Welcome to Brightlingsea

Welcome to Brightlingsea, a unique small coastal town on the North Essex coast at the mouth of the River Colne. We have a great history and many nautical connections with fishing, yachting, boat building and dinghy sailing. As you drive up the hill into Brightlingsea All Saints church is on your right. A magnificent church with tower dating from Norman times and with a unique collection of tiles on the walls. Each tile is a memorial to a sailor who has lost their life at sea. The town was a Naval base in WW2, called HMS Nemo, with the ship yards providing repair and maintenance for a variety of vessels. Brightlingsea was also home to an ANZAC training base in WW1.

Brightlingsea is a major sailing centre and regularly hosts national and international sailing events as well as providing opportunities for a number of water sports. Famously Reg White, who came from Brightlingsea, won an Olympic gold medal for sailing.

The town is a limb of the Cinque Port of Sandwich and is the only member of the confederation north of the Thames. This is now a ceremonial role and for more information on this click on the Brightlingsea Cinque Port Liberty link below.

For more information about the activities going on in Brightlingsea please click on the link About Brightlingsea and the Brightlingsea Town Guide.

Links (these will open in a new page)

If you are interested in joining us send a message through the link on the contact us page. Our membership secretary will get back to you. Please note that the annual membership fee may be increased but will stay below £20 for the foreseeable future.

Throughout our website we have used photos to show you Brightlingsea and highlight the activities of our u3a and our groups. Unless otherwise specified these pictures come from the activities of our photography group. We hope you enjoy looking at them and for most pictures clicking on the photo will enable you to view it in larger screen version. You can try this on the four pictures above,