Brightlingsea, Essex

Description
Brightlingsea, a town and a parish in Essex. The town stands on the estuary of the Colne, opposite Mersea Island, and is connected with the G.E.R. by a branch line from Wivenhoc, 8 miles SE by S of Colchester, is a sub-port to Colchester and a member of the Cinque port of Sandwich, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Colchester. A fair is held on St Swithin's day or the Thursday before, and a large trade is carried on in the fishing of sprats and oysters. The parish comprises 2873 acres, of wliich 682 are tidal water and foreshore; population, 3920. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of St Albans; net yearly value, £223. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church, a building of rubble and flint chiefly in the Perpendicular style, has a fine tower nearly 100 feet high, serving as a sea-mark, and contains a number of brasses, chiefly of the Beriffe family. Besides a chapel of ease, erected in 1837, there are Congregational, Free Methodist, Wesleyan, and Swedenborgian chapels.