{"id":16729,"date":"2015-11-10T12:10:07","date_gmt":"2015-11-10T12:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/?p=16729"},"modified":"2015-11-10T12:12:27","modified_gmt":"2015-11-10T12:12:27","slug":"fish-chip-friday-and-wednesday-toe-nails-colchester-and-mersea-island-in-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/fish-chip-friday-and-wednesday-toe-nails-colchester-and-mersea-island-in-photos\/","title":{"rendered":"Fish & Chip Friday and Wednesday Toe Nails: Colchester and Mersea Island in photos"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Fish<\/p>\n

Yesterday, I had to visit deepest, darkest Essex, with my day trip taking in Colchester and the nearby Island of Mersea. Here’s a selection of photos from my journey.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

Colchester has two stations – the main line Colchester<\/a> and Colchester Town<\/a>, at the end of\u00a0a short branch that takes you into the centre of the town. It’s pretty grim around the main station.<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

I liked this ‘All Buns Blazing’ advert for a snack bar.<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

Dented road sign.<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

I wonder if Jamie is still in love\u00a0with Anne Marie?<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

Like a lot of towns in the UK, there’s no\u00a0shortage of closed small businesses.<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

I wonder if the owner wheels these washing machines in every time it rains?<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

Selection of shops on North Station Road.<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

The splendid fa\u00e7ade of the Grade II listed Victoria Inn<\/a>, a\u00a0real\u00a0ale-stuffed, multiple CAMRA-award winning pub dating back to the 17th Century, boasting a stripped-down ethos:<\/p>\n

“In this day and age it was rather a novel idea, get a pub and then try to reinvent it \u2013 as a pub. Regular clientele, sensible music and so on. No thunderous disco, no plastic menus on the table, no cheap deals on electric blue vodka-based drinks and no men on the door sporting bomber jackets and earpieces.”<\/p>\n

Martin Newell, East Anglian Daily Times<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

The eyes!<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

Crossing the Rover Colne with old and new riverside developments.<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

The River Lodge<\/a> looks in need of a bit of attention.<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

Ian & Sam are thataway<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

Looking up North Hill.<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Grade II\u00a0listed Marquis of Granby inn dates from around circa 1520, and boasts, “exceptionally fine carved detail, though much of the building was extensively restored in 1914.” [—<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

Meat Lasagna and Coffee special!<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

Pushing the buggy up the hill.<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

Blue painted ’boutique hotel’ on North Hill.<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

Dental Repairs at No 4.<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

The big arrow.<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

Loved this sign by\u00a0the Culver Street Baristas.<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

Holy Trinity Church, Colchester, the tower of which is early 11th Century Anglo-Saxon and the oldest surviving church building in Colchester.<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

Ancient entrance.<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

There’s some wonderful old buildings around the centre of town.<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

A 30-minute bus ride took us to Mersea Island, which\u00a0lies 9 miles (14 km) south-east of Colchester and\u00a0is the most easterly inhabited island in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

The island is split into two main areas, West Mersea and East Mersea, and connected to the mainland by the Strood, a causeway that floods at high tide. [—<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

I was in Mersea for the funeral of a dear\u00a0friend, where a moving humanist ceremony was held. This is the view from close to her resting place. RIP Maxine Craik.<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

A mix of high tech and low tech informs passengers of timetable changes.<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

A sign by the Mersea bus stop advertises the joys of Fish & Chip Friday.<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

On the same noticeboard, Wednesday’s attraction was a toenail cutting service.<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

A last view of Colchester, as we waited for the train back to Liverpool Street at the single platform of the Town station.<\/p>\n

Opened in 1866, the station was originally known as\u00a0St. Botolph’s before being renamed as Colchester Town in 1991. Despite the one solitary platform, the station is a busy one, carrying 760,000\u00a0people every year. [—<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I had to visit deepest, darkest Essex, with my day trip taking in Colchester and the nearby Island of Mersea. Here’s a selection of photos from my journey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17,193,90],"tags":[199,1297,372,1300,1301,1298,1195,1299],"class_list":["post-16729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-photos","category-places","category-railways","tag-architecture","tag-colchester","tag-essex","tag-island","tag-mersea","tag-mersea-island","tag-photos","tag-toenails"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/colchester-mersea-island.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQI7P-4lP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16729"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16737,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16729\/revisions\/16737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}