A new book telling the history of Brightlingsea’s ‘Prom’ has been published by members of the town’s University of the Third Age – U3A.
Down the Prom: The Story of Brightlingsea West Marsh marks nearly 100 years since the construction of the Promenade, transforming the West Marsh from salt marsh to a popular seaside attraction with the Lido, paddling pool, boating lake and rows of beach huts that we know today.
The six members of the U3A’s Reminiscences group – who have an average age of 78 – have combined written history with personal recollections to compile their 11th book about aspects of Brightlingsea.
“It turned out to be quite a big project,” said the group’s Penny Youll, speaking at the book’s launch in Brightlingsea Museum on Friday, July 21.
Penny explained that much of the Prom was built with government money as a way of providing employment during the Depression in the late 1920s and early 1930s. “It was built by men with spades and barrows, crossing rickety planks across the mud,” she said.
But little documentary evidence of the construction work remains. It’s thought that records went missing around the time of local government reorganisation in 1974, when many of the responsibilities of the old Brightlingsea Urban District Council were taken over by Tendring District Council.
“It’s very frustrating,” said Penny, who added that the group had scoured local records for information. “There’s ridiculously little about it.”
However, the authors have managed to find a few locals who remember the construction and have added tales from those who remember, for instance, swimming lessons in the pool when it was filled with sea water, learning to sail on the boating lake and trips on the Crab and Winkle Line – the railway from Wivenhoe to Brightlingsea.
It makes for an entertaining and informative read, for residents old and new.
Down the Prom: The Story of Brightlingsea West Marsh is available from Brightlingsea Museum in Station Road, Spirals in Victoria Place and Little Boat Gifts in New Street, price £7.
