Genealogy Australia

Archaeologists have suggested that when the Romans came to the Red Hills of Canvey Island it was perhaps still part of the mainland, but through the sinking of the land and rising sea levels it became no less than five separate islands by Anglo-Saxon times. In the Middle Ages a malarial marshland, it was won back from the sea by the enterprise of the Cavalier, Sir Henry Appleton and backing from the Dutchman, Joas Croppenburg. The Dutch stayed on as farmers, followed by smugglers, and finally day trippers who bought farmland to build their holiday homes.