Aerial view of Shinglehead Point 11/02/98 - from a photo by Jonathan Smith

Bill Read - a specialist in salt marsh monitoring, on contract io the Environment Agency, gives his views:
Tollesbury is getting closer to the sea: or rather the sea is closing in on Tollesbury.
The entrance to the creeks is defended by Shinglehead Point, which under attack from the sea is receding landward at a measured rate of 2 metres per year,
The diagram shows the amount of erosion to the marsh taken accurately every month since 1996. The figure obtained tallies with three other surveys, which actually indicate a greater rate of loss than my own work. However, if erosion continues at this rate, then the seawall will become directly exposed to the sea in the year 2025. The clay seawall won't like that. Soon the sea could be making a quantum leap back to the 3 metre contour, where the trees grow. Another effect will be that the deep water channel, Tollesbury South Channel, will also fill in with silt at the same rate, to keep pace with it's headland.

The name “Shinglehead” probably dates back a long way, and certainly up until the ’60s and ’70s, the big shingle bank at the entrance was a notable feature. But this protective bank has been considerably reduced, and it's loss will definitely not help the situation.
Could anything be done about it? Well, (my opinion only), yes it could. For starters the old ‘shinglehead’ could quickly and easily be rebuilt to it's 1961 position with gravel dredgings from the Harwich approaches. This would relieve the pressure on the present headland and then why not dredge out the recent silt deposit from the South Channel, and place it up behind the new Shinglehead where it would become a replacement vegetated marsh headland. It is all now an established technique; it just needs someone to say “go for it.”
By this sort of repair, we could at least stand our ground, and it will still be there for future generations to make their own decisions. But let it wash away, and it's gone forever.