Changing Minds, Changing Coasts: 100 years of coastal change on Mersea Island, Essex

Oliver Hutchinson and Danielle Newman, CITiZAN

Coastal communities are first-hand witnesses to the impacts of coastal change on their environment, lifestyle, and heritage. Changing Minds, Changing Coasts is a pilot project led by the community of Mersea Island, Essex, to map these changes using personal photo archives and oral histories. This unique dataset reveals a detailed story of the combined effects of natural forces and human activity on coastal ecosystems and how changes in the biodiversity of the foreshore have dramatically affected the fragile archaeological record of Mersea’s coastline.

Main picture: Cudmore Grove in 1920 (Mersea Museum/Wenda Lord Collection ID: WLD_FEN_001) and (right) in 2020, showing dramatic coastal change on Mersea Island, Essex over the last century.

This talk is being hosted by Thames Discovery Programme's as part of Tidal Tales, a series of online talks exploring peoples' experiences of the changing tidal Thames and the greater Thames estuary, from prehistory to the present day. Visit our profile to join the other talks in the series.

Tidal Tales is part of our River Recoveries Project, made possible thanks to National Lottery players through the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and the support of Port of London Authority and CoLAT.