General board

The Romans built a causeway across the river at Hullbridge and you can still see the remain of the piles which would have had bundles of sticks piled between them to create a solid crossing. "Bridge" in this context means a crossing rather than a physical bridge. In the late 1960s it was still possible to cross the river on foot at low tide and my children did so on more than one occasion. My brother, as a young man, even drove his van across once. In the summer the river was often so low that my son was able to catch a flounder in his hands!

The ferry at that time was a dingy rowed over to the north bank by a man who lived in a houseboat moored just east of the Anchor pub. There was a footpath that ran all the way along the riverbank to Battlesbridge which we used to collect flour for bread making from the mill which existed then on the Rawreth side where the garden centre is now.