The Crow Stone

This morning I managed to only press snooze button 3 times, and so decided to seize the day!

I got the bike out, wrapped up warm, grabbed my camera and headed out into the 3 degree but beautiful morning sun.

Down to the sea front, over the cobbles of Old Leigh (no amount of suspension on a bike makes this a pleasant experience!), over the Hadleigh Downs, through Benfleet and back via Hadleigh Castle. 18.6 miles in total, and all by 10:30am! Rider and bike came back caked head to foot in mud and.... other material that turned out not to be mud... but still was great to get out and get off the beaten track!

On my way along the promenade at Westcliff I saw the familiar sight of the little obelisk - normally half submerged in water out in the estuary, but this morning the tide was out, and I had a blip to find!

Now at this point, I'll admit that it's been a while since I really used my DSLR and so I managed to take all the photos with the camera set to macro mode... cue slightly fuzzy out of focus pictures... but I'm learning!

Anyway, I digress - THIS is the Crow Stone. Why it's called the Crow Stone, I don't know, but I walked out onto the mudflats expecting to find a brass plate baring the names of some local fallen sailors or other military types.

But it turns out that this stone has been here since 1836, and replaced a similar stone erected in 1755. In fact, it's thought that there was a succession of stones here going back since before 1285...

This stone marks the most easterly point of the Thames, and is where it officially flows into the North Sea... Every day's a school day!