West Mersea

West Mersea is a small town and electoral ward in Essex, England. It is the larger (In terms of population) of two settlements on Mersea Island, south of Colchester. The smaller settlement on the island is the village of East Mersea.

West Mersea
West Mersea
Location within Essex
Population7,183 (2011)[1]
OS grid referenceTM011127
Civil parish
  • West Mersea
District
  • Colchester
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townColchester
Postcode districtCO5
Dialling code01206
PoliceEssex
FireEssex
AmbulanceEast of England
UK Parliament

As well as West Mersea Yacht Club, it also has an RNLI lifeboat station. The town hosts an annual regatta, usually in August, known as Mersea Week.

History

Roman buildings and tessalated pavements close to the quayside have led to suggestions that a small Roman settlement and port existed on the site of the modern town, with a road linking it to the nearby town of Camulodunum (modern Colchester).[2] The nearby burial mound to the north of the town is also Roman.[3]

Edward the Confessor granted the island to the abbey of St. Ouen in Rouen, France, in 1046, and the Priory of West Mersea was established.

Then nothing happened for over 900 years, until;

In 1963, the lifeboat station was established next to the West Mersea Yacht Club, one of the first ten inshore lifeboat stations in the British Isles.[4] Originally served by a D class lifeboat, this was replaced by a B class, Atlantic 21, lifeboat in 1972. In 1992, a new boathouse and slipway were opened by the Duke of Kent. In 2001, a B class Atlantic 75 lifeboat was stationed at West Mersea, and then in 2015 this was replaced with the current B class Atlantic 85 named Just George, funded by £210,000 of community donations.[5]

West Mersea today

The town is served by a community centre, various shops, restaurants, small hotels, public houses, a petrol station, bank, library, and several churches, including the Norman St Peter and St Paul (Church of England), Roman Catholic, Methodist, and West Mersea Free Church, affiliated to the Baptist Union.

West Mersea has a high proportion of elderly people, so many of the town's amenities cater for them.

The island has a substantial number of caravan parks, and along with other areas of the Essex coast, the island attracts many visitors from London and the Home Counties in summer.

A publication, the Mersea Courier, lists local activities. These include Pond Watch, The Night Sky, Christian Viewpoint and Speed Learn.

The Island is famous for its oysters, taken from oyster beds dating back to the Roman era.

References
  1. "Town/Ward population 2011". Retrieved 30 September 2015.
  2. Crummy, Philip (1997) City of Victory; the story of Colchester - Britain's first Roman town. Published by Colchester Archaeological Trust (ISBN 1 897719 04 3)
  3. Toynbee, J.M.C. (1996) Death and Burial in the Roman World. Published by Thames and Hudson. (ISBN 0-8018-5507-1)
  4. "1963: Inflatable lifeboats". rnli.org. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  5. Thomas, Godfrey (26 May 2015). "West Mersea Lifeboats: May 2015 Report". West Mersea Lifeboats. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
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