The Little Book of Essex E-Book

Dee Gordon

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 265

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

Did you know? - In the eleventh century, Edward the Confessor banished nightingales from the royal palace at Havering-atte-Bower because their singing disturbed his devotions. - In 1913, Benny Hucks of Stansted Mountfitchet was the first person to perform a loop-the-loop in an aircraft. - On Boxing Day 1946, Hatfield Heath villagers challenged local German and Italian POWs to a football match – and lost 11–0. - Brentwood was the first town in Britain to install CCTV. A compendium of frivolity, a reference book of little-known facts and a wacky guide to one of England's most colourful counties, The Little Book of Essex is packed full of entertaining, bite-sized pieces of historic and contemporary trivia that come together to make essential reading for visitors and locals alike. Dip in randomly, or read consecutively – there are no rules. Be amused and amazed at the stories and history of Essex's landscape, heritage, buildings and, above all, its people.

Leseprobe

First published 2009

This paperback edition published 2025

The History Press

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Gloucestershire, GL50 3QB

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

Reprinted 2010, 2012, 2015

© Dee Gordon, 2009, 2025

The right of Dee Gordon to be identified as the Authorof this work has been asserted in accordance with theCopyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprintedor reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented,including photocopying and recording, or in any informationstorage or retrieval system, without the permission in writingfrom the Publishers.

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-0-75246-263-9

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CONTENTS

Introduction

1.   Towns and Villages, Streets and Buildings

2.   Battles and Wars

3.   Royal Essex

4.   Crime and Punishment

5.   The People, Famous and not so

6.   Essex at Work

7.   Fishing and Farming, Food and Fluids

8.   Essex at Play

9.   Transport on and Above the Ground

10.   Death and Religion

11.   Natural History

12.   Rivers and Coast

13.   On This Day

Acknowledgements

INTRODUCTION

Over a recent ten-year period, the population of Essex has increased at a higher rate than anywhere else in the country. For those of us who live here, this is absolutely understandable. So often unfairly maligned, the county has a fascinating history and is full of fascinating places and fascinating people. It is a county bordering London and reaches the eastern coast, London’s nearest beach being that at Leigh-on-Sea. Whether an Essex resident or a visitor, there is a lot more out there than is available in local history books or tourist information centres. Trying to assemble a diverse array of lesser-known insights into a county that so many people think they ‘know’ (even if they’ve never been to Essex), has been challenging, time-consuming but utterly worthwhile. The research has provided such diverse snippets as:

In AD 587 the Kingdom of Essex incorporated Hertfordshire and Middlesex, and the capital city of Essex was London. King Aescwine, the first king of the independent Saxon Kingdom of Essex, ruled for sixty years.

The fifty richest Essex people are worth collectively £6 billion according to the 2007 Essex Life rich list, with Alan Sugar predictably at the top.

The Maldon Embroidery on display at St Peter’s Tower in Maldon’s High Street took three years and eighty-three embroideresses to complete. It is 42ft long and shows the history of the town and the surrounding area from the coming of the Vikings.

In 1215, four Essex barons were among those (twenty-five in all) who forced King John to put his name to the Magna Carta, the thirteenth-century founding statement of the rights of man.

There are seventy-two listed red telephone boxes in Essex including a matching pair in Epping and a row of three in Maldon.

It is possible to walk by field paths across Essex from the outskirts of London to the sea at Harwich or Bradwell-on-Sea.

The first ever British Olympic champion was an Essex resident, Launceston Elliot. In 1896 he won a gold medal in Athens for a single-handed lift of 71kg in the weight-lifting final and silver for the two-handed lift. Elliot was also the first British athlete to compete in an Olympics as he took part in the first event, the heats for the 100 metres on 6 April 1896, an event in which he failed to qualify, finishing fourth.

Dunmow Priory in Essex is said to be the resting-place of Robin Hood’s Maid Marian but, sadly, all that remains of the priory is the present church of Dunmow.

A survey of 1,000 young people aged 18–30, conducted by Sony BMG in 2008, revealed that Southend-on-Sea is the top place in the UK for fun and holiday romance.

Chocolate boxes and biscuit tins carry fewer pictures of Essex than of any other county.

1

TOWNS AND VILLAGES, STREETS AND BUILDINGS

AROUND THE COUNTY

There are 14,000 listed buildings in the county compared to 13,000 in Suffolk and 10,000 in Norfolk, both of which have larger geographical areas. Of these, 240 are in Thurrock and over 200 in Coggeshall.

A nineteenth-century Italian-style manor built on the site of Pyrgo Palace, Havering-atte-Bower (pulled down in the eighteenth century) had every conceivable mod-con including its own gasworks.

The villagers of Manewdon (now Manuden), Farnham, Elsenham, Stansted and Ugley fought against the national boundary commission in 1888 who wanted to reclassify the villages as being in Hertfordshire, not Essex. The villagers won their argument and remain proud to be in Essex.

Southend-on-Sea has one of the only planetariums outside London; it is based within the town’s central museum.

Palaeolithic stone tools have been found in Essex indicating that humans have lived in the area ever since the first Ice Age. As at the 2001 census, the population of Essex was 1,310,922.

The name Essex originates from East Seaxe or East Saxons, the land of the East Saxons. The county emblem features, a tad alarmingly, three seaxes, a single-edged knife or sword.

Ingatestone and Brentwood have been listed in the Telegraph’s top twenty richest towns in Britain, while Chelmsford has been listed as number eight in the top twenty places to live by the television programme Location, Location, Location (2007), with Barking and Dagenham at number fourteen of the worst twenty! Castle Point (comprising Canvey Island, Benfleet, Thundersley, Hadleigh) has the highest density of owner-occupiers in the country at 89 per cent, compared to a UK average of 70 per cent.

Finchingfield is reputed to be the most photographed village in England, and has inspired painters such as Lucien Pisarro and Alfred Munnings. Honeypot Cottage in the village has been immortalised in the Lilliput Lane series of porcelain models.

The Naze Tower at Walton on the Naze is believed to be the only one of its kind in the country. It was built in 1721, originally as a marker for ships approaching Harwich harbour, and stands 86ft tall.

Frinton was unique among seaside resorts in not having a pub; not until 2000 that is, when the Lock and Barrel opened despite residential objections. Perhaps more quaintly, even the rustic public toilets on the Greensward have a thatched roof.

St Osyth has the only naturist beach in Essex (although there is a naturist camp at Springwood, near Colchester).

The post office at Good Easter used to have a thriving trade during Holy Week from people who wished to have Good Easter stamped on their Easter cards.

Essex has a coastline that stretches well over 350 miles. The resorts of Dovercourt, Frinton, Walton on the Naze, Clacton-on-Sea, St Osyth and Brightlingsea are known collectively as the Essex Sunshine Coast.

THE UNEXPECTED – AND THE DOWNRIGHT CONFUSING

Hatfield Heath, 4 miles inside the Essex border, has a Hertfordshire postcode.

When the Ragged School Union began organising visits to Epping Forest for parties of poor children from the East End (in 1891), the area became known as Lousy Loughton from the lice and fleas said to be left behind. Local streets and parts of the forest were sprayed with disinfectant after the children passed through, but neither this, nor the undignified mode of travel from London with metal identity tags and being locked into train carriages, stopped the children from having fun.

Ramsey Island, near Bradwell-on-Sea, is not an island. Nor is Foulness Island, alongside Shoeburyness.

Chelmsford, the county town of Essex since 1250, is not a city in spite of it having a cathedral, and a football team called Chelmsford City. In recent years, it became the first town (or city) in Essex to be declared a Fairtrade town, dedicated to achieving a fairer deal for farmers and producers in the developing world.

When one of the largest oak trees in Britain, known as the Fairlop Oak, died in 1820 (in Hainault Forest), part of its timber was used to make a pulpit and a reading desk for London’s St Pancras Church, Euston Road.

Basildon Hall is reputedly the only stately home to ever be blown up by a bottle of whisky. In 1834, after the former palace had downgraded to service as an inn, a travelling salesman fell into a drunken sleep alongside a lighted candle and an uncorked bottle of whisky. The whisky fumes ignited, causing an explosion and fire that destroyed the building and killed the salesman and a woman in the next room. The building, which stood on Clicketts Hill, has since been demolished.

Wanstead Meeting House (for Quakers) was formerly an archery pavilion and an assembly room where Dickens gave a reading and where William Morris’s sister met her former husband.

The Temple in the middle of Wanstead Park is the only building still standing that was associated with Wanstead House – but it was not a temple. It was a place for banqueting and entertainment, dating from before 1830.

A bungalow in Lower Dunton Road, Laindon, was the drop-off and collection point until the 1950s for the muddy wellingtons of those commuters living in the Basildon ‘plotlands’ (pre the New Town) en route to Laindon station. When the property changed hands, the new owners were more than a little perplexed by the filthy footwear appearing on their doorstep.

The expression ‘Where’s Wally?’ seems to have started out as a genuine announcement on the public address system at the Weeley Rock Festival near Clacton, in August 1971, when Wally had been separated from his friends.

The ‘secret’ nuclear bunker at Kelvedon Hatch, a relic of the Cold War, is no longer a secret. It was hidden behind an innocuous 1950s bungalow, via a 350ft tunnel and one-and-a-half ton blast doors, with space for 600 key government and military personnel complete with a BBC studio and a mortuary. Since 1992, when it was bought by a local farmer, it could be described as the most all-weather tourist attraction in Britain.

A traditional African tribal village has been established at Takeley, near Stansted, to promote African culture. The village, Aklowa, and its variety of Ghanaian huts represent the only organisation of its type in Europe.

The medieval barn housing the Corbett Theatre in Loughton (named after Harry H. Corbett, a benefactor and workshop member) was moved to its site from Ditchling in Sussex in the 1960s. It was dismantled and transported a distance of some 80 miles, and now forms the East 15 campus theatre, part of the University of Essex.

The largest public collection of Latin American art in Europe is in the University of Essex in Colchester, and the largest collection of written material on jazz in the UK is stored at Loughton Library as the National Jazz Archive.

SOME ECCENTRIC VILLAGE NAMES IN ESSEX

Bacon End, originating from Beacon End, the site of a fire beacon.

Chignall Smealey, from Cica’s halh (chicken corner) and smethe leah (smooth clearing).

Cock Clarks, associated with John Coke.

Cripple Corner, hazy origins.

Fiddlers Hamlet, originating from the Merry Fiddlers Inn.

Gore Pit, from gore meaning filth and pytt meaning (Old English) well.

Maggots End, possible links to Magot(e) family.

Matching Tye, probably reference to Maecca’s people (Matching) and a cross-roads or clearing (Tye).

Mucking, meaning Mucca’s people.

Shellow Bowells, from the manor of Scheuele and the manor-owners the (French?) de Bueles or Bouelles.

Ugley, possibly from Ugga’s leigh or enclosure.

Wendens Ambo, from ambo meaning both. Used when Great and Little Ambo became one in 1661.

AND SOME ECCENTRIC STREET NAMES

Barnaby Rudge, Chelmsford. (One of a number of streets with a Dickens connection, including Little Nell, Magwitch Close and Quilp Drive).

Break Egg Hill, Billericay, and Burnt Dick Hill, Boxted. Use your imagination for these.

Caracalla Way, Colchester, is one of several streets named after Roman notables, such as Tiberius Crescent, and Maximus Drive.

Cringle Lock, South Woodham Ferrers. A cringle is a small hole in the edge of a sail for passing the rope through.

The Dismals, Terling and Fell Christy, Chelmsford. The Dismals may have gained its name from its location at a crossroads (often associated with the supernatural and the unlucky), and Fell Christy was a partner in a local engineering works making agricultural machinery.

Gandalfs Ride, South Woodham Ferrers. This is one of a number of streets in an area known as the Middle Earth Estate, all with names derived from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Other examples are Butterbur Chase, Elronds Rest, Hobbiton Hill, and The Withywindle.

Neil Armstrong Way, Leigh-on-Sea, is among a collection of similar names on the Astronaut Estate.

Toot Hill Road, near Chipping Ongar, means a look-out place.

Twitty Fee, Chelmsford, with possible links to William Twitye. Feot is an old name for possession.

TEN ESSEX PLACE NAMESYOU CAN FIND IN THE USA

There is a Braintree in Vermont, a Brentwood in New Hampshire, a Chelmsford in Massachusetts, Colchester(s) in Connecticut and Vermont, Epping in New Hampshire, Harwich in Massachusetts, Romford in Connecticut, Springfield(s) in abundance (with the added status of being home to The Simpsons), Wickford in Washington County and Woodford in Vermont.

A FEW ROMAN REMAINS

Colchester still has long stretches of Roman town wall, and the largest, most complete surviving Roman gateway in Britain: the Balkerne Gate. When Camulodunum (as it was known) was developed by the Romans in about AD 43, it was the first time bricks and mortar were used in Britain, creating familiar structures. A giant circus, or chariot racing track, was excavated in the town in Abbey Field in 2004. The circus is the only one to have been found in the UK and one of only six in the world.

A Roman farmhouse and barn at Boreham, near Caesaromagnus (Chelmsford – the only town to be dignified with the imperial title), excavated at the end of last century, produced evidence of an affluent lifestyle such as a bath-house, with signs of such imported food as olives. The site also seems to have been a location for the pursuit of falconry, one of the earliest indicators in Britain of this rich man’s pursuit.

A 2m stretch of wall is all that remains of Othona Fort, Bradwell-on-Sea. It was originally a hugely significant defence against the Saxons, built in the later years of occupation (between AD 250 and AD 270) as part of a chain of forts.

The foundations of a Romano-Celtic temple were discovered in Harlow in the 1950s. This square temple features 3ft thick walls, and is one of only fifteen or so known such buildings in Britain, and the only one fronted by a substantial rectangular porch. Six villas and other settlements have also been discovered in the nearby Stort Valley.

UNUSUAL LISTED BUILDINGS

Barking Magistrates’ Court (built in 1893) – not only the building, but also its railings, lamps and lamp holders.

Renowned for its Art Deco interior is the Baggage Hall at Tilbury Riverside station.

Jetty No. 4 (and the Approach), a 500ft long stretch of jetty in Dagenham Dock, is among Britain’s earliest surviving reinforced concrete structures.

The canteen at the Rhône-Poulenc building in Dagenham. This is a post-Second World War edifice, with Rhône-Poulenc since reborn as Aventis Pharma (a pharmaceutical company).

The booking hall concourse at Barking station, opened by the Queen in 1961. Its cantilevered structure was a pioneering design at the time.

Brooke House in Basildon, a 1960s multi-storey tower of flats. This was designed by Sir Basil Spence, architect of Coventry Cathedral.

THE SMALLEST, LARGEST, OLDEST,LONGEST, HIGHEST

When the Becontree council housing estate (spread over Barking, Ilford and Dagenham) was built in the 1920s, it was the largest council estate in the world. By the time it was completed in 1938, it accommodated 115,652 people in 25,736 dwellings – effectively the first English ‘New Town’.

Southend Pier, at 1.33 miles, remains the longest in the world.

Chelmsford was the first place in Britain to install electric street lighting in 1888. However, the council were not forward thinking about such technology and reverted for a while back to gas lighting because it was cheaper.

The first purpose-built cinema in the country is reputed to be the Harwich Electric Palace, which has been restored and still attracts cinema-goers. In its original form, from 1911, it attracted fishermen straight from port-side and as a result was sprayed with disinfectant perfume at the end of performances.

The first cinema built after the Second World War was the Odeon in Harlow, opened in 1960.

The highest point of the county is Chrishall Common near the village of Langley, reaching 482ft. At the other extreme, the whole of Canvey Island is lower than high water level.

Cliff Richard made his first professional appearance at Butlins holiday camp in Clacton-on Sea in 1958. The camp was demolished in the 1980s to make way for housing.

A seventeenth-century Dutch cottage in Crown Hill, Rayleigh, is Britain’s oldest council house. It is part of the Dutch heritage prevalent in the south of Essex, and is unusually circular and very small.

Manningtree, a once busy port at the head of the Stour Estuary upstream from Harwich, is the smallest town in England.

When the residential towers were built at the Colchester University campus, they were Europe’s tallest load-bearing brick structures. They remain the tallest brick buildings in the country.

Essex is home to Great Britain’s first capital city, established by the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago, Colchester, which is also Britain’s oldest recorded town.

Brentwood was the first town in Britain to install CCTV, in 1994.

The Iron Age settlement discovered at Uphall, near Ilford, is the largest site of its kind in Essex, covering 24 hectares.

Great Bentley is proud of laying claim to having the largest village green in Essex (if not England) at a whopping 42 acres.

Perhaps the oldest surviving timber-framed barn in Europe is Coggeshall Grange Barn, Grange Hill, Colchester, dating from possibly as early as 1140. However, Brightlingsea makes a claim that Jacob’s Hall, in the town centre, is the oldest (fourteenth-century) timber-framed building in England. Superseding both, the Barley Barn at Cressing Temple (between Braintree and Witham) describes itself as the oldest timber-framed barn in the world, dating back to 1206. Fyfield Hall (Ongar) has a slightly different claim: to be the oldest ‘continually inhabited’ timber-framed house in Britain, evidenced by some of its roof timbers having been felled in the twelfth century. Only super sleuths will be able to sort this one out!

Colchester boasts the largest surviving Victorian water tower in Britain (known as Jumbo) at 110ft high. It was named by the local rector (who lived just a few feet from the tower) after an elephant in London Zoo.

Layer Marney Tower (near Colchester) is England’s tallest gatehouse, dating from the Tudor period.

At Theydon Garnon is the oldest surviving milestone in the county. It is not very prepossessing, thanks to its proximity to a busy road and to nearby hedges (those hedge cutters can be lethal).

At Rivers Hall, Boxted, you can find what started out as the longest barn in Essex. It was 136ft long when it was built, but lost 64ft in the 1987 storms.

The oldest windmill in Essex is at Great Bardfield. It was built as a prototype brick windmill as early as 1660, because storms were capable of blowing over wooden windmills. It is said to be the first brick tower mill, modelled on a smock mill, and is now a private dwelling.

At 263 hectares, the largest landfill site in Essex is at Mucking. It is due to close in 2010 and be restored as a country park.

When it was built, Audley End House, Saffron Walden, was the largest house in England. It remains the last of the great Essex courtyard houses. It was built in 1614 for the Lord Treasurer, Thomas Howard, and when James I visited during the construction he is said to have reported that it was ‘too much for a King but may do for a Lord High Treasurer.’

‘The Lawn’ in Harlow is the first tower block built in Britain (1951).

Built in 1809, Rayleigh Tower Mill is the highest remaining mill in Essex. It stands 68ft tall and was originally used to grind corn from surrounding areas.

The smallest cottage in East Anglia is a thatched dwelling overlooking the River Stort in Clavering – at just 10ft by 8ft. Chestnut Cottage was built for the ford keeper and needed a ladder to reach the upstairs.

The Maldon mint was the first to operate in Essex, although it is unclear how much earlier it is than the Colchester mint of 991.

ESSEX EXTRAVAGANCES

The 1679 inventory of Copped Hall (Epping) included, in its 103 rooms, some 250 chairs, 150 stools, 69 tables, 170 tapestries, 50 bedsteads and 16 ‘bucks’ heads’.

Wanstead House, built in 1722 at a cost of £360,000 for Sir Richard Child, had garden and parkland amounting to 300 acres. The elaborate landscaping – an island on one of the lakes was said to represent Great Britain – was such that crowds of people turned up to peer, open-mouthed, at the sight.

The wealthy Richard Rigby, in 1776, hired Robert Adam (the famous architect responsible for such gems as Portland Place and Luton Hoo) to enhance Mistley church with twin towers – these remain, although the church is long gone. Rigby had also planned a saltwater bath, by the river, but this plan was never brought to fruition. Adam’s work also survives in the lodges of Mistley Hall, the Rigby family home, but this was the only work he did in Essex.

BITS OF LONDON IN ESSEX

The 100ft maypole in The Strand, used by London revellers since the Restoration, was moved, with the assistance of one Isaac Newton, to Wanstead in 1718. His friend, Dr Proud, a curate, needed something on which to place what was the (then) largest telescope in Europe, at some 125ft long. The maypole was replaced by the church of St Mary le Strand, and the telescope provided final proof for Dr Proud that the earth did indeed move around the sun.

When the old London Bridge was removed (in about 1824), the balustrade was taken to Gilwell Park near Epping Forest and could still be seen 140 years later on the front lawn of the Scouts’ headquarters at Gilwell. Some of the stones from the bridge were used to construct Beaumont Quay, near Thorpe-le-Soken, and a tablet remains on an old barn recording the event.

St Peter’s Church at Aldborough Hatch, completed in 1863, was built mainly of stone from the first Westminster Bridge, demolished in 1861. It is named after the Collegiate Church of St Peter, i.e. Westminster Abbey.

Parts of the London house which William Wilberforce (the abolitionist) used as a weekend retreat were rescued when the Battersea house was demolished and were used in the erection of a holiday bungalow on Canvey Island (‘The Settlement’). Doors, windows and decorated wood panels were all successfully salvaged.

Two slender fluted Corinthian columns were erected by Sir Frederick Gibberd (the architect of Harlow New Town) in his garden at Harlow. Apparently, they are relics of Soane’s Bank of England which were not wanted after improvements in the 1920s – they were brought to Essex by Gibberd in the 1950s. Gibberd, incidentally, was the designer of Heathrow Airport and the Regent’s Park Mosque, and the only New Town designer to live in the town that he had planned.

HALF A DOZEN CASTLES AROUND THE COUNTY

Colchester Castle (Norman) was built on the site of a Roman Temple from re-used Roman materials. It is renowned for having the largest Norman keep in Europe – considerably larger than the White Tower of London – and is still a prominent feature in the town.

Hadleigh Castle was one of the last Norman castles to be built (in about 1230) to stop French invaders, although it never fulfilled its brief. The ruins were the subject of one of Constable’s most famous paintings and remain little changed and freely accessible.

Hedingham Castle, North of Colchester, has the largest Norman arch in Europe at 28ft wide and 20ft high, supported on pillars in the second-floor banqueting room. Its 100ft-high keep is said to be the best preserved of its kind in England. (Incidentally, Castle Hedingham is the only town in Essex to have ‘Castle’ in its name).

Mountfitchet Castle, Stansted (Norman, possibly Saxon), is now the only reconstructed ring and bailey castle in Britain open to visitors.

Pleshey Castle, home of the murdered Thomas Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester (in the fourteenth century), remains as a preserved motte and bailey earthworks. The outer bailey dates from the twelfth century, and used to enclose the whole village.

Rayleigh Castle (Norman), is the only one in Essex referred to in the Domesday Book. Its earthworks remain in the 2 acres of Rayleigh Mount, a small park.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION:ON THE BIG SCREEN . . .

Purfleet, at the beginning of the twentieth century, used its former chalk pits to good effect as the backdrop of numerous silent westerns while soldiers from the local barracks played cowboys or Indians as needed. Thurrock had a starring role as far back as the 1928 film The Guns of Loos, with locals used as extras. Epping Forest and Upminster both feature in Full Metal Jacket (1987). The Big Sleep has a scene filmed at The Grotto in Wanstead Park. Tilbury Docks turns up in Up the Creek (1958), Brannigan (1976) and The Battle of Britain (1969) which also features North Weald Airfield. Tilbury’s Coalhouse Fort earned £30,000 for its part in Batman Begins (2005) while the Art Deco State cinema in Grays made an appearance not only in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988) but also in Chicago Joe and the Show Girl (1990). Stansted Airport can be seen in the films Golden Eye (1995), Bridget Jones’ Diary (2001) and Wimbledon (2004). The Fourth Protocol (1987) was filmed in Colchester and Chelmsford (car chase takes place in the latter), with Colchester also featuring in Vanity Fair (2004). Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) has scenes shot at St Clement’s Church, West Thurrock, and Tilbury was used as Venice for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)! In 2002, 28 Days Later was partly filmed at the Broadview Transport Café near Stanford-le-Hope, at Stansted Airport and North Weald Airfield. Wallasea Island can be seen in Children of Men (2006), Clacton Pier in Kinky Boots (2005), and Southend Airport in The Queen (2006).

. . . AND THE SMALL SCREEN

Lovejoy incorporated many Essex locations including Braintree, Finchingfield, Layer Marney Tower, Maldon, Saffron Walden, Thaxted and Ingatestone Hall. The hall was also a location in the 2005 production of Bleak House as well as the setting in Lady Audley’s Secret. Chelmsford was the location for 1990s The Chief police series, and used in the filming of the earlier Porridge. Hi-de-Hi was filmed at Dovercourt, and Ivanhoe – in part – at Hedingham Castle. Southend-on-Sea, Leigh-on-Sea and Clacton-on-Sea have all been seen in Eastenders. The Epping Ongar Railway featured in a Waking the Dead episode, and the Halfway House pub (Southend arterial) was in an episode of Z-Cars. Dr Who and Quatermass have made good use of the Thurrock chalk pits, and the location for some of Softly, Softly was North Ockendon. The later 1980s Birds of a Feather, based in Chigwell, could be partly responsible for the Essex girls’ reputation. St Osyth’s Priory was the setting in P.D. James’ Death in Holy Orders (2001). Basildon was prominent in Can’t Buy Me Love (2004), as was Leigh-on-Sea in Class of ’76 (2005). Stansted Airport has been a popular location, appearing in Cracker, Hustle, Jonathan Creek, Spooks, Man and Boy (2002), and Life Begins. Southend-on-Sea was part of the backdrop in a London’s Burning episode, its pier can be seen in the credits of Minder, and its renowned Kursaal can be seen in The Avengers, The Prisoner, and Nearest and Dearest. One episode of Spooks was filmed at Bradwell-on-Sea (at the former power station) and another at Theydon Mount, near Epping. Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) also featured episodes in different Epping locations, as did Murphy’s Law. Wivenhoe gets a look in – in Plotlands (1997) and A Perfect Place – and Tilbury Docks turns up again in Murphy’s Law.

A SELECTION OF LESSER-KNOWN MUSEUMS

Battlesbridge Motor Cycle Museum is likely to be the smallest museum in Essex – or even further afield.

Brentwood Museum, Cemetery Lodge, is sited in a graveyard, perhaps the only one in such a location.

Brewery Chapel Museum, Halstead, is on the site of a brewery which had a chapel installed in the grounds in 1883 for the benefit of those connected with the brewery.

British Postal Museum, Loughton, incorporates not just the history of the British postal service but includes such objects as the desk of Rowland Hill, founder of the Penny Post.

Combined Military Services Museum in Maldon boasts many exhibits from the Cold War. Espionage equipment used by spies on all sides are housed here, the sort of thing that James Bond would relish such as secret cameras, hollowed-out logs and even the typewriter used by the Krogers, KGB spies who posed as London booksellers during the 1960s.

East England Tank Museum, Clacton, specialises in restoring, preserving, and exhibiting historic military vehicles from all over the world.

Essex Aviation Museum at Brightlingsea is housed in a Martello Tower which still boasts its wartime camouflage paint and is still in a position to monitor the detonations from Foulness. Exhibits here include the only George III cannon in East Anglia and a mammoth bone believed to be about 10,000 years old.

Harwich’s Maritime and Lifeboat Museums are in a former 1818 lighthouse.

House on the Hill Toy Museum at Stansted Mountfitchet is the largest privately owned toy museum in Europe.

Maeldune Heritage Centre, Maldon, is home to the Maldon Embroidery depicting a thousand years of the town’s history; Bayeux eat your heart out.

Mangapps Railway Museum, Burnham-on-Crouch, has a large collection of artefacts, inside and out, plus railway carriages, signal-boxes and the largest railway signalling collection on public display in Britain.

Motorboat Museum, Wat Tyler Country Park, Basildon, is the only museum in the world devoted to the history of motor boats.

Museum of Power, Langford Maldon, is housed in the former 1920s Southend Waterworks Pumping Station. It demonstrates working examples of all power sources.

Paycocke’s (National Trust), Coggeshall, Colchester, is a timbered merchant’s house dating from about 1500, with domestic Tudor architecture. There is also a display of the locally renowned Coggeshall lace.

Prittlewell Priory Museum, based in a twelfth-century Cluniac Priory, houses an extensive collection of early twentieth-century radios and televisions.

Purfleet Heritage and Military Centre incorporates the Hornchurch Wing Collection and a large collection of RAF memorabilia and artefacts. The centre is housed in the last remaining Royal Gunpowder Magazine of its kind, built in 1759 to hold over 10,000 barrels of gunpowder.

Royal Gunpowder Mills at Waltham Abbey (English Heritage) contains Newton’s Pool which was used for the testing of underwater explosives including the explosive used in the famous bouncing bomb. The site (175 acres in all) also incorporates The Press House, where gunpowder was riskily pressed to improve its explosive properties.

Saffron Walden Museum specialises in ethnography and the study of international cultures, so exhibits include such unexpected Essex treasures as 1820s wooden figures carved in . . . Tahiti.

Thames Sailing Barge (Glenway) and Heritage Centre can be found at The Hythe, Maldon. Glenway was launched in 1913, one of a fleet of over 2,000 Thames barges, but is one of only a handful still afloat.

Valence House Museum is unusual in that it is housed in the only surviving manor house in Dagenham, dating back to the thirteenth century and partially surrounded by a moat.

Warners Mill Archive at Braintree houses 60,000 fabric samples, 2,500 of which are hand-woven and dating from the 1820s. One of the flywheels, weighing more than ten tons, is preserved in the reception area.