Rushley Island
| Rushley Island | |
 A view of Rushley Island | |
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| Location | |
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[[File:]|240px|{{{map caption}}}]] | |
| Location: | 51°33’58"N, 0°49’52"E |
| Grid reference: | TQ963890 |
| Data | |
| Population: | Uninhabited |
Rushley Island is a small, uninhabited island in Essex.[1] It is the smallest of six islands comprising an archipelago in Essex, and is privately owned. A seawall was first constructed in the 1780s by John Harriott, and the island has been the object of farming activities since then.[2][3]
The local racehorse trainer and one-time Rushley Island owner, Frank Threadgold, once bred a horse which he named after the island. Born in 1976 she was a bay mare with horseracing parents called Crooner and Vicki Ann. She was later trained at the famous Newmarket track by Mr. H. C. Westbrook and was entered as a two-year-old for four races, mainly over a distance of six furlongs, between September and November 1978. These took place at Yarmouth, Lingfield (twice) and Doncaster. Unfortunately she was not a tremendously successful racehorse, finishing, at best, second from last in all these races, and she was retired for breeding purposes back into the ownership of the Threadgold family at Southend-on-Sea, who have farmed land at nearby Great Wakering since the 1930s. Sadly, she did not prove to be too successful at breeding either, although she did have one colt, a bay called Tudor Rhythm, in 1980, which was never raced. In 1987 she was officially retired from stud and disappeared from the record books.[4]
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Rushley Island) |
References
- ↑ Holland, J. (2007). Exploring the Islands of England and Wales: including the Channel Islands. Frances Lincoln. p. 92.
- ↑ Fautley, M. P. B. and Garon, J. H., Essex Coastline: Then and Now (Potton Publishing, 2004), ISBN 978-0954801007, pp. 168, 190–192. Excerpts available at Google Books.
- ↑ Dictionary of National Biography, Vol 24 : Harriott, John
- ↑ "Islands of Essex" by Ian Yearsley, p.75