In May 1828 John Clay, mayor of Colchester, was run over by Mrs Bare’s fish waggon.

His considerable injuries included a broken leg. The deputy mayor - his brother Edward - took over.

The Clay brothers had things pretty well stitched up, being mayor for nine years between them.

Fortunately, John Clay recovered in time for the Admiralty Court on September 5, the main jolly of the mayor’s year. And he should know: he’d done it three times before.

Read more >>> Historic 500-year-old ceremony to take place on dry land this year due to coronavirus

After a lavish liquid breakfast at the Rose & Crown at Wivenhoe, at high water, the mayor, corporation and hangers on went by boat, complete with a band, down river to Mersea Stone, the Eastern tip of Mersea Island.

Here they disembarked for the blockhouse ceremony and feast, held in a large marquee, since the ancient blockhouse was now a total ruin.

After holding the Admiralty Court and issuing new dredging licences, the boats set off again to sail the boundary of the Oyster Fishery, complete with crates of ale, their high jinks including shoving crabs down one another’s britches. On their return some merry dancing on the beach rounded off the day.

What I have just described is today called the Opening of the Oyster Fishery, the form of which involves the mayor, chief executive and town sergeant in full regalia reading a proclamation, dredging a handful of oysters, then getting back on board for a loyal toast. This ceremony was really concocted between 1884 and 1909 and has now been the same for 110 years.

But this is 2020. Social distancing is compelling the mayor’s party to stay on land this year, a modern practice begun by Alderman Sonia Lewis in 2010 and repeated in 2017 by councillor Gerard Oxford. And once again they are going to East Mersea, unknowingly reviving something much older than the modern ceremony.

But not to Mersea Stone, today at high tide a mini island, half a mile further east across the sea wall.

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Here you can see the site of the ancient blockhouse, today flooded, its earthen banks breached by the encroaching sea, its sturdy quay now under water.

The blockhouse was a manned military fort throughout the 1600s, guarding the entrance to the Colne, vital during the Dutch Wars and during the Seige of Colchester, when it was seized by the Parliamentary side. But it really is a long way from Colchester Town Hall. So why was the Admiralty Court held at this windswept site and what was the Admiralty Court anyway?

Gazette:

The Admiralty Court was held for the mayor to try cases of anyone who had dredged oysters illegally or dredged during the close season from April to September when dredging was forbidden. This early conservation measure dated from 1566 when spectacular over-dredging had ended for ever the boundless abundance of wild oyster in the sea, mainly to meet the demands of London where millions of oysters were sold for two a penny, popularly called the ‘poor man’s beef.’

The Admiralty Court was also the occasion for handing out licenses to fish for oyster during the forthcoming year.

Now that Colchester had introduced these close season laws it had to enforce them. Their legal basis was a series of royal charters dating from the 1100s giving Colchester control over all the fishery from the Hythe to the sea. But where did the sea begin?

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Colchester insisted, whatever Mersea, Brightlingsea and Maldon might think, that it was a line drawn from Mersea Stone to Westerness, on the St Osyth side of the river. Holding the Admiralty Court at Mersea Stone and going for a sail was a way of underlining the point.

Then there was the question of creating a legal moment when the close and open seasons began. To do this, since Elizabethan times, there had been a ceremony of ‘shutting the River’ held in chilly April in the channel at Mersea Stone when a proclamation was made by the town clerk, possibly reciting wording dating back to 1256 from a boat in the river. Well, that was the theory.

In the real world, the fishery was a free for all, in which the borough struggled to gain any control over the men of Wivenhoe, Mersea and Brightlingsea who made a living by dredging. The borough even resorted to leasing the fishery out to experienced dredgermen to do it for them.

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Before long the dredgermen, issued with licences by their mates, took over.

It was the Admiralty Court which finally ensured that an event was held every September and involved, as an assertion of Colchester’s rights ‘sailing the boundaries of the fishery.’

Then in 1836 the Government abolished Admiralty Courts and only sailing the boundaries continued, usually held in July and described as the ‘Closing of the Fishery’.

The boat trip, increasingly backed by the Conservatives on the council was seen as a council jolly.

In the 1860s the council fought back and in 1870 once more got control of their fishery through an Act of Parliament, setting up the Colne Fishery Company, a joint operation between council and dredgermen.

But it was not until 1879 that the Conservatives running the council insisted there really ought to be an annual sailing of the boundaries. This they held in September and described it, for the first time, as the Opening of the Oyster Fishery.

At this point, after a 42-year wait, the Liberals finally got control of the council and appointed the mayor.

No boat trip was held until 1884, when a truce between the two parties led to a second Opening of the Oyster Fishery, loyal toast and all. World wars apart, it has been held annually ever since.

In 1905, to everyone’s surprise, the mayor Edwin Sanders, who was also chairman of the fishery committee, turned up in full regalia, with the Town Sergeant, complete with the mace. Councillors were lined up and made to listen while the mayor read the old proclamation.

So today, as mayor and town sergeant in full regalia follow this 111-year-old tradition on East Mersea terra firma, they can all reflect on the complex history of Colchester’s oldest event.