Mell Road

Mell Road

Mell Road runs down towards the creeks and open marsh, and it was that watery back door that brought the coastguards to Tollesbury. The village was long notorious for smuggling: its maze of tidal creeks gave the “free traders” no end of quiet ways to run contraband ashore in the dark.

By 1879 the authorities had lost patience, and the Government built two blocks of substantial coastguard cottages here on Mell Road, home to a strong detachment posted to watch the shore and break the trade. In time the coastguards’ work shifted from chasing smugglers to saving lives – keeping watch over a dangerous coast and turning out to vessels in trouble on the Blackwater. The lane that now runs out to houses and quiet marsh once looked on a working, and sometimes lawless, edge of England.