MERSEA ISLAND PARKRUN
The old hometown looks the same… The opening words from Tom Jones’ 1966 hit The Green, Green Grass of Home. Jane and I had returned to our island home, the one we left in 2005.
As far as I can recall this was only the second time that I had been back to Cudmore Grove, the home of Mersea Island parkrun, since we emigrated to northern East Anglia.
Ostensibly, it was the same except it had changed colour. Thanks to the drought conditions of 2026 the grass was anything but green. It had been roasted, ravaged and rain-deprived under an unrelenting summer sun, the likes of which we have never seen before, or so we are told anyway. Record temperatures, record dryness and record flies, it must be a modern summer.
Mersea Island is surrounded by water. The clue is in the word island. Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1798 epic poem, over 600 lines long, The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, comes to mind. One bit goes something like this:
Water, water, every where
And all the boards did shrink
Water, water, every where
Nor any drop to drink.
This depicts the mariner, who is dying of thirst, staring out at the endless saltwater ocean. It seems like, as an island nation, we are marooned with water fast running out.
Can anyone tell me why it is still acceptable to water bowling greens, golf greens, cricket wickets, football pitches and the like? I bet, when we watch the return of professional football at the end of August the games will be played out on gloriously verdant greenswards. Meanwhile, wildlife is struggling to stay alive, how can this be right?
Please, please, please remember to put out some bowls of water so that everything, from insects through to larger mammals, can soothe their dried-up throats.
I had read and heard clips relating to the archaeological dig that is currently being carried out at the eastern end of the island.
As you know, I am heavily reliant on an amazing bunch of individuals who guide me around parkruns up and down the country. One of these is Val Haynes, who was guiding me for the Cudmore Grove event.
When we were turning for home at the far reach of the course she commented on motionless diggers further along the seawall from parkrun. It was then that I remembered the dig. Of course, it was a Saturday so it was unlikely that any live archaeologists would be found digging, scraping and brushing that day.
Instead, it was if the plant had been abandoned, lying listless in the draining conditions, recharging their spent horsepower, ready for renewing their assault at unearthing the secrets of the Tudor Blockhouse from Monday onwards.
Now, regular visitors to these pages will know that I have dubbed King Henry VIII the regnal vandal-in-chief. When he dissolved the monasteries in the mid-1530s it seemed to give robbing builders everywhere cart-blanche to take all the building materials they liked from former Catholic religious estates.
One or two, very few, stood up to Henry’s suppression of monastic life. It didn’t end well for them. One such was the Abbot of Colchester, John Beche, head of the town’s St John’s Abbey, who didn’t have the best lead-up to Christmas in 1539.
On 1st December he found himself standing on gallows on the green just outside his own Abbey, waiting for his hanging, drawing and quartering. Happy Christmas John, love Henry. That always seems like a high price to pay for being a stick-in-the-mud. Two other abbots suffered the same indignity, Glastonbury and Reading.
Needless to say, old Pope Paul III was less than impressed. He tried to organise a crusade to invade England and depose Henry. The papal swat of the time, Francis I of France, he always sat in the front desks, was the first to put his hand up.
He was always keen on being noticed by the head honcho, except no-one else really understood his worth, a bit like Michael Gove today. “Yes sir, yes sir. Please sir, I’ll lead the army. I’ve never liked Henry sir. You know I don’t like him sir. Please let me do it,” pleaded Francis, a little too keenly, it was like he had ants in his pants.
It seems like Francis was the pope’s pet and it was agreed. Henry, though, had a good mate in the class, one who probably hated Francis more than Himself. Unbelievably, given his Catholic heritage, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, sided with England. Poor old France, I don’t think they really realised how they were despised by the other royal houses around Europe. England wasn’t invaded and, in the process, somehow ended up with Boulogne.
The Crown gained assets, from the sale of ecclesiastical property, worth an estimated £1.5million back in the day, which it then sold off to the highest bidders, perhaps £24.4billion in modern times depending on which measure is used. That would fill quite a big financial black hole, Messrs Burnham and Healey. I’ll have 10% for the idea.
Image Credit: Colchester Archaeological Trust
Did Henry squander it? No doubt about it, he felt put upon by Paul, Francis and their cronies so he built up fortifications around the English coast.
One of these forts was built at Cudmore Grove, not that anyone back then knew it by that name, it wasn’t so called until 1979. Up until then it had been known as the Hippopotamus Site. If it acquired that monicker during Henry’s reign, parodying his weight, I bet no-one had the front to tell him to his face. I think axes and chopping blocks would have served to quell slippery tongues.
I had always been aware of a fort at the site. I recall learning the story of the Siege of Colchester in 1648. Parliamentary forces, also known as Roundheads, were stationed at the outpost, after taking it from the Royalists, to stop supply ships sailing up the Colne to deliver much needed relief to the beleaguered town.
For this reason, I had always believed it to have been a Stuart period fort. It was only when I learned of the present dig that I became enlightened. I think it safe to say that the river blockade was a success, if I remember correctly, the residents of Colchester ended up eating cats and rats to survive. Of course, I do accept that I am pre-supposing my theory is based on the fact that shipping wasn’t actually transporting holds full of cats and rats along the Colne. A tad unlikely I would have thought.
Mersea was one of three such buildings constructed to defend Colchester, the other two being at St Osyth and Brightlingsea. Given the plentiful supply of stone that Henry had on hand at the redundant St John’s, I was slightly surprised to learn that the new fort was constructed using mud, earth and wood, probably reflecting Henry’s confidence that the war was not going to last.
Even though, in my view, it was only a temporary structure, it did seem to be still in use to thwart one of Henry’s successors, Charles I. What goes around comes around. Quite ironic that a royal neck ended up on the block as a result of a royal fort, not the outcome the Tudors had envisaged.
The old fort came out of retirement on two intermediate occasions. Firstly, it was patched up to guard the estuary against the Spaniards, now our enemies, how things change, when they sent their ill-fated Armada in 1588. The Spanish were not ones to give up easily, and when they invaded the Lower Countries, they set up a corsair base at Dunkerque, then in the Spanish Netherlands and now, of course, in France.
From here Dunkirker pirates preyed on shipping in the English Channel and North Sea, occasionally threatening coastal towns and villages. I do find it refreshing that even though they used to refer to Sir Francis Drake as a pirate they did, at least, learn something from him. It’s only a small step from state-sponsored piracy to the state-sponsored terrorism we know today.
Robert and Jane at Mersea Island Parkrun
MERSEA ISLAND PARKRUN
We weren’t in Mersea to learn about its history, we were there to take part in parkrun. Whilst this is only my own opinion, it is like Cudmore Grove was designed with parkrun in mind. I daresay that it is not the case but, to be honest, I don’t think there are too many courses that match the practicality of the country park.
It boasts very wide tracks for us to run along, making it easy for tethered together athletes to pass and be passed. There are only a couple of spots where the course narrows but even here it is still much broader than many.
As is my want these days, I addressed the gathered throng before the get-go and found them to be most receptive. You can always tell this when you get into it that runners had heeded the request to shout out if they were passing us on the left or right. Brilliant, well done. Neither was I aware of any participants wearing earphones. I couldn’t tell whether my warning had been heeded or not in this case, but let’s assume it was. Brilliant, well done.
We completed two full laps before finishing off with a third truncated lap to power to the finish funnel. It was most rewarding when Val and I were approached afterwards to ask about becoming VI Guides. This is why I tour, to make people aware of visual impairment and show that just because we have been diagnosed with a debilitating eye condition, we still have a life outside blindness maybe, even, because of blindness.
In conclusion, I have to say, it is another one of those events that is a little bit too faraway to take part in on a regular basis, but I would love to visit again. I am most surprised that it isn’t better attended. Don’t get me wrong, a crowd of around 100 to 150 is about perfect. I checked the Colchester Castle Park event of the same day and they had 326 participants.
I have to air my usual gripe about some events, car parking is not free, although it was for me as I was a volunteer, which somewhat takes away from the ethos of making parkrun free. It is not parkrun who gain from this but, in this case, I presume Colchester City Council, who in attracting visitors to its magnificent open space then want to rip them off.
Participants should not be precluded from taking part because of exorbitant parking costs, we don’t want it becoming a middle-class only pastime, it is meant to be all inclusive.
Find Out More
Mersea Island parkrun: https://www.parkrun.org.uk/merseaisland
Parkrun: https://www.parkrun.org.uk
White Cane Ratings*©
Car Park: good; plenty spaces but not free - 🦯 🦯 🦯 (3)
Welcome and Briefing: very good; so enthusiastic - 🦯 🦯 🦯 🦯 (4)
Atmosphere: very good - 🦯 🦯 🦯 🦯 (4)
Course: very good; generously wide, mainly grass – 🦯 🦯 🦯 🦯 (4)
Marshalling: very good; concise - 🦯 🦯 🦯 🦯 (4)
*These ratings are how the event suits this particular blind person and are my opinion only; they are not scientific. Whatever happens no-one must be put off by me. The best way to learn about something is try it for yourself.
