Coast Road
Heritage & Arts Trail
Weaving History and Art Together
Over the past year Essex Heritage Workboats have been hosting The EHWB Mersea Hub at the Mersea Museum to explore the stories behind the boats connected to Mersea. We have identified nearly 50 boats that were built to work and still exist.
Now we are so excited to share these stories and gather the boats together in one place along Coast Road, Mersea.
Mersea Island Museum is celebrating its 50th Anniversay this year. To be working with them to to enable us to share their amazing archive is just incredible.
We will be transporting you back to another time along Coast Road with images from yesteryear.
We are sharing with you the art of Mersea Oyster Tendle making. We are so proud of the research carried out to bring this unique Mersea basket back to life. When we started the project in partnership with The Mersea Museum we never expected to have a tendle back in the boats they worked with but we have and now this story can be shared.
Storytelling Circle will allow us to share tales that have been uncovered in the EHWB Mersea Hub over the past year. They might just make you smile or blush !
An exhibition in the Wyatts Old Chandlers will tell the story of William Wyatts and the people who built the Mersea Boats - our thanks go to Charlotte for sharing this space with us.
In The Church we are celebrating with an exhibition called “ FOR THE LOVE OF A FISHERMAN”
The Company Shed, a very well known oyster lovers destination, is celebrating their 40th Anniversary and we are pleased to be sharing their story.
Where would we be without music to keep us dancing, well fear not we have not one one but five designated Busking Spots along the Trail.
The Coast Road Residents have been invited to join in by decorating their homes, driveways and balconies in anyway they feel fit to help us celebrate our Maritime Heritage , we hear there might even be a few fishermen around the place too !
All the clubs, organisations and businesses have also been invited to bring a little Coast Road Trail joy into their Bank Holiday plans. The Lifeboat Station will be open to show you around on the Sunday and they are also sharing their long Mersea heritage with storytelling and exhibition. Local boatbuilders are demonstrating their skills, fishermen net making and hand drawn sign writing.
And if thats not enough we are encouraging everyone to record the weekend in whatever medium takes your fancy photography, watercolours, sketching or even pottery ! The Museum will be hosting an exhibition at the end of the Summer to allow you to share with us how you were inspired.
DO JOIN US AS WE CELEBRATE OUR MARITIME HERITAGE OVER A WONDERFULLY CREATIVE WEEKEND
Mersea Heritage Workboats, Mersea Art Collective’s Art Trail and Mersea Museum, are pleased to announce a major celebration of Mersea Island’s maritime heritage.
COME WITH US as we explore from the far end of the Coast Road at the Old City passed the Company Shed, The Dabchicks Sailing Club and the Lifeboat Station. Join us as we share the heritage of this amazing community in many different ways. We continue pass Wyatts where we are holding an exhibition of the Mersea Boatbuilding Heritage, passed Clark’s and their connections to the waterfront and the West Mersea YC, again sharing their stories in music, screen printing and photography.
Up passed the Old Life boat Shed and Clark & Carters we discover the endangered art of hand drawn sign writing. The oyster pits form a central element to the heritage of this Island and we can demonstrate that in both old and new methods of photography.
As you pass by the iconic houseboats, their history will unfold of King’s Yachts and glamour and their connection to the fishermen .
Finally we stretch round pass the Art Cafe, to the Church where we are holding an Exhibition “For The Love Of A Fisherman” then on to the Mersea Museum where they are hosting the Mersea Collective’s Open Studio and their Summer Exhibition.
Alongside the boats, the weekend will feature exhibitions, open artist studios, storytelling, and musical performances — all celebrating the rich maritime identity that continues to shape Mersea’s creative and community life.
Mersea Art Collective are a gathering of kindred creatives - artists, makers, and dreamers - celebrating the soul of our island through shared beauty and quiet magic. From windswept shores to sunlit studios, they invite you to walk with us, feel the rhythm of the land, and see through our eyes.
Opening their studios to you to over the weekend you will discover their creative process inspired by the beauty and heritage of this Island.
EHWB are very pleased to be working together with The Mersea Art Collective and Mersea Museum
To keep in touch with what’s on
For the RSVP for the Lineup of Mersea’s Heritage Boats click our logo below
