Mersea Island Web Portal

Location

Mersea is the most easterly inhabited island in the UK. It is linked to the mainland by The Strood, an artificial causeway about half a mile long which forms part of the B1025 road to Colchester. The Strood is liable to flooding at high tide and, when a large high tide is forecast, there will often be an ambulance brought over in advance, to deal with any accidents that may happen.
The beach surrounding the island is mainly sand and shingle, turning into mudflats as you wade further out. In summer the waters on the main beach are warm, as the tide comes in over the dark mudflats, which have been heated by the Sun to a comfortable temperature.
Thankfully only a small percentage of Mersea Island is populated, although this percentage has increased over the years, the Island is still made up of a high percentage of farmland and salt marshes.
The Colne Estuary which borders the north east side of the Island, is one of the many Sites of Special Scientific Interest in the area.

Island Geology

Mersea Island is one of the most important geological sites in Essex, and the cliffs at Cudmore Grove provide superb exposures of Thames/Medway gravels laid down during the Hoxnian interglacial stage when monkeys, bears and early man lived in Essex. Beneath the beach gravel, and inaccessible, are channel deposits from the more recent Ipswichian interglacial stage which have yielded bones of hippopotamus, elephant, rhinoceros and hyena.