Up she comes, Over she goes, Anchor's away
This huge anchor, said to be more than 150 years old, has been trawled up from the seabed by a Mersea fishing boat.

Skipper Patrick Mead was fishing 16 miles off Clacton when the anchor - similar to that on the VICTORY, now in Portsmouth Museum - got caught in his nets. Though it weights more than two tons, he was able to winch it aboard his tiny boat, OAKLEY, and bring it back to Hythe Quay, Colchester.

Now Patrick, of Melrose Road, West Mersea, is hoping to find a buyer for the anchor - which is of a type which went out of production in 1820.

And until he finds a customer, the anchor will stay where it is - on the quayside at the Hythe. It would be too expensive to move, says Patrick.

[The anchor found its way to Mersea Museum - see TM2_3136 ]

Date: August 1977