Tollesbury's Magic

I have given you glimpses into Tollesbury before. It's a bit of a secret place, one road in, one road out. The feel of it harks back to the 50s when life was so much more simple. Children play in the streets, at the salt pool and mud dipping on the marshes. Generally they behave themselves because the adults know who they are, so they can guarantee any misbehaviour WILL be reported back. They probably also have a lot more freedom here than many kids and seem to spend a lot of their time outside engaged in healthy activities. The mobile phone signal in Tollesbury is useless (especially in the pub which can be useful!), we don't have gas (woodburners are the way to go) and you can forget über fast broadband (fibre optics, what on earth is that!). Village events are always well supported and people go out of their way to support local businesses (anyway its a bit of an effort to bring in those expensive 'foreign' workers from Maldon or Colchester!). Tollesbury time is on a different timeline to everywhere else (except perhaps Spain's) and people know that, a so much more relaxed way to be.
But all these advantages to our way of life does prove attractive to those outsiders who manage to find us. Many of them discover us by accident when they sail in to the marina. Having taken the nerve wracking decision to navigate the fleet and creek (perilous to the uninitiated) they end up in our posh marina, complete with swimming pool, restaurant and tennis courts. It actually is a great place to bring your boat if you have kids, but shhh don't tell anyone that! They end up staying and making Tollesbury their home port, coming down each weekend and not even bothering to leave the marina. Then they discover the Sailing Club, that the locals use and that they can moor their boat up cheaper in the Saltings. From then on they are caught up in Tollesbury's spell, there is no escape and they have to sell their homes and move here permanently. Caught, hook, line and sinker (excuse the pun). Princess Anne once asked me 'why Tollesbury?' And when she left she said 'Now I know why Tollesbury'. Over the next few posts I will give you some more glimpses of Tollesbury, today's view is of the marina. But please once you have read this post, delete it quickly, we don't want the world to find us!!!!