Mervyn told me about a reference to Egypt Bay in a book called ‘The Thames’ by A. P. Herbert, which was published in 1966 by Weidenfield & Nicholson (pictured below).
A. P. Herbert (Sir Alan Patrick Herbert) says: ‘Egypt Bay, a strange sandy indent, so named, I suppose, because of the sand’.
I recently looked online for some old maps of the area, and there’s a really good website called Old Maps. A very useful commercial site that contains many old maps of the area, dating back to 1872, all of which can be easily viewed online.
The 1872 map itself shows Egypt Bay to have been joined by a sizable stretch of marshland known as Egypt Saltings – with ‘The Kite, Coast Guard Station’ located near its mouth with the Thames. The indent of the bay was much bigger in those days, with most of what was Egypt Saltings having long since silted over.
Any more ideas? Use the contact page to let me know if you have any views on how Egypt Bay got its name.
