Mersea Fort

The River Colne ( or ) is a small river that runs through Essex, England and passes through Colchester. It is not a tributary of any other river, instead having an estuary that joins the sea near Brightlingsea. The river's name is of Celtic origin, combining the word for rock "cal" with a remnant of the word "afon", or river, giving the meaning "stony river". However, another authority states that the river's name was originally Colonia Fluvius, the "waterway of the Colonia": a reference to Colchester's status in Roman times. There are two other rivers in the UK that share the same name.

East Mersea is a village and civil parish on Mersea Island in the City of Colchester district of Essex, England. It was historically referred to as Mersea in the Domesday book.

Brightlingsea railway station was located in Brightlingsea, Essex. It was on the single track branch line of the Wivenhoe and Brightlingsea Railway which opened in 1866 and closed in 1964.

Colne Estuary is a 2915 hectare biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest near Brightlingsea in Essex. It is also a Nature Conservation Review site, a National Nature Reserve, a Ramsar wetland site of international importance, a Special Protection Area, a Special Area of Conservation, and a Geological Conservation Review site. Three areas in the site are managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust, Colne Point, Fingringhoe Wick and Howlands Marsh.The site has varied habitats, such as saltmarsh, mud flats, shingle spits and former gravel pits. It is of international importance for wintering brent geese and black-tailed godwits, and of national importance for six other bird species, including little terns. It also has important assemblages of invertebrates and plants, such as golden samphire and shrubby seablite. A peat seam in St Osyph Marsh has been dated to 4280 BP, and this marsh is important for saltmarsh morphology.There are important geological exposures for Pleistocene studies at East Mersea; investigation is at an early stage, but they show warm climate deposits from one or more post-Anglian interglacials.

Brightlingsea () is a coastal town and an electoral ward in the Tendring district of Essex, England. It is situated between Colchester and Clacton-on-Sea, at the mouth of the River Colne, on Brightlingsea Creek. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 8,076. The town is an active though small port.Its traditional industries included fishery (with a renowned oyster fishery) and shipbuilding. With the decline of these industries, the town is largely a dormitory town for Colchester. Brightlingsea is a limb of Sandwich, one of the Cinque Ports. The town retains an active ceremonial connection with the Cinque Ports, electing a Deputy from a guild of Freemen. Brightlingsea was for many years twinned with French oyster fishery port Marennes, Charente-Maritime, but the relationship fell into disuse. In the mid-1990s, the port of Brightlingsea was used for the export of live animals for slaughter, leading to a protest campaign dubbed The Battle of Brightlingsea.

The Battle of Brightlingsea refers to a series of protests by animal rights supporters held in Brightlingsea, England, between 16 January and 30 October 1995, to prevent the export of livestock through the town. During this time period, early 1990s, this action had been talked and argued about among individuals. The name was first used by the media in The Independent newspaper, after Essex Police used riot control measures against demonstrators.By 1995, members of the public had become increasingly concerned about the conditions in which animals were reared, transported and slaughtered. Some examples of the farm animals that were being exported to continental Europe were cattle, veal calves and sheep. British exporters had been forced to use small ports such as Brightlingsea to transport livestock after the country's three main ferry operators introduced bans on live cargo. This followed mounting public pressure about the suffering of sheep and cattle packed into huge transport vehicles for excessive periods. There were 2 national campaign groups trying to help this cause; the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Compassion in World Farming. They had called for a ban on all live exports by limiting journeys to eight hours. At the time, European regulations allowed for journeys of up to 24 hours without food or water. They used different tactics to highlight this issue, and eventually succeeded in influencing public opinion so that ferry companies took action. As a result of the ferry company ban, however, the transportation of the cattle was moved to the small, independently operated port of Brightlingsea.The demonstrations, which were composed largely of local residents, ended on 30 October, when exporters announced they would no longer transport animals through the town because of the extra cost and logistical chaos caused by the daily protests. In practice, the export of live animals continued from other small ports, halting only in February 1996 when the European Union banned all meat exports from Britain over fears of "mad cow disease" entering the European food chain. The ban was lifted in 2006.

Brighlingsea Naval Base was an installation of the British Royal Navy located at Brightlingsea, Essex, on the East Coast of England. In both wars it was part of the Nore Command, which had its HQ at Chatham, and in the Second was part of Harwich Sub-Command. It existed from late 1914 to 1921, and from early 1940 to 1947, Brightlingsea is a coastal town in the Tendring district of Essex, England. It is situated between Colchester and Clacton-on-Sea, at the mouth of the River Colne, on Brightlingsea Creek.

Brightlingsea Regent Football Club is an English football club based in Brightlingsea, Essex. Formed by a merger of Brightlingsea United and Regent Park Rangers in 2005, they are currently members of the Isthmian League North Division and play at North Road.

Cindery Island is at the mouth of Brightlingsea Creek (off the town of Brightlingsea) on the east coast of England in the county of Essex.

Point Clear is a village in the civil parish of St Osyth, south-west of the village of St Osyth and on the other side of St Osyth Creek, a branch of the Colne Estuary in the Tendring district, in the county of Essex, England. In 2018 it had an estimated population of 1674.

Fingringhoe Wick is a 48.6-hectare (120-acre) nature reserve in Fingringhoe in Essex. It is managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust, which runs a visitor centre on the site. It is part of the Colne Estuary Site of Special Scientific Interest, Ramsar site and Nature Conservation Review site.These former gravel quarries were the Trust's first reserve, established in 1961. Habitats are the Colne Estuary, gorse heathland, grassland, reedbeds and ponds. There are nearly 200 species of birds and 350 of flowering plants, together with many dragonflies, damselflies and butterflies. The reserve is famous for its 35-plus singing males of Common Nightingale in the spring.The site can be accessed by a 30 to 45 minute walk along the Gravel Pit Trail from Fingringhoe village.

Lee-over-Sands is a small coastal hamlet in the civil parish of St Osyth, in the Tendring district of Essex, England. It is located close to the mouth of the River Colne into the North Sea.A sandspit called Colne Point is offshore from the hamlet. Colne Point Nature Reserve, a shingle ridge enclosing a saltmarsh, is to the west of the hamlet on the site of a World War I gravel works. Jaywick Martello Tower is 1.8 miles (2.9 km) east of Lee-over-Sands. The area is subject to flooding, and was severely affected by the North Sea flood of 1953, when the seawall was breached in many locations near the village. Thirty-seven people died in nearby Jaywick, 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Lee-over-Sands. In January 2017 following a threat of coastal flooding, an evacuation of 2,500 homes in Lee-over-Sands and nearby Jaywick was planned, but in the event not required.A number of houses are on the seaward side of the seawall, on Beach Road. One house on Beach Road won the RIBA East Award 2017 and the RIBA East Small Project Award 2017, and was long-listed for the national RIBA House of the Year award.