Rushley Island
 A view of Rushley Island | |
 | |
| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Essex, England, United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 51°33′58″N 0°49′52″E / 51.565977°N 0.831162°E |
| Demographics | |
| Population | Uninhabited |
Rushley Island is a small uninhabited island in Essex, England.[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]
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.
- ^ Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney, eds. (1890). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 24. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- ^ "Islands of Essex" by Ian Yearsley, p.75
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