Natural History Explorers!

As part of their whole-of-school approach to Holding Back the Tide, pupils from St Lawrence’s Primary School have been looking at the natural heritage of their village.

They have been finding out about which animals and plants can be found in and around the river and estuary, considering if changes in Rowhedge are effecting the wildlife and also putting their ideas forward in a letter to the local Councillor about the waterfront, as they think about their village in the future.

A display of their work was on show as part of the Holding Back the Tide stall at the Rowhedge Regatta as pictured here.

Down Memory Lane……….

Is where the Holding Back the Tide team took attendees at this year’s Rowhedge Regatta. Visitors to the stall were invited to learn more about the village’s heritage through the display of old photographs prepared by Dorothy Garratt of Rowhedge’s Museum Group including an aerial image of Rowhedge’s waterfront in the 1920’s.

Nestled on the banks of the tidal River Colne, Rowhedge is still very much a seafaring community today with locals enjoying the opportunity to sail, motor, kayak or row from the village quayside. Estuaries and tidal rivers are iconic to the Essex coastline and Rowhedge itself has a rich martime history, enjoying its own ship building heyday between 1890 and 1914.

The stall also provided the opportunity for people to share their knowledge and experience of life in the ‘Saltwater Village’ (the actual name of a book about Rowhedge itself) which will then lead to more in depth oral history interviews in particular about the Sand and Iron Works which used to operate along the waterside.