The White Hart Inn
The White Hart Inn is at the heart of West Mersea opposite the church and a few minutes walk…
Our View
The Blackwater NNR, which comprises Old Hall Marshes, Tollesbury and Salcott Flats, is the largest estuary in Essex and a great place to get a real sense of coastal wilderness. Old Hall Marshes are home to a range of breeding and over-wintering waterfowl, including an estimated 4,000 Brent geese with other waterfowl such as teal and shelduck. The reserve also supports a number of nationally-important plant and invertebrate species, including 24 species of butterfly, along with dragon and damselflies, most notably the rare emerald damselfly. Tollesbury Flats is the richest area of Blackwater for its diverse insect populations. In particular, these mudflats are very important for native oysters, which explains the presence of the striking red-beaked oystercatchers. The tidal mudflats of both Salcott and Tollesbury are excellent feeding grounds for other waders such as redshank, dunlin, curlew and greenshank, and waterfowl such as wigeon and goldeneye. In winter, these are great areas for spotting migrants from northern Europe, such as grey plover and ruff, and birds of prey such as hen harriers.
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About the area
Discover Essex
Essex is full of pleasant surprises. It has the largest coastline of any county in England, with its fair share of castles, royal connections and scenic valleys. Take Colchester, for example, which was built by the Romans and is Britain’s oldest recorded town. Its castle contains the country’s largest Norman keep and yet, a stone’s throw from here, East Anglia’s newest arts centre promises to put Colchester firmly on the map as Essex’s capital of culture.
Tidal estuaries are plentiful and their mudflats offer migrating birds a winter feeding place. Essex was known as the land of the East Saxons and for centuries people from all over Europe settled here, each wave leaving its own distinctive cultural and social mark on the landscape. Walking a little off the beaten track will lead you to the rural retreats of deepest Essex, while all over the county there are ancient monuments to explore:
- the great Waltham Abbey
- Greensted, thought to be the oldest wooden church in the world
- the delightful village of Pleshey has one of the finest examples of a former motte-and-bailey castle
- Hedingham Castle, magnificently preserved and dating from the 11th century.
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