a small town where Steve once lived and worked. I managed not to get lost as I'm in more familiar country; but I did go quite a long way along a very narrow road which became a private road to a farm out on the Dengie Hundreds; making a wrong turn explains that, not getting lost. I was saved from making a bad video clip of part of the journey when the camera batteries died and I had no spares, so we went shopping for batteries so I could continue taking pictures. But I'm getting ahead of myself a little. I can't say I 'know' the country between Maldon and Burnham well but the Althorne bends are legendary in these parts. These are a series of sharp bends right, left, right, left, right, left . . . it's like going up (or down) stairs sideways. We drove along the street in Burnham where Steve used to live and then went down this lane, slowly 
It's not quite so scary as it looks because it is a one-way street and, as is evident from the SLOW on the road, I wasn't going the wrong way along it. Traffic flows change over the years and I have tried, once so far, to go along a street the wrong way . . . there was nowhere to park so on we went to Southminster and Tillingham on the way to Bradwell-juxta-Mare. Latin attaches itself to some place names for the pedantic e.g. parva, magna, cum; but the common man just says, 'little', 'great' or 'with'.
After profuse apologies for his long absence over a cup or two of tea, we decided on a trip to Burham-on-Crouch, a small town where Steve once lived and worked. I managed not to get lost as I'm in more familiar country; but I did go quite a long way along a very narrow road which became a private road to a farm out on the Dengie Hundreds; making a wrong turn explains that, not getting lost. I was saved from making a bad video clip of part of the journey when the camera batteries died and I had no spares, so we went shopping for batteries so I could continue taking pictures. But I'm getting ahead of myself a little. I can't say I 'know' the country between Maldon and Burnham well but the Althorne bends are legendary in these parts. These are a series of sharp bends right, left, right, left, right, left . . . it's like going up (or down) stairs sideways. We drove along the street in Burnham where Steve used to live and then went down this lane, slowly It's not quite so scary as it looks because it is a one-way street and, as is evident from the SLOW on the road, I wasn't going the wrong way along it. Traffic flows change over the years and I have tried, once so far, to go along a street the wrong way . . . there was nowhere to park so on we went to Southminster and Tillingham on the way to Bradwell-juxta-Mare. Latin attaches itself to some place names for the pedantic e.g. parva, magna, cum; but the common man just says, 'little', 'great' or 'with'.
The weather was a bit blustery with the occasional shower but when we eventually reached the end of the road and parked the car, after my quest for camera batteries, we had arrived here:
I like to say that one can stick a pin anywhere in to a map of England and there will be a wealth of history connected to that spot. St Peter-on-the-wall has connections with Lindisfarne, off the coast of Northumbria, and Iona, in the Inner Hebrides through St Cedd, the Anglo-Celtic missionary who brought Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons of Essex at the invitation of King Sigbert. Cedd arrived by sea from Lindisfarne in 653 A.D. After the Romans withdrew from the British Isles a mystic but down to earth Christianity was maintained through the great missionary Celtic saints: Aidan, Columba, and Cedd among others. Cedd was one of twelve commissioned by Aidan. The interior now, 'twas bare when I first knew it.
I first saw St Peter's from Mersea Island, across the estuary of the Blackwater. It beckoned as only a remote, lonely place can. The chapel was build with material at hand, namely the remains of a Roman fort.
Wild life abounds, mostly a great variety of birds. We walked a long the sea wall. At last I had arrived at the sea, but the tide was out. This video pans from the decommissioned Bradwell nuclear power station, to views of Maldon, the hills (the terminal morraine of the last ice age as our geography master like to remind us) beyond Goldhanger and Tollesbury across the estuary; The Strood; Mersea Island; and Brightlingsea across the Colne estuary and finally the North Sea.
I like to say that one can stick a pin anywhere in to a map of England and there will be a wealth of history connected to that spot. St Peter-on-the-wall has connections with Lindisfarne, off the coast of Northumbria, and Iona, in the Inner Hebrides through St Cedd, the Anglo-Celtic missionary who brought Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons of Essex at the invitation of King Sigbert. Cedd arrived by sea from Lindisfarne in 653 A.D. After the Romans withdrew from the British Isles a mystic but down to earth Christianity was maintained through the great missionary Celtic saints: Aidan, Columba, and Cedd among others. Cedd was one of twelve commissioned by Aidan. The interior now, 'twas bare when I first knew it.
I first saw St Peter's from Mersea Island, across the estuary of the Blackwater. It beckoned as only a remote, lonely place can. The chapel was build with material at hand, namely the remains of a Roman fort. Wild life abounds, mostly a great variety of birds. We walked a long the sea wall. At last I had arrived at the sea, but the tide was out. This video pans from the decommissioned Bradwell nuclear power station, to views of Maldon, the hills (the terminal morraine of the last ice age as our geography master like to remind us) beyond Goldhanger and Tollesbury across the estuary; The Strood; Mersea Island; and Brightlingsea across the Colne estuary and finally the North Sea.
A sailing barge was tacking up the estuary towards Maldon, but my simple camera does not have the telescopic capacity to take a decent shot; this was the best I could manage.
Oh, the horizon isn't very straight is it? These pictures only convey a little of the atmosphere of the mudflats, creeks and estuaries of the Essex coastline. No definitive cliffs here declaring, "This is where England begins." Tidal flows are great and low tides expose many miles of sand and mud; when the tide rushes in the unwary can be caught out on the sand banks or mudflats.EDIT 20 January 2014: Morecomb Bay is the most infamous place for drownings.
Oh, the horizon isn't very straight is it? These pictures only convey a little of the atmosphere of the mudflats, creeks and estuaries of the Essex coastline. No definitive cliffs here declaring, "This is where England begins." Tidal flows are great and low tides expose many miles of sand and mud; when the tide rushes in the unwary can be caught out on the sand banks or mudflats.EDIT 20 January 2014: Morecomb Bay is the most infamous place for drownings.
I'll find the words to describe these pictures later . . . meanwhile . . . . here are a few more pictures of the flat littoral of Essex depicting Bradwell power station,
dramatic clouds
and more
mud.
dramatic clouds
and more
mud.
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