A Danish fleet established a fortified encampment on Mersea Island in the Essex Blackwater estuary in 840, using it as a base to raid inland. The island tidal causeway made it easily defensible. This was an early example of the Danish practice of seizing tidal islands as raiding bases later perfected at Benfleet and Thorney.
Danish raiders: c. 800-2,000 (8-20 ships). East Saxon levies: c. 500-1,500.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in Britain — drawing on Domesday records, scheduled monuments, Victorian OS maps, geological data and archaeological archives to tell the full story of a place.
Research a location near Essex