West Mersea, Essex

Description
Mersea, West, a parish in Essex, 6 miles S from Wivenhoe station on the Tendring Hundred branch of the G.E.R., and 10 S by W of Colchester. It comprises the western part of Mersea Island, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Colchester and a coastguard station. Acreage, 3193 ; population, 1171. A Benedictine priory was here, a cell to St Audouin's in Rouen, and passed to the D'Arcies of St Osyth. Two islets, one of them called Cobmarsh, lie adjacent in Salcott Creek. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of St Albans; net value, £188 with residence. The church, a building of stone and flint showing traces of Norman work, consists of nave, S aisle, and chancel, with a tower, and is good. There are Congregational and Wesleyan chapels.