The Broomway main headways are or were: From Rugwood Head to Fishermans Head, the Broomway is technically classed as a bridleway rather than a byway. Access to the Broomway is restricted because both the mainland at Wakering Stairs and Foulness Island itself are given over to military purposes. The Broomway The Broomway is a public right of way over the foreshore at Maplin Sands off the coast of Essex, England. Most of the route is classed as a Byway Open to All Traffic, with a shorter section of bridleway. When the tide is out, it provides access to Foulness Island, and indeed
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