Maldon's Maritime History week begins today (29) May with opportunities to find out more about this key part of the town's heritage.

Running until Sunday, 6 June, there will be an ongoing event at the Maeldune Heritage Centre in Market Hill. Over the Bank Holiday weekend, there will be a marquee at the Hythe selling Thames Sailing Barge Trust merchandise and - also from the Trust - there's a video that has been produced to remember the involvement of the barges in Dunkirk.

The video is available with this article until midnight on Monday (31 May) as it will then be removed for copyright reasons.

There will also be a chance for visitors to the Maeldune Heritage Centre, Market Hill to sit and listen to oral history recordings or view the visual archives on the wide screen monitor.

There are 15 oral history recordings on the listening station, telling individual stories of residents' lives or childhood memories in Maldon. These include interviews with Barry Pearce (shipwright), David Patient (shipwright) and John

Raven (sail-maker).

Details of the recordings relating to Maldon's maritime history can be found on the Maritime Heritage page of The Maldon Society website at the link here.

The archive of more than 30 individual collections of images include black and white photographs, drawings, paintings and videos of Maldon's maritime heritage covering Thames Sailing Barges, Maldon Salt production, Northey Island and the

Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. Visitors can view them on the wide screen monitor.

For more information on the Thames Sailing Barge Trust, you can visit the Trust's website at the link here or the Facebook page at the link here.