Colin Crosby Heritage Tours

West Mersea

West Mersea is the larger of two villages on Mersea Island, one of the many islands of Essex. The smaller village of course is East Mersea.

Mersea Island lies off the coast between Maldon and Colchester, and is separated from the mainland by the Pyefleet Channel, Access is by a causeway known as The Strood.

West Mersea, with a shingle beach, is now a small seaside resort.

St. Peter and St. Paul Church shows traces of Anglo-Saxon work, and is mostly mediaeval.

Roman foundations in a garden in Beach Road were probably of a lighthouse.

Mersea Mount is a Romano-British burial mound, said to be haunted by a Roman soldier ordered to stand guard over the remains of the important occupant.

Mersea Island Museum, opened in 1976, covers maritime aspects of the island and its people. It includes a fisherman's cottage, wildfowling and the local form of fishing known as stowboating.

Mersea Island and the nearby Peldon district on the Essex mainland are the setting for the novel "Mehala", by Rev. Sabine Baring Gould, best known for "Onward Christian Soldiers", who was Rector at East Mersea.