Southend from PLA - Tidal Thames Recreational Users Guide 2011

Southend 1822
Southend in Cooke's Views on the Thames (1822) [75] Drawn by S. Owen. Feby 1, 1819.

The Royal Hotel and Royal Terrace seen above were erected in 1797. In 1801 and 1803 there were Royal visitors to bathe in the sea.
 
148 Frith photos of Southend

Southend Marine Activities Centre

Marine Activity Centre website -

In a fantastic beachside location on Southend's Eastern Esplanade the centre has a excellent reputation of providing nationally recognised watersports courses, including introductory courses in Sailing, Canoeing, Windsurfing, Powerboat Driving and Jetskiing.

A wide range of improver training is available through formal courses or more informal practice sessions and expeditions.

Southend Marine Activities Centre is located on Southend Seafront about half a mile East of the World famous Pier. Driving along the seafront (with the sea to your right) you pass the Sealife Centre before passing the "Castle Public House". The Centre is about another 400yds along on the sea (right) side of the road.

Southend Pier

Southend Pier
Southend Pier

 

1830: A wooden pier was built
1875: The wooden pier was bought for £10,000 by the Southend Local Board. There were concerns over its safety.
1877: Plans for a new iron pier. This was shorter than the present pier, ending at the Old Pier Head.
1891: Barge collided with pier.
1889: July, Pier opened for pedestrians in July.
1890: August, Pier electric railway opened.
1897: Pier extension to allow more mooring space for steamboats.
1898: January, the new Pier Head was opened. A ketch collided with the pier.
1908: An upper deck was was added to the Pier extension. The pier could then seat some 8,000 people, with a bandstand and six shops.
The Thames Conservancy vessel ‘Marlborough’ collided with the pier.
1921: a concrete vessel ‘Violette’ collided with the pier.
1925: The pier had over 1.25 million visitors.
1929: the Prince George Extension brought the total length to 1.34 miles.
1933: the barge ‘Matilda Upton’ collided with the pier.
1939: the pier closed on 9th September and became HMS Leigh for the duration of the War. 84,297 ships, in 3,367 convoys, sailed from the pier.
1945: the Pier reopened.
1949: the pier received more than 5 million visitors.
1959: the Pier Pavilion was destroyed by fire, a ten pin bowling alley was built to replace it.
1974-79: major repairs, including a complete reconstruction of the 'pier walkway'.
1976: Pier Head fire.
1980: Plans for closure.
1982: Pier railway rolling stock scrapped.
1984-86: reconstruction. Cost £1.3 million. MV ‘Kingsabbey’ sliced through the pier leaving a 70 foot gap. One gentleman in a toilet was seriously "inconvenienced" - but lived to tell the tale.
1995: the Pier bowling alley was destroyed by fire.
2005: 9th October a serious fire broke out on the pier.

Southend Pier, 2005
Southend Pier, 2005
© Copyright Glyn Baker and licenced for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
(nearby pictures by Glyn Baker)

Alexandra Yacht Club

Alexandra Yacht Club website -

With a history [starting in 1873], the Alexandra Yacht Club offers its members a warm welcome in comfortable traditional surroundings with the most spectacular view of the Thames Estuary.

The cliff-top location of the clubhouse opposite the club jetty is the ideal place to relax. The jetty and slipway are available for members to store dinghies and safely launch.


Alexandra Yacht Club

Thames Estuary Yacht Club

Thames Estuary Yacht Club website -

Thames Estuary Yacht Club (TEYC) is located on the Thames Estuary at Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex, where we are fortunate in having some of the finest sailing waters on the East Coast.

We enjoy a wide programme of sailing and social activities and pride ourselves on being a very friendly club. New members, whether they are experienced sailors or just beginning, are always made welcome.

Our main Sailing programme runs from April to October each year with competitive racing organised for all. For those members who prefer simply to 'potter about on the water' as a means of relaxation on the water we encourage 'fun' sailing for families and groups and also organise several family & friends days throughout the sailing year

All sorts of craft are sailed at TEYC, from Cruisers to Catamarans to Toppers, providing fun and a challenge to all skill levels. Of course it is not necessary to own a boat to be able to enjoy sailing! Club members with boats are always willing to take you out, and an enthusiastic 'crew' is always in demand.

The Crow Stone

The Crowstone is just off Chalkwell Avenue, Southend
The Crow Stone (or City Stone) is the North Eastern marker of the Eastern Limit of the Port of London Authority (PLA)
( The marker on the Kent side is The London Stone on the Isle of Grain.
The Western marker is the London Stone just above Staines.)

The PLA [ PORT OF LONDON AUTHORITY ] has jurisdiction over the entire tidal River Thames from Teddington in the west to its seaward limit in the Thames Estuary in the east, a length of over 150 kilometres.
Additionally, the PLA owns the vast majority of the river bed and foreshore of the Thames and associated tidal rivers and creeks to the Mean High Water mark from the upper limit to a line drawn from between the City or Crow Stone (Westcliffe/Leigh) to the London Stone (to the east of Yantlet Creek).

 

The Crowstone
The Crowstone in Westall And Owen's Picturesque Tour Of The Thames Plate No. 26 page 169 S. Owen delint.

Note the date on the stone - 1285 - I think this must be historical reconstruction? -

The Crowstone
The Crowstone near Southend
Marking the Eastern Termination of the jurisdiction of the City of London on the River Thames. July 1, 1815.
In Cooke's View on the Thames (1822)

The current Crowstone in place at Southend is one of 2 stones that were in place on the Southend side of the river. The older stone was removed to Priory Park in Southend where it remains today.

The Crowstone
The Crowstone Westcliff © Ian James
Some lovely photos of the estuary

Essex Yacht Club

Essex Yacht Club website -

Originally founded in 1890, and sited around 1/4 mile to the East of the picturesque old town of Leigh, the EYC is a family club and is particularly proud of its Cadet section, with over 100 cadets. An extensive sailing program is run from Easter to October, with races and events that cater for beginners in Optimists through to Asymetrics and Cruisers.

Members can store their boats on Club moorings or our own boat racks, adjacent to the clubhouse.

There are numerous social events throughout the year, from formal dinners to summer barbeques, providing entertainment for sailing and non-sailing members.


Essex Yacht Club

Leigh-on-Sea Sailing Club

Leigh-on-Sea Sailing Club -

Leigh-on Sea Sailing Club is situated in the heart of ‘Old Leigh’, in Essex and from our Clubhouse bar one can experience panoramic views of the Thames Estuary.

We enjoy extensive facilities at the water’s edge, with rack storage and slipways for dinghies, and moorings for cruisers. Car parking and winter cruiser storage are available on the club grounds. A full programme of sailing and social events is provided throughout the year, as well as training opportunities for both children and adults.

The club was founded in 1911 and we welcome new members now, and to begin our next 100 years!

Visiting yachts and crews are welcome. Mooring to Bell Wharf or to Victoria Wharf in Bell Bay is free for one night. Fishing vessels do moor and unload in this area, and thus it may be necessary to fit in around them. The fishing boats have also scored out depressions in the mud, which may cause some yachts to tilt. ... Anchoring off the shore is possible, but there are one or two gullies. Thus new visitors would be advised to contact the club for advice on a "clean" area to anchor. All anchorages and wharves dry out to mud ... [see website]

Dinghy sailors can launch from the public slipway to the south of the club house. This is between Bell Wharf and the wharf with the Foreshore Offices. Please avoid launching from the beach, particularly at busy times.


Leigh-on-Sea Sailing Club

Leigh Motor Boat Club

Leigh Motor Boat Club website
14 Ton lift, own slipway, Hard standing, Club Launch, Launching Tractors, Wash off facilities, Moorings, Club House / Bar


Leigh Motor Boat Club

Two Tree Island

RSPB Two Trees Island website -

Two Trees Island was reclaimed from the sea in the 18th century when a sea-wall was built around saltmarsh, and was used for rough grazing until 1910 when a sewage farm was built on its eastern tip. In 1936 Southend Borough Council acquired the whole island and used it as a rubbish tip until the 1970s.

The island itself consists mainly of grassland and scrub, with the former rubbish tip supporting a number of interesting alien plants and 'escapes'. A wide variety of birds is seen, and particularly migrants. Kestrels hover over the grassland and Short-eared Owls visit during the winter, hunting for field voles. Grass snakes and lizards are seen. Insects of note include the marbled white butterfly, Roesels bush-cricket, the house cricket and the lesser marsh grasshopper.

The saltmarsh along the southern shore of the island is one of the best surviving in the Thames estuary. Among many typical sea-wall and saltmarsh plants it has golden samphire, sea wormwood, sea aster, common and lax-flowered sea lavenders and sea purslane.

The mudflats support dense beds of eel grass and provide a valuable feeding ground for wildfowl and waders, including the dark-bellied brent goose. The concentration of thousands of these birds arriving on their autumn migration is of international importance. Waders such as curlew dunlin redshank, grey plover and knot occur in significant numbers outside the breeding season. The nearby Leigh cockle sheds bring winter flocks of turnstone close inshore and attract some of the rarer gull species.