Foulness Island Foulness Island Foulness Island () is an island on the east coast of Essex in England, which is separated from the mainland by narrow creeks. In the 2001 census, the usually resident population of the civil parish was 212, living in the settlements of Churchend and Courtsend, at the north end of the island. The population reduced to 151 at the 2011 Census. The island had until recently a general store and post office. The George and Dragon pub in Churchend closed in 2007, while the church closed in May 2010. Foulness Island is predominantly farmland and is protected from
Foulness Island commissioners were sent to inspect the state of the banks in the Rochford hundred, which included Foulness. The earliest record of sea walls is from 1271, and in 1348 there were problems with one of the marshes, which was flooding every day, indicating that it was below the level of normal tides. The sea walls were made of earth, and were thatched with hurdles of brushwood and rushes. The island was divided into 11 or 12 marshes, each with its own wall, rather than one wall around the whole area, and was extended in 1420 by a new wall around