Island of the Dutch – and Haredi Jews

Haredi Jews from Stamford Hill, North London, recently announced that they have chosen to start a community on Canvey Island, 40 miles away in Essex, after buying an old school at Castle Point to use for their own Jewish school. One of the main schools on the island is the Cornelius Vermuyden School, named after the eminent Dutch engineer who at the start of the 17th century stopped the island from disappearing into the Thames. He brought over Dutch workers, who were unpaid, but allowed to keep an acre of land for every three acres reclaimed from the sea. As a result, a number of Canvey Island families have Dutch ancestors. There are also two octagonal, thatched houses on the island built for the workers. One, dated 1618, is now a museum (open Wednesday afternoons and weekends). It has one room downstairs and one up, later divided into two, and a kitchen extension, also a later addition. Until the 1950s it was still lived in, as is the second Dutch house nearby.