DISCOVER Brightlingsea by land and sea Official Town Guide 2020 COLNE YACHT CLUB Contents 4 Welcome to Brightlingsea WATER ACTIVITIES Sailing, racing, cruising, motorboats Est. 1845 reconstituted in Brightlingsea 1919 WALKS & NATURE 21 Coastal Rowing Club Cadets, paddleboarding, sail tuition & 6 Brightlingsea in Bloom 21 Pioneer Trust 6 Springmead Gardens 22 Colne Yacht Club socialising - we have something for 7 Footpaths 28 Foot Ferry Timetable everyone - young, old, or in between! 7 The Lozenge 28 Brightlingsea Sailing Club 7 The Colne Estuary MARITIME HISTORY Sail tuition in one of CYC’s three Paralympian gold medalist sailor 8 Open Gardens 30 All Saints’ Church Sonata keelboats used for training Hannah Stodel learned to sail aged and by CYC members just three! This CYC member is now FAMILY FUN 31 Brightlingsea Museum tuning up for the Vedee Globe 9 Brightlingsea Lido 32 Cinque Port Liberty 11 Classic Car Show & Fun Day 32 Brightlingsea History Hub 11 Horticultural & Dog Show 33 Smacks and Barges 12 Boating Lake 34 Bateman’s Tower 12 Carnival Fun Day SOCIETIES/ARTS & CRAFTS Photos by kind permission of John Carr, Rolex and the RYA 13 How to go crabbing 35 Arts and Crafts FESTIVALS 35 Brightlingsea Masons 14 Brightlingsea Regatta SOCIAL & COMMUNITY 15 Blessing of the Waters 36 Older Wiser Links 16 Christmas Tree Festival 36 U3A 17 Free Music Festival INFORMATION Join us, you’ll be most welcome! 18 WinterFest 26 Town Map 20 Food and Drink Festival Yacht and keelboat racing If you are interested in messing about in 38 Town Directory Yacht & motorboat cruises boats and getting to know others who are Weekly cadet dinghy sail training sessions similarly inclined and friendly, would like to Dates for your Diary Annual cadet activity week know more about our eet of Sonata MAY 2-7 Pyefleet Week Keelboat training in our own eet of Sonatas Keelboats, our Cadet scheme for youngsters, 16 Lido opening 28-30 Food and Drink Festival Sonatas available for use by competent club or how to hire our facilities, simply call or JUNE 31 Town & Dog Show members (in return for a small charge) email us. Brightlingsea One Design classic racing 7 Blessing of the Waters SEPTEMBER Paddleboarding 20 Brightlingsea Carnival Fun Day 6 Classic Car Show Our club, which has incredible views over Socialising in our superb clubhouse 27-28 Open Gardens 12 Colne Smack Race the Harbour, a fully stocked bar and an in- JULY NOVEMBER house kitchen, is available for hire and able 20-21 Brightlingsea Regatta 9 Firework Display, Town Hard Call today for details: to host all sorts of celebration, corporate 31 Brightlingsea Music Festival DECEMBER days and family events. 01206 302594 or AUGUST 4 Late Night Shopping 1-2 Brightlingsea Music Festival 12-13 Christmas Tree Festival [email protected] www.colneyachtclub.org.uk Cover picture –Jon Sturdy Photography 07956 317504 brightlingseatowncouncil.co.uk 3 BL. Oct.. 2019 v.1 Photos: by kind permission of John Carr & the RYA Welcome to Brightlingsea Walks & Nature Pic: Tim Bees Brightlingsea is a fantastic place to live, and a wonderful place to visit! It was an island and still keeps that supporting community spirit yet is warm and welcoming, side yachts, sailing dinghies and rowing Our sheltered estuaries and gentle coast- and has flower gigs, and the clubs have a busy calendar line are so rich in wildlife that Brightlingsea displays everywhere! including the Regatta. There is always has extensive national & international maritime activity to watch or take part in coastal wildlife protection designations. Pic: Terry Hamilton Enjoy coastal walks, see saltmarsh with historic oyster pits, grazing marsh, estuary It has a unique history as the only Cinque mudflats with abundant wintering waders Port north of the Thames, you can find our and wildfowl including Brent geese. Don’t Cinque Port emblem with three gold royal forget to look in on the Lozenge Nature lions joined to three silver ships dotted Area and Springmead Gardens. about the town. You will find it in our old- est building, All Saints’ Church, in the north This year the Museum will re-open in its of the town, down to the southern end of Victorian fishermen’s cottages spill down new home. Brightlingsea is always busy the island on the Cinque Port Wreckhouse from the High Street to the Hard, they were with activities and events, Panto, Christmas by the ancient Hard. built during the heyday of the port’s fishing Tree Festival, choirs, free Music Festival, fleet. Enjoy Brightlingsea’s diversity of and opportunities to learn to sail or row. In Open Gardens and many others. For centuries Brightlingsea was an oyster shops and great places to eat. the summer months take a ferry to explore Brightlingsea - where else? and sprat fishing centre, but it could be a Point Clear and East Mersea. by Roger Tabor hazardous way of life as recorded in the Living history can be enjoyed in the town’s unique frieze of tiles in All Saints’ Church pageantry, from the annual Choosing of Promenade Way leads to Brightling- Pic: Colm O’Laoi commemorating those lost at sea. a new Cinque Port Deputy at All Saints to sea’s seaside, centred around the iconic the amazing sight of historic oyster smacks Bateman’s Tower. Swim in the sea or the A charming mix of medieval timber-framed bedecked with bunting in Brightlingsea’s Lido, paddle with your children in the Pad- and later buildings run along the High Blessing & Reclaiming of the Waters from dling Pool. It’s a great area with children’s Street. Grade 1 listed Jacobs Hall was first the Hard. The harbour is the heart of playground, parks for picnics another for recorded in 1315 and has a remarkable Brightlingsea’s sailing community with skate boards, plus boating lake, cafes and 15th century external staircase turret. traditional gaff-rigged smacks along- colourful beach-huts. 4 brightlingseatowncouncil.co.uk brightlingseatowncouncil.co.uk 5 Walks & Nature Walks & Nature OUR GREEN AND PLEASANT SPACES AND NATURE TRAILS There’s a number of wood piles to provide a habitat for hedgehogs, amphibians and a BRIGHTLINGSEA IN BLOOM wide variety of insects, while bird feeders, roosting and nesting boxes are erected Since the formation of Brightlingsea in around the garden. Bloom in 1995, Brightlingsea has become renowned for the wonderfully colourful Around the lawn are memorial seats where and varied array of floral displays creat- visitors can enjoy the many aspects of this ed throughout the town in spring and Springmead unique garden. summer. The Lozenge FURTHER INFORMATION SPRINGMEAD GARDENS Access to Springmead Gardens is from THE LOZENGE Spring Chase. The gardens are open Bequeathed to the townsfolk of Brightling- daily except Christmas Day & New The Lozenge has been transformed from an sea in 1927 by Brightlingsea resident Cap- Year’s Day, April to October: 9am to overgrown, inaccessible plot into a nature tain Arthur Wenlock, his one-acre garden 6pm, October to March: 10am to dusk area to be enjoyed by all. became totally neglected and overgrown. (note that it may be closed occasionally for private functions). Admission free, no You’ll find a tranquil atmosphere where In 2001 Brightlingsea In Bloom secured dogs (except guide dogs) you can meander along the footpaths, £25,000 funding through the Countryside exploring the diverse variety of trees, plants Agency Local Heritage Initiative and a and wildlife, visit the pond area or just sit, The displays are designed, planted and £53,000 East of England Development FOOTPATHS relax and observe all around you. maintained by an enthusiastic and dedicat- Grant to carry out a major restoration ed team of volunteers – ‘Bloomers’ – and project on the garden. There are over The Lozenge is located near the Commu- generously funded by local businesses, resi- 26 miles of nity Centre and is open daily from 9am to dents, organisations and councils. The main Today this tranquil oasis has matured footpaths around dusk between March 1 – November 30. feature created each year at All Saints beautifully, into a sheltered dell with a Brightlingsea. Church triangle reflects events, historical natural stream and bog area planted with The longest occasions, centenary commemorations moisture-loving giant Gunnera. Bark paths walk is from THE COLNE ESTUARY locally and nationally. meander around the upper shady areas. A Bateman’s Tower to Alresford Creek – large sunny border offers up a pot-pourri of about five miles in all – and it follows the The mudflats of the Colne Estuary are an Long term environmental projects carried delightful fra- sea wall. area of great natural beauty, and provide out by Brightlingsea Bloomers can be en- grances and Springmead a rich larder for migrant birds including joyed by residents and visitors and include on a secluded The paths are easy walking but provide avocet, red shank and black-tailed godwit, the Millennium Gardens on Promenade sunny bank, much of interest, especially for those who along with thousands of wading birds, Way, The Community Centre Dry Gardens, the Echiums enjoy birdwatching. Various water birds, ducks and geese every winter. Gandergoose Green Commemorative grow to great geese, waders and harriers can be seen Garden and Springmead Gardens. heights. throughout the year. The area is home to an abundance of wild- ➡ 6 brightlingseatowncouncil.co.uk brightlingseatowncouncil.co.uk 7 Walks & Nature Family Fun life including barn owls, kestrels, lapwings, Pic: Tim Bees THERE’S PLENTY FOR THE FAMILY TO DO IN BRIGHTLINGSEA hen harriers, skylarks, sedge warblers and now a true community asset for the town reed warblers. Green woodpeckers can be and welcomes visitors from all over Essex seen feeding on the ant hills of this ancient and East Anglia.