In spite of its closeness to major towns and cities, our district is unusually well provided with remote places where like-minded people can seek refuge from the world and follow their ideals in peace.

There's also something about the character of Essex as a county (and perhaps even more, our part of it!) that has attracted the eccentric and 'oddball'.

The Purleigh Colony (an anarchist collective) and the Othona Community (a Christian community) are examples. The latter thrives to this day. Closer to Maldon, Osea Island has been home to some interesting experiments.

Osea Island, off Maldon in the Blackwater, was bought by Victorian Christian philanthropist Frederick Nicholas Charrington and set up as a temperance retreat for people suffering from drink problems.

Charrington, from the famous brewing family, had witnessed a drunken husband knock his wife down outside a pub (The Rising Sun in Bethnal Green) when she came with her children to beg him for money for food. Intervening, Charrington was also knocked down. Looking up, he saw his family's name on the pub sign.

He immediately abandoned his family's business and set about to use his wealth to combat the

negative effects of alcohol. From the 1870s he was active in the East End, but in 1903 he bought Osea Island. He built roads and houses and even imported exotic animals and plants from Australia.

It was set up as a retreat for alcoholics to recover from their addiction. This mission widened to include general relief for unemployed East Enders who were allowed board and lodging in return for manual labour. Up to eighty men lived in wooden huts, working on the construction projects on the island and following strict rules (which of course included total abstention from alcohol).

This was not entirely successful – there are records of inmates escaping to Maldon to raise a ruckus in the local pubs. Boats also smuggled alcohol on to the island.

The Daily Graphic paid a visit to the colony on a bleak, stormy day in 1904. The journalist recorded that the men were given six pence pocket money a week, their wives ten shillings and sixpence (and two shillings for each child) because they had the responsibility for the family.

In 1917 the temperance village (as it had now become) was abandoned when the admiralty requisitioned it for use as a torpedo boat base.

This was not the end of its days as a 'drying out' facility, however. It re-opened as a retreat for wealthy addicts and ran as The Causeway Retreat from 2005-2010. Amy Winehouse was one of its better known inmates.

Osea is now an exclusive and beautiful privately-owned holiday island, with a variety of houses to stay in. As its website invites visitors to "uncork a good bottle of red" it is obviously much more relaxed than its historical roots!