Mersea Island

Mersea Island is the most easterly inhabited island in the UK, located marginally off the coast of the county of Essex, 14 km (9 miles) to the southeast of Colchester. It is situated in the estuary area of the Blackwater and Colne rivers and has an area of around 8 sq.km.

The name 'Mersea' is derived from the Old English meresig meaning 'island of the pool', with the island hosting a population of approximately 6,500. It is joined to the mainland by a causeway, first constructed in Roman times and crosses the waterway known as The Strood. This carries the Mersea–Colchester road (B1025) which is covered at high spring tides.

The main industries on Mersea are farming, fishing including oyster gathering and raising and servicing the leisure boating industry. There are two main settlements on the island, the small town of West Mersea and the village of East Mersea, plus a small hamlet at Barrow Hill to the north of West Mersea. The island has its own newspaper, the Mersea Courier.

The Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould, who wrote the hymn Onward, Christian Soldiers, was Rector in East Mersea.

A map of the island in 1940