Activities
in the Blackwater Estuary
There has always been a
close connection between the village and the Blackwater Estuary, and the many
activities associated with the water have had a major influence on village
life:
o
Fishing
o
Salt concentration aids radio
transmission
Fishing
Early fishing in the
estuary
Fishing has been a major
commercial activity in the Estuary for centuries. In Goldhanger - estuary Village (page-19) Maura
Benham describes Fish Weirs or Kettles used to catch fish, which may be
the origins of the many pieces of ancient wood still projecting out of the mud
in Goldhanger Creek. Some are also likely to be the remains of jetties used by
fishing smacks in the 18th &19th centuries. See... Ancient
wooden posts in the Creek.
Archaeology research has
also identified early medieval fish trap/weirs further down the estuary at
Collins Creek.
an 1881 local newspaper
report
Fish Pits
Two Fish Pits were located
adjacent to Goldhanger Creek near Bounds Farm.
They appear on the 1820 Tithe map and are listed in the Tithe Awards as part of
Bounds Farm property, they are also shown on 1900 OS map and a map the
Proceedings Antiquaries Society of 1910. They were most probably used to hold
temporarily oysters, shellfish, eels and large fish catches from further out at
sea, in the days when refrigerators were unavailable and ice was expensive.
Fish pits at Bounds
Farm
An
extract from a 1886 sale catalogue (ERO D/F 63/1/10/6)
Bounds Farm, Goldhanger
Comprising farmhouse, farm buildings,
double tenement cottage with garden and bakehouse
and about 205 acres of arable and
pasture land. With plan.
Includes manuscript note that the Coast
Guard flag staff stands upon Lot 2 (Bounds Farm)
and the Government pays 10s. per annum
rent.
There is a shelter hut of the Coast
Guard for which they pay 6d per annum,
and the Fishermen agree to pay
5s. per annum for the use of the Pits and Drying ground on the foreshore
Extract
from The Society of Antiquaries Proceedings in 1910. . .
Report
of the Red-Hills Exploration Committee
It was part of our
original intention to explore the tank-like depressions on Hither Fish-pit
Marsh, but during operations we learned that fish-pits had formerly been
in common use in the district, and that three such pits had been
constructed in comparatively recent times close to the Coastguard station on
the sea-wall. Another pit on the east aide of the creek had been in use within
the memory of some of the inhabitants.
In former times
fishing was an important industry at Goldhanger. When a large catch was made
the fish were kept in these pits until required. It is said that corks at the
end of strings were tied to the tails of the fish and the corks floating on the
surface made it easy to procure the fish when wanted. The fish having now
almost left this district the pits have fallen into disuse, and those at the
coastguard station are in a dirty and stagnant condition, while the one on the
edge of the creek has been broken through, and is now used as a dock for
repairing the boats. Owing to the resemblance of the tanks on the marsh to
these fish-pits we concluded that they must have been intended for a similar
purpose, and decided not to explore them as the season was advanced and our
funds exhausted,
As further evidence
of the once important fishing industry, not only does the marsh bear this name,
hut the roadway from the village is called Fish Street, and the old track way
across the marsh is said to have been made for the carts to bring the fish from
the boats.
Another point of interest at Goldhanger was a large pile foundation in the head of the creek, which was exposed at low tide. Upwards of sixty large piles are arranged in rectangular form.
The same report also
includes a map that shows an old fish pit
on the north side of Goldhanger Creek. . .
Fishing
in more recent times
Fish Street was said to be
the haunt of Maldon based fishermen whose boats were temporarily moored in
Goldhanger Creek waiting for the tide to reach Maldon. In the meantime the
fishermen frequented the various ale houses and other houses of ill repute down
Fish Street.
In 1898 E.A. Fitch wrote
about the abundance of fish in the Blackwater his book: Maldon & the
River Blackwater. . .
Death Creek opposite
Stansgate is a good fishing location. . . dabs, plaice, whiting, codling,
bull-rout, red gurnard, salmon, trout, skates & rays. . .
Maldon fishing fleet in 1940
More recently, in Blackwater
Men (1992) the Emmett brothers described abundant Flounders being caught in
the Blackwater in the early 1960s. They were temporarily stored in trunk that were enclosed submerged boats,
to keep them alive until the market was ready, not unlike the method uses for
the Goldhanger fish pits. These were sold in Maldon as Blackwater Plaice. Winkles taken from the Stumble were another main
source of income for the Maldon fishermen at this time. The book also describes
prolific eels and herrings being caught in the Blackwater at around the same
time.
Oyster
Beds
Oyster fishing and
cultivation has been an activity in the Estuary for centuries. However, an
abrupt end came to local industry in the early 1980s when a disease caused the
government to curtail production. Native Oyster shells litter the foreshore and
oyster shell are found in the gardens in Fish St. In the last 20 years
commercial oyster beds have been re-established at a location referred to as
Goldhanger Creek but is close to Lauristons Farm and are now sold all around
the world. See... Goldhanger Oyster Beds
Decoy Ponds & Duck Shooting
Decoy Ponds
In the past there were huge
quantities of ducks around the Estuary and the local Duck Decoy Ponds were a
good source of income for the village. As they were all located just inside the
seawall it would suggest that construction of a seawall was necessary before
the ponds could become viable.
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The ponds were
"star" or "octopus" shaped with between four and eight
"pipes", and were use in in the 17th & 18th centuries. They
were on the land-side of the seawall with "hatches" through the
wall. The Shoe is the remains of one such hatch. Tame ducks and trained dogs
were used to lure the wild fowl up the pipe and into the traps. The catch was
sent to Leadenhall Market each day. Mallard, Curlew, Teal and Wigeon were the
main catch. |
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An
old map showing the ponds on the east side of village
Decoy ponds was private
property, were well protected by a wide ditch or high fence, and were in remote
situations. They was usually worked by one man, or perhaps a father and son.
The owners purposely shrouded their management with mystery, and spread
absurdly inaccurate reports as to their manner of decoying and of the
accessories used at the decoy. The decoy man was always on the watch for
intruders and would on no account give them the any reliable information.
The Decoy man usually rented
a considerable amount of land, mostly marsh and low wet meadow in the vicinity,
so as to keep out trespassers and to assist the natural solitude of its
surroundings. He helped to support his income by grazing a few sheep or cattle
on the dryer portions of the land.
a report
made in 1811 to the Board of Agriculture...
The Maura Benham book Goldhanger
- an Estuary Village describes the Methods
of Workings Decoy Ponds on pages 83 to 85 and there are descriptions of the Goldhanger Decoy Ponds
in Birds of Essex, written by Essex historian Miller Christy and
published in 1890 on pages 62 and 63.
In recent years The Blackwater Wildfowlers
Association has acquired land close to Goldhanger that includes one of the
original decoy ponds. The Association has since restored it and maintains it as
a no-shooting zone and a haven for
wintering wildfowl...
Duck Shooting
As the number of wild ducks
on the estuary steadily declined duck shooting from a punt became more
effective than using the decoy ponds and in more recent times was both a
commercial activity and a popular pastime. Just before WW-2 a wealthy
Goldhanger resident kept his own punt and gun at The Shoe, keeping the gun and
tackle in a long sturdy box of some three metres length that sat on top of
several posts set into the ground. It was situated on the waterside below the
seawall, and was kept padlocked. Below on the left is a typical duck punt with
gun and on the right is Samuel Johnson of Fish St. in his punt in Goldhanger
Creek, who made a living in the winter from this activity.
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The following extract is taken from www.chelmercanaltrust.co.uk
and the life
story of Darby Stebbens of Heybridge Basin:
. . .One famous man who I
helped was the artist Peter Scott. I took him on a duck shoot down the river
with his guns and dog. I rowed and he sat in the back but he didn't have a lot
of luck! I had a punt gun myself and once got twenty five widgeon with one shot
just off Osea in the morning mist. You went out in the winter just before dawn,
or at dusk, lying flat in the bottom of the punt and paddling gently with
paddles no larger than your hand - you had to keep as low as you could. I sold
the birds around the Basin houses at three shillings a brace. . .
Salt
Extraction
Exceptionally low rainfall
in the Blackwater Estuary results in the salt being retained in the extensive
mashes and mud flats, which has traditionally made the location ideal for salt
extraction. The Redhills in the area
have been extensively excavated in the past and been show not only to have been
used for salt production but were also early potteries as the salt produced
locally was used to salt-glazed the pottery. In 2007 the Maldon Crystal Salt
Co. returned to the locality with a new processing plant at Longwick Farm, just
half a mile from Goldhanger.
A full history
is given in. . . Salt extraction in the Blackwater
Commercial
Shipping
Barge Transportation
It is said that before the railways came through Essex in the 1850s in winter the journey to London was quicker by sea than by road could, which took 3-days.
This early postcard
photograph shows pony carts loading and waiting to load a barge at The Shoe in
Goldhanger Creek. The barge belonged to Robert Page the farmer at Highams Farm in the late 1800s. The mooring posts were accidentally knock over in 2009 but up
until then were still occasionally being used for maintenance work on the
Maldon barges. These barges took farm produce up to London and returned
with 'London mixture' - horse
manure, and seaweed for fertilizer, lime, coal and other cargoes. One important
local cargo was Kentish rag stone, which was used to build up the sea walls and
helped in the reclamation of marshland. Barges stacked with hay were called Stackies. These flat bottomed barges
could navigate and moor in the shallowest of creeks and rivers adjacent to
farms and mills. The barges were sailed by just two people, so it was a very
economic form of transport for bulky and heavy. In 1860 there were 5000 sailing
barges on the East coast, by 1910 there were 2,000 barges trading in the UK,
but with the decline of the hay trade, there was a dramatic fall in their
numbers. In 1939 there were 750 and in 1949 a mere 125.
Stackie at sea - taken from
Maura Benham’s book
Today the sad remains of the
barge Snowdrop lies in Goldhanger Creek, having been abandoned in the
1950s. These pictures show the barge during its working life and how it has
deteriorated since it was left. . .
at
Greens flour mill,
Fullbridge in
London
Docks mast-less
in the pool at Heybridge Basin.
The Kelly Family on Snowdrop
at East Greenwich in 1928
in the
1950s in
the
1970s
in 2010
20th
Century Shipping
For most of the 20th
century large volumes of commercial shipping passing up and down the Estuary
heading for Maldon quay and Heybridge Basin. At high tide ships could be seen
regularly passing up and down the Estuary. At low tide they would moor up in
the estuary adjacent to Osea Island in regularly dredged deep water areas
waiting for a sufficient depth of water and a pilot.
Shipping at anchor off Osea
Island
Commercial vessel in
Heybridge Basin lock.
This trade ended in the
1970's
when bigger ships with
containers took over
On two occasions on the 20th
century, in the 1920s and the 1970s, the Estuary was used to lay up surplus
commercial shipping and they were clearly visible from the village. . .
Ships
laid up in the background - strawberry pickers in the foreground
Osea Island
Osea Island has never been
within Goldhanger Parish, but as the island is less than a mile (and a pleasant
dingy sail) away, and there have been many associations between the island and
the village in the past, so it is appropriate including a short history of the
island here. . .
Name
of the Island
Over the centuries the
island has had many names and variations of spellings, some associated with the
islands Roman, Danish/Viking and Saxon past, and have included:
Uvesia, Vuesia, Ōsgybes
īeg, Ovesey, Totham-Oveseye,
Totham-Magne-cum-Ovesem, Awsey, Oosy, St. Osyth, and Osey.
It is probably not a
coincidence that it has been called St Osyth island, a name used by Daniel
Defoe. The village of St Osyth, just 10 miles away by sea, was previously
called Chich. A seventh century Saxon nun called Osyth was murdered there by
Danes in a Viking raid for religious reasons. It is said that when the Danes
were finally defeated and left, both the village of Chich and the island, then
occupied by Saxons, were re-named after the beatified nun.
Owners of the Island
A total of 23 owners have
been identified over the past 1000 yrs. Seventeen are identified in the
biography of Mr Charrington's: The Great
Acceptance written by Guy Thorne in 1913, which includes a very interesting
chapter about Mr Charringtons involvement with the island.
Here is an extract from that
chapter of the book (which is freely available on-line) describing the history
of the island and its the past owners, which in turn is taken from a booklet
produced by Mr Charrington in 1907 entitled: Osea island - the new temperance seaside resort...
In the first
place, to the history of Osea. This has been compiled by his friend Mr. Rupert
Scott for an excellent little publication issued by Messrs. Partridge, which is
in itself a complete guide to the island.
Mr. Scott tells
us that before the Norman Conquest the name of this jewel of the Blackwater was
Uvesia, and later Ovesey or Osey and Osyth's island. During the reign of Edward
the Confessor (1042-1066) it was owned by one Turbert, who was Lord of the
district.
At the time of
the Norman Conquest it was in the possession of one Hamo Dapifer, nephew to
William the Conqueror. He held it as a manor, and four hides of land, and there
resided on it one bordar or resident. According to the Doomsday survey book
(1086), there had always previously been on the island three serfs, one
fisherman, and pasture for sixty sheep, and at the time of the survey belonged
to the Bouchier family, afterwards created Earls of Essex; and was included in
the Capital Manor, or Parish of Great Totham.
During the reign
of Henry II (1154-1189), it was held by Henry Malache, from the king, as one
knight's fee. This is found in a MS. Of the time of Henry VIII, viz.: 'Totham
Magne cum Ovesem, alias Ovesey. It is not known how this Henry Malache was
related to the Bouchier family.
In the reign of
Edward II (1315), the Island of Osea was owned by Gilbart de Clare, Earl of
Gloucester, and then came into the possession of Bartholomew de Bouchier and
his wife, who retained it from 1410-1411 under Henry VI. Its next owner was Sir
Hugh Stafford, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Bartholomew, Lord Bouchier,
who died in 1420, and was held 'by him as the Manor of Oveseye from King Henry
V, as the Honor of Bologne, by the service of half a knight's fee.'
The island next
came into the hands of one Ludovic Robbesart, and Elizabeth his wife, in 1431,
during the reign of Henry V, and upon their death for the following two years
was held by Anne, widow of the Earl of March. The next possessor of Ovesey
Island was Henry Bouchier, created first Earl of Essex, and he held the manor
of Totham-Oveseye from King Edward VI, and died in 1483.
He was followed
by Anne Bouchier, Marchioness of Northampton, who brought the island to her
husband under the title of 'Manor or Isle of Ovesey, with free fishery, free
warren, and wrec of the sea.' She died in 1570, during Queen Elizabeth's reign.
Her husband forfeited his estates for espousing the cause of Lady Jane Grey,
but this Manor of Ovesey was returned to him by a letter patent from the Queen
dated August 8, 1558, for his maintenance.
On the death of
Anne Bouchier, Marchioness of Northampton, this manor descended to the
heir-at-law, one Walter Devereux, who was the first Earl of Essex of that name;
but in order to carry on his warfare in Ireland he mortgaged and sold his estates
in Essex, including 'Ovesey Island,' which was purchased by a Mr. Thomas
Wiseman, of Great Waltham, Mr. Wiseman held it of Queen Elizabeth by a Knight's
service. He died July 15, 1584, without issue. It then came into the possession
of his two sisters, Elizabeth, wife of Richard Jennings, and Dorothy Wiseman.
Osea Island was
purchased by a Mr. Charles Coe, of Maldon, but it is not known from whom, and
it was still owned by him at the time of his death in 1786, and afterwards was
conveyed to the Pigott family, who were evidently related to him, because on
the south wall of St. Peter's Church at Maldon there is a mural monument to
'John Coe Pigott,' and dated March, 1802.
The next owner
of the island known was Mrs. Pigott, who married Henry Coape, and was succeeded
by his son, Henry Coe Coape, who,
through troubles, had to make it over to his brother [in the 1700s].
Henry
Coe Coape is identified as one of our past Goldhanger
Authors and lived at Vaulty Manor which was and still is within the
Goldhanger Parish boundary.
Seven other owners have been
identified since The Great Acceptance
was published in 1913. . .
1880s Henry Coe Coape son Henry Coape-Arnold. Both were Lords of
the Manor of Goldhanger.
1903 Frederick
Charrington, heir to the London brewery company (more below)
1910-26 The island was
occupied by the Royal Navy (more below), but still owned by Frederick
Charrington
1936 Wealthy
philanthropist Major Alfred Allnatt (sold to him by the trustees of the
Charrington estate) He is best known for donating Ruben's Adoration of the Magi to Kings College Cambridge.
1960 Michael
& David Cole, founders of Metals
Research and the Cambridge
Instruments companies. The Metals
Research Company was the first to grow silicon crystals, which is one of
the foundations of todays digital equipment. Cambridge Instruments produced very high quality electronic
instruments and were the first to market electron microscopes. Michael Cole's
entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biographies quotes him as: an inventor Michael Cole was a genius.
1968 Cambridge
University
1986 The
Cole family re-purchased the island from the University
1990s The
Cole family sold the island to the latest owner
A
summary of activities on the island
4K
BC Neolithic occupations on the island
100 AD Romans built the causeway, saltworks
and pottery
800 Holmbyggja -
Viking settlement & burial ground
991 Vikings warriors
were probably based on the island in preparation for the Battle of Maldon
1086 The Domesday Book entry for the
island:
Steward: Richard from Hamo, 4 hides, 1
smallholder, always 3 slaves, 1 fishery, pasture, 60 sheep, value 60s.
1700s James Wentworth Day wrote in the Daily Mail in 1977 that 24
revenue men were murdered in Death Creek
(see Smuggling)
1722 Daniel Defoe wrote about the
island in: Tour through the Eastern
Counties of England.
1880-90s Dr Salter took Prince
Nicholas, later the Tsar of Russia, shooting on the island and had lunch at The Chequers Inn.
1890s Oysters cultivated commercially
in the salt marshes on the northern shore (still visible today).
1903 Frederick Charrington
created and developed his Cure for
Inebriety on the island.
1903 Mr. Charrington
purchased the steam ship SS Annie to provide transport to
and from Maldon
1903 on Many newspaper and magazine articles were
written at home and abroad about the developments on the island,
including
articles in... The Times,
The Manchester Guardian, Punch, The Spectator, Country Life,
Christian World, NZ Ashburton Guardian, NZ Oamaru
Mail, AU Launeston Examiner, USA Indianapolis Journal
1903 Postcards showing life the island
at that time were distributed (to date seventeen have been identified)...
1904-06 Mr.
Charrington developed a menagerie on
the island that included: seals, kangaroos, parrots, and Australian swans.
1906-9 London
County Council operated summer open air schools on Osea for children with
learning difficulties.
1906-9 The
Boys brigade held summer camps on the island. There are many photos of the 1906
activities at...
www.3rdenfieldbb.co.uk/history-19001909.php#1906
1907 Mr.
Charrington published a booklet entitled: Osea island - the new temperance
seaside resort.
1907-9 Many
advertisements appeared in the Times and the Manchester Guardian.
1907-12 Much
alchohol was smuggled onto the island by local fishermen, The
Chequers Inn customers and island workers.
1913 Seaplane
trials based on the island (see Seaplane Trials below)
1917-26 HMS Osea
(see World War-1 below)
1919-23 Foreign
Office secret missions to the Baltic using CBMs based on the island.
1924 Former
Goldhanger curate Douglas Vale, employed by Mr Charrington as the island's
hotel manager, died of alcoholism.
1927 Essex
county council declined to purchase the island from R Charrington for use as a
sanatorium.
1927-30 May &
Butcher of Heybridge purchased the WW1 huts and moved many of them to Heybridge
where they remain.
1934 The recently formed Rural
Community Council of Essex (RCCE) started a 'reconditioning camp' on the Island
to help the unemployed improve their fitness and readiness for work.
1936 Major Allnatt, wealthy
philanthropist, formed the Society for the Promotion of Old English Pastimes
and each year held a week-long 'Conventical' parties for the wealthy on Island.
Tractor slaloms, mud walloping, searching for ping-pong balls buried in the mud
at low tide. He also used the island for shooting and greyhound-breeding.
1939-45 Dummy
submarines placed around island during World War-2,
The army manned Pill-boxes on
the island and occupied Rivermere
A German V2 rocket exploded
near the island
1960s While
living on the island Lord Gawain Douglas wrote poetry about the island,
published in his book entitled: Fortuna.
1981 The BBC made a half hour TV
programme about the island. (see BBC TV programme below)
1980s The
Goldhanger postman made daily collections and deliveries to Osea, crossing the
causeway on his bicycle.
2006 A
semi-biographical novel Once upon an
Island by former resident Joe Canning is about
Osea island and Goldhanger.
2007 The Chequers landlady's autobiography: The Licence, has a chapter about the pub
and her family links to the Island.
A BBC TV programme about the island
In 1981 the BBC made a half
hour television programme about the island entitled Causeway's End. Several Goldhanger residents were interviewed in The Chequers who had connections with the island. The
programme explained how they residents traditionally supported the island's
activities and that island residents frequently used the Chequers Inn as their
mainland base. The film was made by BBC producer Andrew Gosling, who at the
time lived on the island. Goldhanger people described Charringtons retreat for inebriates, and it has scenes from HMS
Osea, and more recent scenes of the island, including horses at work, barges
sailing by, and vehicles on the causeway.
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audio extracts from the programme: |
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watch selected video
clips... at... www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrfAh36oskw
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The history of Osea Island is one of the Local
History Talks
The
pleasure Ship SS Maldon Annie
In the early 1900s F N
Charrington purchased Osea Island and set up a treatment centre for alcoholics
in the main residence called Rivermere. He also purchased the steam ship SS Annie to travel between Maldon and
the island. The boat was later re-named the SS
Maldon Annie and was used for many years as a Maldon based pleasure steamer
and was a familiar sight in the Estuary.
Steam Ship Maldon Annie
Maldon Annie took part in the evacuation
of Dunkirk, but sadly did not return to Maldon.
Military Activities
The most significant
military event to have taken place in the estuary was the Viking invasion and
the Battle of Maldon in the year of 991. Ninety Viking longships sailed up the
estuary carrying 4000 Viking warriors. The actual location of the battle
remains in doubt, but Northey Island is generally accepted as the main battle
site. However, the western end of Osea Island and the stretch of water across
to Decoy Point may have also been a battle site. Wherever the battle was
located, the armada of Viking longships would have passed up the estuary
visible from the shore at Goldhanger.
artists impression of armada
of Viking longships in the estuary
pargetted artists impression
of the invasion
on the inner wall of a
property in the village
Much has been written about
the Battle of Maldon on the internet.
Seaplane
Trials
In 1913 Osea Island was
enveloped in tight security while the Royal Navy conducted a series of tests on
a revolutionary new two man Seaplane called the Seagull which was
intended to be the main line of defence against enemy submarines and Zeppelins.
The British Deperdussin Aeroplane Company demonstrated the seaplane in the
Blackwater Estuary on the south side of Osea Island. The aeroplane was a single
engine monoplane with large floats. The Seagull did not prove successful during
the trials and was not taken into service by RNAS. Some of these photos where
in a Flight Magazine in 1913. . .
The Deperdussin Seagull on
trial at Osea Island in 1913
a contemporary drawing of the
Deperdussin Seagull
It seems however that the Osea
Island involvement with seaplanes, later to become known as Flying Boats, did
not end in 1913. The Deperdussin's test pilot during the Osea Island trials,
John C Porte went on to become the commander of the Felixstowe Naval Air
Station, later called the Felixstowe Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment
(MAEE). Lieutenant-Commander John C. Porte is credited with designing the
Felixstowe F1 and F2 seaplanes and the Felixstowe F3, F4 and F5 Flying Boats
and finally the Felixstowe Fury Flying Boat. During WW1 Shorts Brothers
built many Felixstowe F3 and F5s to MAEE specifications and then after WW1 in
1926, the Blackburn Aircraft Company built the Iris 1-3 range of Flying
Boats again to MAEE specifications, and these were know to be delivered to
Felixstowe for trials. One of these machines was photographed during trials in
the Blackwater Estuary off Osea Island, and although the quality of the
photograph is not good, the machine looks very similar the Blackburn Iris 1
model. However, it could be one of several early Felixstowe designs and related
aircraft as they are all of a very similar appearance...
the seaplane photographed
near Osea Island
examples of very similar seaplanes.
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The Felixstowe Naval Air
Station was created in 1913 and Lieutenant-Commander Porte joined it in 1915,
and on his recommendation the station was initially equipped with USA built
Curtiss flying boats. The HMS Osea base for Coastal Motor Boats (CMBs) began
life in 1917 and it seems that the two establishments worked closely together
throughout the war. For example, in 1918 Commodore Augustus Agar was awarded
the VC for his involvement in the CMB raid on the Russian fleet at Kronstadt.
That raid was supported by four Shorts seaplanes carried there on the converted
Aeroplane Carrier HMS Vindictive.
World War I
During World War 1 forty
Coastal Motor Boats (CMBs) were stationed on Osea Island. At one point there
were 1000 sailors stationed there.
a 180 degree panoramic view
of the HMS Osea during WW-1 shows many of the buildings
There is more about HMS Osea
at. . . The Great War - HMS Osea
The history of Osea Island and the Great War are two of our Local History Talks
World War 2
There were many rumours that
Osea Island was used by the Royal Navy during World War 2, and much talk of a Clandestine
miniature submarine base. However no documented evidence of this has been found
and several years ago the Royal Navy Museum offered the following explanation:
It is know that during WW-2 a base at Wivenhoe was involved in constructing
wooden mock submarines for use in confusing the enemy. These were towed to
various location around the Essex coast and left for the enemy to find and
bomb. Some were probably located for a while at Osea Island and Heybridge. The
Blackwater estuary was also used by both the army and the navy as part of the
build up to the D-Day landings at Normandy. Landing craft were seen at many
locations including: Osea, Stone, Heybridge Basin and Mill Beach.
A German V2 rocket landed in
the estuary near Bounds Farm and its remains lay there for many years. There is
a photograph in the Virtual Museum. More
about... Goldhanger's involvement in WW-2
These
paragraphs are taken from. . . CHELMER CANAL TRUST
NEWSLETTER ISSUE 24, November 2003
From Darby Stebbens' life
story. . .
The 28th Company Royal Army
Service Corps was stationed in the Basin during the war. They had three or four
motorised wooden barges to carry their machinery, together with a 'Tid Tug', a
bit like the old steam tug Brent which you can still see at the Hythe in
Maldon. There were also a dozen or more Thames lighters tied up all along the
sea wall as far as Mill Beach ready for D-Day. They must have been in one heck
of hurry to get away because on the day they left they just threw all their
mooring chains overboard and left them on the shore. What they used to tie up
with when they arrived I'll never know.
There was a lot of military
activity around the Basin with soldiers and sailors billeted at The Towers in
Heybridge and in the Manor House on Osea Island. Certain boats in the Basin
were commandeered for military services: the yacht Francis II, for example, was
turned into a river patrol boat and was moored off Osea.
One night Lord Haw Haw told
us on the radio that German planes were going to bomb the submarine base at
Heybridge Basin. The attack happened several nights later: six people were
killed and several houses received direct hits. There were frequent air raids
as German planes flew up the river thinking it was the Thames. At night our
family went and slept on our boat, Gracie, moored on the saltings, so that we
would not have the house fall down on us if we were bombed. One night a land
mine landed right next to the house on Northey Island making quite a thump, but
there wasn't much damage because it went into the soft mud. When I was at Mill
beach one day I saw a Hurricane crash near the Doctor's buoy off Osea.
After both world wars May
and Butcher Ltd in Heybridge Basin were involved in scrapping many surplus navy
ships, including the 5600 ton light cruiser HMS Dido. Many ships like this
would have been seen making their last journey up the Estuary past to Heybridge
Basin.
See also the World War II memories of those living in the village.
Leisure Activities
Swimming and bathing
Early postcard photos show
that swimming and bathing has been popular in the Estuary and Creek for many years
and has probably take place for centuries.
......
The picture on the left
shows a children's swimming gala, while the picture on the right shows an
ancient wreck with a crude diving board attached, there are also two bathing
huts in the background, close to The Shoe.
A beach hut in the creek
Sailing for pleasure
Goldhanger Sailing Club was
formed in 1959, however these two photos from much earlier days indicate that
sailing has been an pleasure activity in the Creek and Estuary for at least a
hundred years...
........
The picture on the left of a sailing dinghy in the
Creek also shows the Coastguard Hut and Flagstaff on the seawall which probably
dates the picture as no later than the 1930s. The picture on the right is from
the 1970s.
The club house is built on the site of the former
Goldhanger salt works.
Seawall Construction and maintenance
Seawalls have had, and still
do, give many benefits: they protect the village and farmland from tidal
surges, they have created more useable farmland, they create deeper water at
high tide enabling better navigation and coastal access for small boats and the
wall itself provides access to the coast for wheeled transport and pedestrians.
Not least, an indirect benefit not realised for many centuries, has been that
the draining and drying out the marshes eliminated the mosquitoes that carried
the malaria virus, the disease formally called The Ague.
Here is no doubt that the
walls were originally constructed a very long time ago, however there is much
doubt surrounds the actual dates of the walls in the Goldhanger vicinity. In
the early 1900s extensive excavations of Red Hills were undertaken at Bounds
Farm, Goldhanger, and their report (Proc. Soc. Ant., XXIII, 69-76.) puts
forward the theory that the seawall was in Roman times before some of the
Redhills were formed. .
. . .It was the
opinion of the excavators that while the Red Hill itself had been built on the
open marsh, the mould could only have formed after the sea-wall had been
constructed. Hence they would assign a pre-Roman date to the Hill itself, and
conjecture the seawall to have been built possibly in Roman times. The Roman
occupation of a Red Hill, of which this is the only recorded instance, may
possibly have been due to a recrudescence of the industry.
. . .and the construction of
seawalls must have had a major influence on the decline in the local sea salt
industry. See. . . Salt extraction in the Blackwater
This paragraph have been
taken from Goldhanger -an Estuary Village
by Maura Benham:
Hilda Grieve in her splendid
account of the sea-walls of Essex in The Great Tide (1959) finds evidence of
Essex marshland being embanked by the end of the 12th century. And great storms
are recorded in the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries, causing concern lest the low
lying land should be flooded.
In 1303 a commission was
directed to 'the sea-coast of Essex', but the coast north of Maldon was not
specified until 1439 when a commission was to include in its work the stretch from
Hockley to Tollesbury and Wigborough. These commissions had to survey, to find
out why disrepair and decay had occurred, and to levy from those benefiting
from the walls the money needed to repair and maintain them. The charges
included a levy on those using the banks for grazing. The walls had to be built
and maintained by skilled men, and wages paid in 1346-47 to men making a wall
in a marsh during the summer were as much as the marsh shepherd was paid for a
whole year's work.
E. S. Gramolt in his unpublished
1960 thesis Coastal Marshlands of East Essex between the 17th and mid-19th
centuries (in ERO) writes in detail of the construction of the sea-walls. The
practice was to build the wall in two arms carried across the saltings to the
lowest point over which the wall was to pass. The proposed line of the wall was
prepared by removing vegetation and digging a trench. The soft mud was removed
and the hollows filled with brushwood and good clay, marsh clay being always
the chief material of the wall. Sometimes brushwood made the permanent facing
of the wall, as faggots secured vertically on its face; sometimes chalk and
piles were used; and later Kentish ragstone was brought by barge and used for
the purpose. These construction techniques can be seen in early photographs. .
.
The walls around the
Blackwater once had only two feet wide tops, but after the great tide of 1736
the walls were heightened and widened to three feet. By 1790 the Goldhanger
seawalls were 7 feet high. The borrow-pits or dykes formed by digging out the
clay to make the wall, also known as delphs or delfs, were at first dug close
to the wall but later moved to some twenty feet from them.
Until WW-2 seawall
maintenance was the responsibility of the adjacent landowners. For example
Highams Farm used horses and wagons on narrow gauge rail tracks to move soil
from ditches dug onto the seawall during quieter farming periods. The iron
tracks were periodically dismantled and moved to a new location on or near the
wall where it was most needed. There are still very deep ditches to be seen
around Highams Farm which were the result of this activity.
......
'Seawalling' being carried
out by workers from Bounds Farm in the 1920s
The seawall was breached
during the 1953 floods near Highams Farm and at Decoy Point, and an area
stretching from lower Fish Street to the caravan sites at Millbeach was flooded
for many days, including much of Bounds Farm land. The concrete lining slabs
visible today were laid mainly just after these floods when the government took
responsibility for the maintenance of the seawalls. A length of seawall closest
to the village was raised by a further metre in the early 1990s.
Today the Environment Agency
is responsible for seawall maintenance, but are slow to repair the wall to the
east of the village, ironically one of the very locations where the wall was
breached in the 1953 floods. This photo shows the deteriorating state of the
wall in recent years, fortunately repaired in November 2014 after continuous
lobbying by the Parish Council. . .
Deteriorating seawall near
Highams Hatches
photo taken in early 2014
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