POTTON (Great and Little), two islands in respectively Great Wakering and Little Wakering parishes, Essex; divided from each other, and from Wallasea and Foulness islands, and from the mainland, only by narrow straits; extending jointly 3¼ miles from N W to S E; and lying averagely 5¾ miles E N E of Southend.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))