Mud, glorious mud (race)

Hundreds of people, many wearing fancy dress, have slithered and slid their way across the Blackwater estuary for the annual Maldon Mud Race.

The course is only 400 metres long but can take anywhere between 5 minutes and two hours to complete, depending on the conditions.

The event started in 1973 as a dare from a local resident to the landlord of the ‘Queens Head’ public house, which stands on the Hythe Quay, challenging him to serve a meal on the saltings of the Rivers Blackwater dressed in a dinner jacket.

The following year about twenty people made a mad dash across the driver bed, drank a pint of beer and dashed back. This was the beginning of the Maldon Mud Race.

Now the event raises money for charity, each race can raise more than £50,000. The time and date of the race changes each year to fit in with local tides.