The Strood - causeway onto Mersea Island
The Strood is the causeway which links Mersea Island to the mainland. If you live on the Island
or visit it regularly, it is part of your life. Spring Tides
(where high tide is between about 12 and 4 am or pm) cover the road to a depth of 2 feet or more.
Cars get suck and the occupants have to be rescued, at considerable cost to the emergency services.
Bus services are cancelled, and you can sail a boat down the road.
It was once thought that the Strood was of Roman origin, but it is now established that the
first substantial (and expensive) piled causeway was built around 700 AD.
There are several articles to tell you more about the Strood:
If it wasn't the Romans, who built the Strood ?
Preserving Mersea's oldest roads
Shocking Accident at West Mersea Strood 1889
Widening the Strood
Mersea Island - the Anglo Saxon Causeway
by Philip Crummy, Jennifer Hillam and Carl Crossnan.
Report from Essex Archaeology and History on the wooden piles recovered from the Strood
in 1978 and the dates they gave us.
Available online via the link above or there is hardcopy in the Resource Centre in
Essex Archaeology and History, Volume 14.
A Study of the Strood by W.E. Duane 1964-65.
An detailed study, over 80 typewritten pages, partly transcribed and being worked on.
Notes have been added about some of the discoveries since originally written.
The Mills and Millers of Peldon has information on the Tide Mill at the Strood.
Pictures of the Strood
Red Hills
|
