This probably references to a destructive earthquake that happened in Essex around that time in 1884. In The Essex Serpent, villagers believe that the “Blackwater Beast” was released by an earthquake. In Wissington village church, a medieval mural of a water dragon remains today and was probably an inspiration for the serpent wood carving in Aldwinter church. The crocodile brought evil to the community, killing sheep and demanding to be fed virgins. The nearby village of Wormingford is named after “ Wyrm”Ī 1950’s stained-glass window in Wormingford’s church shows a version of the myth where a crocodile given to King Richard I escapes the Tower of London. One legend from the period has it that a dragon emerged from an ancient lake near the village of Bures in Essex, terrorising villagers and eating the sheep. The local industry in the Victorian era was fishing, including serpent-like eels, and it is possible that fishermen and local pirates, of which there were many smuggling rum across the land from Mersea Island, met unknown objects in the water. It is easy to get lost, caught by the tide and mishear and see things in the low mist. The region, on the east coast of England, is tidal, meaning that the acres of salt marsh, swampy and unstable ground, fill with water twice a day and shift constantly.
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