Man has been using these marshes for many thousands of years to hunt and fish. Mesolithic flints can still be found on the pebble beaches on the other side of the seawall, the remains of fire hearths have also been found where the tide is eroding the river bank. We know the landscape was very different in ancient times, the low lying marshes were often under water and above the high water line, thick woods covered the land. In the Doomsday Book, Woodham is spelt Wudeham, which is Anglo Saxon for house in the wood.
In the Bronze and Iron Age, Woodham and the surrounding area had few settlements because the coast land and marshes were hard to cultivate. The first true settlers arrived in Roman times perhaps drawn by the salt marshes to harvest sea salt for trade. Red hills, a by-product of the ancient salt making industry, can still be seen in the area, the name coming from the burnt soil mounds, used to evaporate pans of salt water. These early settlers probably were the first to keep livestock on the marshes, probably something like the small hardy Soay Sheep.