A Study of the Strood by W.E. Duane. Chapter 7. Page 38.

The Boundaries of West Mersea and the Strood contd.

... To the west of the Ray Channel were fifty acres called New Marsh, a dozen acres called New Piece, and 175 acres called Fieldy Marshes which were enclosed about 1810 [Note 1]. About the same time 85 acres were reclaimed in the N.W. of Mersea Island, and the Landing Marsh found itself a ¼ mile inland! Some of this was common marsh, but some private agreement must have been reached about enclosure from the sea.

In 1815 a scheme of reclamation was put forward which would have altered out of all recognition the estuary of the Blackwater, and destroyed the unique situation of the Strood. On 12th November 1851 the South Essex Estuary and Reclamation Co. served a Notice of Intention on the Lord of the Manor, saying:-

[Note 2] "Notice is hereby given that application is intended to be made in session of Parliament now next ensuing, for an Act or Acts to authorise the construction of an embankment or embankments and all other works necessary and desirable for the entire reclamation from the sea and for the drainage and enclosure of the whole or part of the green, or samphire marshes, saltings, blacklands, waste lands, and banks, sand flats, or shoals lying in the eastern and south eastern sea coast of the County of Essex and called by the several names of the Maplin Sands, the Foulness sands, the Ray Flats or sands, Dengie Flats and St. Peters Sands and to give powers for the selling and disposing of or otherwise taking measures for bringing into cultivation the land so reclaimed as may be deemed most expedient. And it is intended by the said Act to give powers for the embankment, inclosure, and improvement and when reclaimed the sale or disposal of marshes, saltings, black grounds, wastelands and banks, sand flats and shoals lying near to the entrance or mouth of the said river Blackwater, between Shingle Head Point aforesaid and the entrance to the River Colne known as Mersea Flats, and the Strood or Ray, and lying outside or to the seaward of, and adjacent to the present sea wall and embankment: the embankment to commence at a point called West Mersea Point, thence running in a south direction for ...

Note 1 ERO D/DC/37
Note 2 Q/RUM/2/80.

Date: 1965