Lee-over-Sands, seaward side of Beach Road houses

Lee-over-Sands, is a small coastal hamlet in the

Tendring Tendring is a village and civil parish in Essex. It gives its name to the Tendring District and before that the Tendring Hundred. Its name was given to the larger groupings because it was at the centre, not because it was larger than the other ...

district of

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

, England. It is located close to the mouth of the River Colne into the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

and is in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

of St Osyth. A sandspit called Colne Point is offshore from the hamlet. Colne Point Nature Reserve, a shingle ridge enclosing a

saltmarsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated ...

, is to the west of the hamlet on the site of a

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

gravel works. Jaywick Martello Tower is east of Lee-over-Sands. The area is subject to flooding, and was severely affected by the North Sea flood of 1953 when the seawall was breached in many locations near the village. Thirty-seven people died in nearby

Jaywick Jaywick is a coastal village in the Tendring district of Essex, England, west of Clacton-on-Sea. It lies on the North Sea coast of England, from London and from Colchester. It was constructed in the 1930s as a holiday resort for Londoners, ...

, east of Lee-over-Sands. In January 2017 following a threat of

coastal flooding Coastal flooding normally occurs when dry and low-lying land is submerged by seawater. The range of a coastal flooding is a result of the elevation of floodwater that penetrates the inland which is controlled by the topography of the coastal land ...

, an evacuation of 2,500 homes in Lee-Over-Sands and nearby

was planned but in the event not required. A number of houses are on the seaward side of the

seawall A seawall (or sea wall) is a form of coastal defense constructed where the sea, and associated coastal processes, impact directly upon the landforms of the coast. The purpose of a seawall is to protect areas of human habitation, conservation ...

, on Beach Road. One house on Beach Road won the

RIBA The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supp ...

East Award 2017 and the RIBA East Small Project Award 2017, and was long-listed for the national RIBA House of the Year award.

References

External links

Blog for residents of Lee-Over-Sands, St Osyth, Essex
{{Coord, 51.7717, 1.052, type:city_region:GB-ESS, display=title Hamlets in Essex Populated coastal places in Essex St Osyth