IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Silcott Street, COLCHESTER, CO7 0DS

Brightlingsea has a Railway Tavern on Station Road but sadly no longer has any trains. Nevertheless, the pub has a good reputation for the beer it sells including those brewed in a microbrewery on the premises. The local Campaign for Real Ale branch describes their Crab and Winkle mild as a 'legend'.

The Railway Tavern opposite uses the National Rail logo on its sign but the station, which was across the road, closed in 1964 and there is no trace of it now.

The community centre is an undistinguished building dating from 1975 but it does incorporate the Liberty Hall which has a capacity for 250 people. Even so, the rather scruffy sign could do with a spruce up. This was the site of Brightlingsea station at the end of a branch from Wivenhoe. The railway was closed in 1964 and the building demolished in 1969. This amateur film from 1963 captures the atmosphere of the line in its dying days: https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-river-ride-1963-online

View NW: completely obliterated site of terminus - buffer stops were to the right, of ex-Great Eastern line from Wivenhoe. The branch had been closed from 2/ to 12/53, after the Great Floods of 31/1/53, but was restored, only to be closed completely on 15/6/64.

Brightlingsea fire station, Lower Park Road, Brightlingsea, Colchester, Essex

This is the former Royal Hotel in New Street. The Brightlingsea Museum's Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/brightlingseamuseum/photos/a.262034257141009/2055158497828567/?type=1&theater has a photograph of the hotel dating from around 1910, and they also write:- "The Royal Hotel is first listed in Directories in 1892, although we know it was open the year before as a ball was held to celebrate the 100th birthday of Thomas Summersun - although it's not thought he attended. The tower on the top was probably to give guests a view of the boats and yachts, many of their guests would have been yacht owners. In 1916 it was sold for £975, plus £344 for fixtures and fittings. Shortly after that it was used as an officers mess for the Australian Royal Engineers. It closed in the mid 1950s when Astralux took the building over." It is shown as an engineering works on the large scale Ordnance Survey maps of 1970 and 1980. The 1911 Census shows the following residents:- Kate Eliza Andrews, aged 45, manageress Bertha Andrews, her daughter, aged 16, assistant manageress Mabel Lily Barker, aged 22, barmaid Florence Eunice Rowland Raison, aged 20, waitress Grace Elizabeth Burnes, aged 22, kitchen maid Percy Jack Long, aged 20, boots Edward Ferraby Walsh, aged 47, a boarder and a straw hat manufacturer A Mr Clarke of unknown age and occupation

Dug out of the salt marsh in the 1930s, the lake is about a metre deep. It is topped up with sea water at high tide from sluices direct from the beach. The lack of fresh water has led swans and some ducks to walk their chicks away from the lake in search of other fresh water ponds.

Detail of an orange padlock on a yellow beach hut, adjacent to the boating lake, Brightlingsea.