FOR hundreds of years Canvey’s Dutch Cottage has been a special sight and soon it will be celebrating a very special birthday - its 400th.

The event will mark the time Dutch Cottage, Canvey Road, Canvey has stood as a prominent feature on the island.

There will be plenty of entertainment at the event which is open to the public on Saturday, September 1 and September 2 from 11am until 4pm.

It is being hosted by the Benfleet and District Historical Society.

Chairman Jackie Terry, 78, feels it is important to mark the occasion.

She said: “Old buildings have been pulled down, taking away the heritage of the generations to come.

“Castle Point Council saved the Dutch Cottage by making it into a museum in 1963, and has carried out good work to maintaining it.

“The society looks after the cottage and volunteers open it in the summer.

“It is a very special year and we decided on a garden party and exhibition.”

There will be lots of entertainment such as music, bands, choirs, dancing, children ‘s competitions with prizes and more.

The Castle Point Transport Museum will be running a bus service around the island, from Benfleet Train Station to the cottage and from the Paddocks Community Centre to the cottage for free approximately every half-an-hour from 10.30am to 4pm.

Ray Howard, veteran Tory island councillor has been involved with the planning of the event.

He said: “I am delighted the Dutch came to Canvey, we have such a connection with them because of the floods that affected Holland and Canvey in the early Fifties.

“As well as the cottages, they had shops here and livestock such as sheep, it was a lovely community.

“We will have representatives from Holland at the event.

“Their way of life has formed part of education as schoolchildren visit the cottage site to learn about them.

“I think it will be a big event with lots of people attending.”

About 300 Dutch men came over to build the sea wall on Canvey and 200 settled on the island and built their own church in 1628.

Historians say, if the Dutch had not drained the soil and built the sea wall, there would be no Canvey today.

In the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century massive floods were washing away the soil of the five islands which made up Canvey.

The Benfleet and District Historical Society can reveal, Julius Sludder a Dutch man, owner of the Hill Farm area, is named as the person who could have built the 1618 Dutch Cottage.

Sir Henry Appleton, Julius Sludder and the other land owners on Canvey, knew that if nothing was done to stop the sea they would lose their land.

Joas Croppenburg a wealthy Dutch haberdasher financed the reclaiming of the Canvey land in return for one third of all the land reclaimed and made safe.

There was a stipulation in the agreement that it would be made void should any breaches in the sea walls remain unrepaired within a year of being built. The wall was maintained for nearly 200 years.