My Adventures 3: November 2018

On Monday the 19th November 2018 I drove down and parked up on Two Tree Island in Essex. The car parking here is free.

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Two Tree island was reclaimed from the Thames Estuary in the 18th century and used as pasture until 1910 when a sewage works was built on it. From 1936, the entire island was used as a landfill site; this was later reduced to a single small site on the island in 1974. It is now a nature reserve, run by Essex Wildlife Trust, and the eastern half is part of the Leigh National Nature Reserve. At the western end are two bird hides; one overlooks a purpose-built scrape or lagoon where waders feed. During the breeding season both waders (including Avocets) and gulls nest here.

I left the car park to wander about Two Tree Island.

The rain is on and off and there is a chilly wind, but it is so peaceful here, just the wind in the grass and the cry from the waders as I startle them as I pass.

A view across to Hadleigh Castle where I will visit later.

I reach the first of two bird hides, I had a quick look but not too much to be seen here.

I walk on round and reach the second hide on the Saline Lagoon. Here I can see huge flock of Dunlins,Lapwings,Oystercatchers and a flock of avocets.

Flock Of Avocets.

Flock of Dunlins.

I am now walking along the other shore of the island and can see the path I'll take soon.

Little Egrets

I now reach the road and walk back across the bridge and off the Island.

I turn left onto a footpath that leads to Benfleet.

Looking back to the bridge.

Its raining again and a bit heavier now and the back of my legs are getting wet, but there is a glorious rainbow to be seen.

Thankfully the rain eased and I walk on.

Looking back over to Saline Laggon on Two Tree Island

I walk along Hadleigh Ray.

I reach the point on the path where I turn right and down onto a path crossing the dyke and over to the level crossing over The Fenchurch Street Railway line.

Looking up the tracks towards Leigh.

I am now on the path through Hadleigh Country Park and up towards Hadleigh Castle.

I now reach Hadleigh Castle managed by English Heritage but is free entry.

Hadleigh Castle is a ruined fortification in the English county of Essex, overlooking the Thames Estuary from south of the town of Hadleigh. Built after 1215 during the reign of Henry III by Hubert de Burgh, the castle was surrounded by parkland and had an important economic and defensive role. The castle was significantly expanded and remodelled by Edward III, who turned it into a grander property, designed to defend against a potential French attack, as well as to provide the King with a convenient private residence close to London. Built on a soft hill of London clay, the castle has often been subject to subsidence; this, combined with the sale of its stonework in the 16th century, has led to it now being ruined.

Hadleigh Castle was first built by Hubert de Burgh, the 1st Earl of Kent, who was a key supporter of King John. De Burgh was given the honour of Rayleigh by John in 1215 as a reward for his services, but chose not to develop the existing caput of Rayleigh Castle, instead building a new fortification south of the town of Hadleigh. The exact date of construction is uncertain, but it is now believed the work was conducted early in de Burgh's tenure of the site, permission being retrospectively officially confirmed through a licence to crenellate in 1230 under Henry III.

De Burgh finally fell out of favour with Henry III; he was imprisoned and then finally stripped of Hadleigh Castle in 1239. For the rest of the century, Hadleigh was retained as a royal castle, as part of an estate containing 142 acres of agricultural land, the park and the castle mill. By the 1250s, the castle had fallen into neglect and, despite some investment after it was given to Queen Eleanor in 1273, it remained in relatively poor condition.Only the mill, vital for the operation of the wider estate, appears to have been well-maintained. A new 17-metre-wide by 9-metre-long (56 foot by 30 foot) hall and an adjacent solar complex were built at the castle around 1290, but collapsed due to subsidence shortly afterwards. In 1299 the castle was given to Queen Margaret, who complained about the quality of the building and insisted that repairs were carried out. Her husband, Edward I, visited the castle twice, using it as a base for hunting in the area.

Edward II took a much closer interest in Hadleigh, leading to a period of renewal and rebuilding during his reign and that of his son, Edward III. Edward II first stayed there in 1311, and work was done to renovate the castle before he arrived, including building new royal quarters and repairing some of the castle walls that had succumbed to subsidence. Amongst the buildings known to be in the castle during the period were the castle hall, larder, kitchen, cellar, a long house, prison, an "old chamber" and armoury; they were guarded by a garrison of 24 soldiers during crises. Edward stayed there frequently during his reign up until 1324, on occasion travelling to Hadleigh Castle from London on his royal barge, which docked at a wharf to the south of the castle.

Edward III acquired Hadleigh Castle in 1330, when he recovered it from his mother, Isabella of France, who had taken it from Edward when she deposed him in 1326. Edward paid little initial interest to the castle, but in the 1360s decided to make much greater use of the property, ordering large parts of it to be rebuilt at a cost of more than £2200. Between 1361 and 1363 the internal buildings were renovated and new royal lodgings built along the south walls, after which the east side of the castle was rebuilt entirely, with two large circular towers installed in a new stretch of curtain wall, completed by 1365. The north side of the castle was rebuilt to include a main entrance with a portcullis and a drawbridge, protected by a barbican and a large circular tower called the "High Tower", which was complete by 1370. The work was probably overseen by William of Wykeham.

Originally, historians believed that Edward's decision to rebuild much of the castle was in response to the growing tensions with France; in this version of events, Hadleigh would have formed an importance coastal fortification along the Thames estuary, protecting it from French raids. Current historical opinion plays down this motivation, noting that at the time of the work on Hadleigh relations with France were unusually good. Instead, it is suspected that the increasing elderly Edward intended Hadleigh more as a personal retreat close to London, where he could stay in privacy and considerable comfort. Whilst the entrance on the inland side remained relatively basic, the building work created a grander impression from the estuary – any visitors to London, English or French, would have passed by Queenborough Castle on the south bank and Hadleigh on the north, the combination communicating a strong sense of royal power.

Edward III's grandson, Richard II, made little use of Hadleigh, and the use of the castle was granted to Aubrey de Vere until his death in 1400. The castle was passed amongst a number of high-status owners during the 15th century, but saw little use by the crown. Edmund of Langley and his son Edward of Norwich, the Dukes of York, used the castle in the early years, before passing it on to Humphrey of Lancaster, the Duke of Gloucester. Richard, Duke of York, used the castle next, before it passed to Edmund Tudor in the middle of the century. The tradition of the castle forming part of the queen's property was then reinstated and it was granted to Elizabeth Woodville, the wife of Edward IV. Henry VIII made no known use of the castle himself, but it formed part of the dower of three of his wives - Catherine of Aragon, Anne of Cleves, and Catherine Parr - and the castle's parks were used as sources of timbers for his navy.

After 1544 the estate began to be broken up; first the parks were sold and then the castle itself, bought by Lord Richard Richfrom Edward VI for £700 in 1551. Rich dismantled the castle for the value of its stone, primarily between 1551 and 1575, and the castle, now thoroughly ruined, passed through Rich's descendants.

The English painter John Constable visited Hadleigh in 1814 and made a drawing of the castle as preparation for ten oil sketches and a single painting. The oil painting Hadleigh Castle was produced in 1829 and exhibited at the Royal Academy in the same year. One of the sketches is currently displayed at the Tate Gallery, London, while the painting now hangs in the Yale Center for British Art at New Haven, United States. Constable's painting, "one of his most monumental works" according to the art historians Tammis Groft and Mary Mackay, depicts the early 19th-century Hadleigh Castle as a decaying, man-made structure, succumbing to the elemental power of nature.

William Booth purchased Hadleigh Castle and its surrounding site in 1891 for the use of the Salvation Army, which established a farm to train the English poor prior to them being sent overseas to the British colonies. Considerable subsidence and slippage on the ridge occurred between 1898 and 1923, causing a collapse of the southern curtain wall.

The Salvation Army gave the castle to the Ministry of Works in 1948, and it is now owned by English Heritage, classed as a scheduled monument and a Grade I listed building.Subsidence and landslips have continued; the north-east tower largely collapsed in the 1950s, and further major slippages occurred in 1969, 1970, and 2002. One of the three-storey towers at the eastern side stands to nearly full height with narrow rectangular windows in the upper levels. The second tower has only about one-third of its original form. Some sections of the curtain wall have survived, as well as the foundations of the great hall, solars, and the kitchen.

The castle is still surrounded by the 19th-century Salvation Army farm, and beyond that by Hadleigh Country Park, owned and managed by Essex County Council and a Site of Special Scientific Interest with special regard for invertebrates.

As I approached the tower the rain had started heavy again and the wind picked up. I sheltered inside the tower and had a cup of tea and something to eat while it passed.

I left the castle and headed off towards Old Leigh.

A ship passing Canvey Island.

A view down to Southend On Sea

I pass Leigh on Sea Railway Station and take a road that will lead me into Old Leigh.

Little Egret

I now enter Old Leigh.

In the 11th century Leigh was a marginal community of homesteads. The Domesday Book records 'five smallholders above the water who do not hold land', who were probably engaged in fishing thus giving Leigh a claim to nearly a thousand years of activity in the fishing industry.

The main seafood catch from Leigh fishing boats has always been shellfish and whitebait. Many of the local trawlers were at one time bawleys, and two of Old Leigh's pubs – the Peter Boat and Ye Olde Smack – owe their names to types of local fishing boat. Local fish merchants land, process and trade a wide range of supplies daily, including shrimps, lobster, crab, seabass, haddock, cod and mackerel, cockles, whelks, mussels and oysters.

The riverside settlement of 'Old Leigh', or 'The Old Town', is historically significant; it was once on the primary shipping route to London. From the Middle Ages until the turn of the 20th century, Old Leigh hosted the settlement's market square, and high street (known as Leigh Strand). Leigh had grown to become a prosperous port by the 16th century; ships as large as 340 tons were built here for fishing and other purposes. Elizabethan historian William Camden (1551-1623) described Leigh as "a proper fine little towne and verie full of stout and adventurous sailers". By the 1740s however, Leigh's deep water access had become silted up (as attested to by John Wesley) and the village was in decline as an anchorage and port of call.

With the advent of the railway line from London to Southend during the mid-19th century, much of the "old town" was demolished to accommodate its passage, and new housing and streets began to be built on the ridge of hills above the settlement.

I stopped off as I always do on visiting in Osborne Brothers for a plate of cockles!

Endeavour LO41

Endeavour, with skipper F. Hall, was one of the little fleet of Leigh Cockle Bawley boats that set out in convoy at half past midnight on 31st May 1940 for Dunkirk. They went under engine power that night in order to keep in convoy under command of their Naval Lieutenant. They were soon attacked from the air, but the Royal Air Force provided cover for them.

The Endeavour played her full part; -first in embarking soldiers from the beach and then, as the tide went out and threatened to strand them, from the Mole and finally from the inner harbour of Dunkirk.

Her rudder was smashed during the rescue operations and, together with Letitia and Renown, she was towed back by the coaster Ben & Lucy which had been ferrying troops from the beaches all the previous day before working almost exclusively with the cockle boats.

Unlike the ill-fated Renown, the Endeavour got back to Ramsgate safely with her load of soldiers, to be congratulated for her valiant efforts. After the war Endeavour went fishing on the South coast of England and changed owners several times. In 1986 she won two prizes in a trawler race, with a fancy dress competition for her crew.

A year later she sank in the great storms of 1987, when tied up at Thunderbolt pier off Chatham Historic Dockyard. The Nautilus Diving Club, with Thames-side sub-aqua divers and some huge inflatable bags, raised her in a two-day exercise which began at midnight. It was all done free and for the love of a great old boat.

Although she was saved a lot of work was necessary to put her right and she remained at Chatham Historic Dockyard for some years, but due to reorganisation they required her to be moved. She was taken over by the Dunkirk Little Ships Restoration Trust and moved to Beacon Boatyard on the Medway. Subsequently bought from them by private owners determined to restore her to her original glory she is now owned by a trust keen to keep her in good condition and proud of her history. Fully restored and now kept at Leigh-on-Sea in Essex, she is an active member of the Association.

Passing The Peterboat pub, I join the main street and pass Strand Wharf, here is a plaque marking the water level of the 1953 Flood.

The 1953 North Sea flood was a major flood caused by a heavy storm that occurred on the night of Saturday, 31 January 1953 and morning of Sunday, 1 February 1953. The floods struck the Netherlands, Belgium, England and Scotland. ... The flood and waves overwhelmed sea defences and caused extensive flooding.