Tollesbury Wick Marshes (EHER 48466)

An extensive area of grazing marsh, representing several phases of reclamation and incorporating several marshes, adjacent to the Colne Estuary between Pyefleet Channel and Geedon Creek. Characteristic features include sea wall, borrow dyke, sinuous former creeks and rills, mounds, including red hills, raised cause-ways, counter walls, post medieval railway and Second World War defences. The grassland is managed through grazing as an Essex Wildlife Trust reserve with public access, and is of international importance for wildlife.

2014. Historic Grazing Marsh Project. Historic environment character: Extensive area of grazing marsh in the Blackwater Estuary between Tollesbury Fleet and the River Blackwater, to the east of Tollesbury village. The marsh had been reclaimed by the time of the Chapman and Andre map of 1777 <1>. The marsh has large fleets, water filled creeks, extensive relict salt marsh surface and some raised causeways/trackways that cross it. There are also causeways from the sea wall across the borrow dyke. The majority of the boundaries are sinuous, but some have been straightened. A modern counterwall has been constructed across this area. A sub-rectangular ditched enclosure, probably for livestock, survives as an earthwork. A concentration of mounds and ponds have the appearance of medieval salt manufacturing site. There are other individual mounds that may represent red hills. A railway embankment was built across the marsh leading to a pier in the 19th century. A Second World War minefield was laid in the area and a pillbox is located on the sea wall. Character of vegetation Good quality grazing marsh dominated by grasses Creeping Bent Agrostis stolonifera, Perennial rye-grass Lolium perenne, Red fescue Festuca rubra, Meadow barley Hordeum secalinum and Meadow foxtail Alopecurus pratensis. Crested dog’s-tail Cynosurus cristatus, Yellow oat-grass Trisetum flavescens and Marsh foxtail A. geniculatus abundant in wetter areas. Herbs Hairy buttercup Ranunculus sardous, Spiny restharrow Ononis spinosa, Narrow-leaved Bird’s-foot-trefoil Lotus tenuis, and nationally rare Sea clover Trifolium squamosum and Slender hare’s-ear Bupleurum tenuissimum frequent. Nationally rare Upright chickweed Moenchia erecta on ant hills. Threats: Well managed with water levels maintained by Essex Wildlife Trust. Threat from habitat creation/improvement. Shoreline Management Plan: Could be subject to Managed Realignment proposed from 2055. See <2>. November 2015. Watching brief. The marshland deposit sequence was recorded. It is understood that the area of marsh within which the works were located was subject to levelling in the 1960s. It is noticeably different in character to the unimproved area of marsh in the South of the reserve where the former pools creeks and rills of the marsh are visible on the surface. <3>