The Broomway

The Broomway, also formerly called the "Broom Road", is a public right of way over the foreshore at Maplin Sands off the coast of Essex, England. Most of the route is classed as a byway open to all traffic, with a shorter section of bridleway. When the tide is out, it provides access to Foulness Island, and was the only access to Foulness on foot, and the only access at low tide, until a road bridge was built over Havengore Creek in 1922.

At over 600 years old, recorded as early as 1419, the Broomway runs for 6 miles (9.7 km) along the Maplin Sands, approximately 440 yards (400 m) from the present shoreline. It was named for the "brooms", bundles of twigs attached to short poles, with which the route was once marked. A number of headways or hards ran from the track to the shore, giving access to local farms. The track is extremely dangerous in misty weather, as the incoming tide floods across the sands at high speed, and the water forms w...Read more

The Broomway, also formerly called the "Broom Road", is a public right of way over the foreshore at Maplin Sands off the coast of Essex, England. Most of the route is classed as a byway open to all traffic, with a shorter section of bridleway. When the tide is out, it provides access to Foulness Island, and was the only access to Foulness on foot, and the only access at low tide, until a road bridge was built over Havengore Creek in 1922.

At over 600 years old, recorded as early as 1419, the Broomway runs for 6 miles (9.7 km) along the Maplin Sands, approximately 440 yards (400 m) from the present shoreline. It was named for the "brooms", bundles of twigs attached to short poles, with which the route was once marked. A number of headways or hards ran from the track to the shore, giving access to local farms. The track is extremely dangerous in misty weather, as the incoming tide floods across the sands at high speed, and the water forms whirlpools because of flows from the River Crouch and River Roach. Under such conditions, the direction of the shore cannot be determined. After the road bridge was opened in 1922, the Broomway ceased to be used, except by the military.

 A pre-1922 trip by the Essex Field Club across The Broomway by farm wagon

There is some disagreement over whether the main route is natural, simply following a ridge of firmer sand, or originated partly or wholly as a human-made track. Traces of Roman settlement on Foulness have been taken as evidence of a Roman origin, and it has been suggested that the track and its feeders were originally a road serving an agricultural area that was subsequently flooded.[1] It has also been surmised to be an Anglo-Saxon era drove route, again subsequently inundated due to coastal erosion[2] or 14th century storm surges[3] but maintained using local knowledge and temporary waymarks. An archaeological survey towards the southern end of the Broomway revealed that it had, at least on that section, been reinforced with wooden hurdle work at some point.[4]

Noted in 1419, the route was mentioned in the following century by William Harrison in the Chronicles of Holinshed, who said that a man could ride to Foulness "if he be skilful of the causie [causeway]".[5] The Broomway was shown in some detail, along a route very similar to the present-day one, by the surveyor John Norden in a 1595 map.[5]

During the 18th century, various efforts were made to improve the track, which was the main route from the island for farmers taking produce to market. In 1769, a guidebook stated that "the passage into [Foulness] is at low water, and on horseback, insomuch that many, either in negligence, or being in liquor, have been overtaken by the tide and drowned".[6] In the mid-19th century, subscriptions were raised to reinstate Wakering Stairs, which provided a better southern point of access.

The Broomway was formerly marked by a series of markers resembling short-handled besoms or brooms, hence its name.[7][8] The "brooms" were driven 2 ft (0.6 m) into the sands, protruded about a foot above them, were positioned around 30 yards apart, and were stayed with wire shrouds.[9] The author Herbert W. Tompkins, who walked the Broomway in the early 1900s, described how as the tide ebbed the brooms would "lift their heads and appear as a line of black dots",[10] providing an indication of when the traveller might start their journey.[11] The "brooms" required regular maintenance and replacement due to the effects of tides and storms: since at least the 18th century, this had been funded by a regular payment split between the parish and the island's major landowner.[12] The headways, at least in later years, were marked with fingerposts of the type then found on conventional roads, also driven into the sand.[7] At night, when the "brooms" could be harder to spot, locals were accustomed to using the lights of the Nore, Mouse, and Swin lightvessels and the Maplin lighthouse to help judge their position.[7]

The Broomway remained a vital link to the island until the 20th century. Writing in 1901, the Essex author Reginald A. Beckett described "one of the most curious sights [he] ever beheld" as "when reaching the Stairs just before dark, there appeared a procession of market-carts coming from Foulness and rapidly driven across the sands, through water about a foot deep, with two or three fishing-smacks beyond and a distant steamer on the horizon".[7]

^ Astbury (1980). Estuary: land and water in the lower Thames basin. p. 145. ^ Banham (2014). Anglo-Saxon Farms and Farming. Oxford University Press. p. 183. ^ Murphy, Peter (2009). The English Coast: a history and a prospect. Bloomsbury. p. 109. ^ Scrutton (2006). Rochford District Historic Environment Characterisation Project. Rochford District Council. p. 57. ^ a b Christy (1922). "A high road in the sea". The Windsor Magazine. Vol. 56. p. 556. ^ A Description of England and Wales: Containing a Particular Account of Each County. London: Newbery and Carnan. 1769. p. 30. ^ a b c d Christy (1922), p. 558 ^ King, Tom (9 September 2006). "Exploring the truth behind island's deadly footpath". Echo. Southend-on-Sea. Archived from the original on 31 July 2013. Retrieved 2 February 2013. ^ Country Life. Vol. 149. 1971. p. 1362. {{cite magazine}}: Missing or empty |title= (help) ^ Tompkins, H. W. (1904). Marsh-country rambles. Chatto & Windus. p. 60. ^ Tompkins (1904), p. 75 ^ Benton, Philip (1867). "Foulness". The History of Rochford Hundred. Vol. 1. Rochford: A. Harrington. p. 177.
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