The Thames Estuary

Aerial view of the Blackwater Estuary, on the Essex coast, in the northern part of the Greater Thames Estuary. The Blackwater Estuary is the Estuary of the Essex River Blackwater in south-east England. Mersea Island is at right. Mersea Island is the most easterly inhabited Island in the UK located marginally off the coast of the county of Essex, to the southeast of Colchester.

The Thames Estuary is the area in which the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea. An estuary is a semi-enclosed Coastal body of Water with one or more Rivers or Streams flowing into it and with a free connection to the open The Thames ( is a major River flowing through southern England. The North Sea is a marginal, Epeiric sea of the Atlantic Ocean on the European Continental shelf.

It is not easy to define the limits of the estuary ^[1], although physically the head of ‘’Sea Reach‘’, near Canvey Island on the Essex shore is probably the western boundary. Canvey Island (area 1845 km² pop 37479is a reclaimed island in the Thames estuary separated from the mainland of south Essex by a network of creeks Essex is a county in the East of England. The County town is Chelmsford, and the highest point of the county is Chrishall Common The eastern boundary, as suggested in a Hydrological Survey of 1882-9, is a line drawn from North Foreland in Kent via the Kentish Knock lighthouse to Harwich in Essex. North Foreland and South Foreland are two Chalk headlands on the east Kent coast of southern England. KENT (1400 AM) is a Radio station broadcasting a Adult Standards/MOR format A lighthouse is a Tower, building or framework designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or in older times from a fire and used as an Harwich (ˈhærɪdʒ is a town in Essex England and one of the Haven ports, located on the coast with the North Sea It is to here that the typical estuarine sandbanks extend ^[2]. The estuary has the world's second largest tidal movement, where the water can rise by 4 metres moving at a speed of 8 miles per hour. Characteristics A tide is a repeated cycle of sea level changes in the following stages Over several hours the water rises or advances up a beach in the flood

The estuary is one of the largest of 170 such inlets on the coast of Great Britain. The coast is defined as the part of the land adjoining or near the Ocean. See also Kingdom of Great Britain Great Britain (Breatainn Mhòr Prydain Fawr Breten Veur Graet Breetain is the larger of the two main islands It constitutes a major shipping route, with thousands of movements each year including large oil tankers, container ships, bulk carriers and roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) ferries entering the estuary for the Port of London and the Medway Ports of Sheerness, Chatham and Thamesport. Shipping is physical process of Transporting goods and Cargo. History The technology of oil transportation has evolved alongside the oil industry Container ships are Cargo ships that carry all of their load in truck-size containers in a technique called Containerization. Definition There are various ways to define the term bulk carrier See also Merchant ship Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro Ships are ferries designed to carry wheeled Cargo such as The Port of London lies along the banks of the River Thames from London, England to the North Sea. Medway Ports, incorporating the Port of Sheerness and Chatham Docks is part of Peel Ports, the second largest port group in the United Kingdom Sheerness (ˈʃɪərnɪs is a town located beside the mouth of the River Medway on the northwest corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England

The Thames sailing barge worked in this area, designed to be suitable for the shallow waters in the smaller ports. A Thames sailing barge was a type of commercial Sailing boat common on the River Thames in London in the 19th century One of the largest wind farms in the UK has been developed in the estuary, located 8. A wind farm is a group of Wind turbines in the same location used for production of electric power 5km north of Herne Bay. Herne Bay is a seaside town in Kent, South East England, with a population of 35000 The farm contains 30 wind turbines generating a total of 82. 4MW of electricity. The much larger London Array of up to 1GW capacity is also planned. The London Array is a planned offshore Wind farm in the outer Thames Estuary in the United Kingdom.

The Greater Thames Estuary

The appellation Greater Thames Estuary ^[3] applies to the coast and the low-lying lands bordering the estuary itself. These are characterised by the presence of salt marshes, mudflats and open beaches: in particular the North Kent Marshes and the Essex Marshes. The North Kent Marshes, located in the north of the county of Kent on the Thames Estuary in south-east England, is one of 22 Environmentally Sensitive Rising sea levels in places may make it necessary to flood some of that land to take the pressure off the defences. Man-made embankments are backed by reclaimed wetland grazing areas; there are many smaller estuaries, including the Rivers Colne, Blackwater and Crouch; and there are small villages concerned with a coastal economy (fishing, boat-building, and yachting) ^[4]. The River Colne is a small river that runs through Colchester. The River Blackwater is a River in England. It flows through Essex passing Maldon and reaching the North Sea at West Mersea The River Crouch is a river that flows entirely through the English county of Essex. The Isle of Sheppey, Foulness Island and Mersea Island are part of the coastline

Where higher land reaches the coast there are some larger settlements, such as Clacton-on-Sea (to the north in Essex), Herne Bay in Kent, and the Southend-on-Sea area within the narrower part of the estuary

The Thames Estuary is part of Thames Gateway, designated as one of the principal development areas in Southern England. This article is about the Isle of Sheppey in northern Kent not to be confused with Shepway in south-eastern Kent Foulness is an island on the east coast of Essex in England. It is separated from the mainland by narrow creeks The large island had a usually resident Mersea Island is the most easterly inhabited Island in the UK located marginally off the coast of the county of Essex, to the southeast of Colchester. History Clacton was the site of the lower Palaeolithic Clactonian industry of flint tool manufacture Herne Bay may refer to one of several places Herne Bay Kent, England Herne Bay New Zealand Riverwood New South Wales The Thames Gateway is an area of land stretching 40 miles (60 km east from inner East London on both sides of the River Thames and the Thames Estuary.

This area has had several proposed sites for the building of a new airport to supplement, or even to replace Heathrow. In the 1960s Maplin Sands was a contender; in 2002 it was to be at Cliffe, Kent. The Maplin Sands are Mudflats on the northern bank of the Thames estuary off Foulness Island near Southend-on-Sea in Essex, Cliffe (sometimes known as Cliffe-at-Hoo) is a Village on the Hoo peninsula in Kent, England, reached from the Medway Towns The new airport would be built on a man-made island in the estuary north of Minster-in-Sheppey ^[5] There is also some discussion about the need for a Lower Thames Crossing in order to alleviate traffic congestion at Dartford. Lower Thames Crossing is a major transport infrastructure project proposed for the southeast of England in the United Kingdom.

Cultural references

Joseph Conrad's The Mirror of the Sea (1906) contains a memorable description of the area as seen from the Thames. Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924 was a Polish-born English novelist

The form of speech of many of the people of the area, principally the accents of those from Kent and Essex, is often known as Estuary English. Estuary English is a name given to the formulation(s of English widely spoken in South East England and the East of England; especially along the

References

Coordinates: 51°30′N 0°35′E / 51.5, 0.583