The Desecration of Essex

Yet again Essex is threatened. The planned multiplication of transport links with London now challenges any peace remaining in the Essex countryside. Does Essex have to play the host to these insidious threats? Does rural Essex need this Hadean progress?

Plans for the proposed development have been published. They show the full extent of the damage that may be expected to our homes. The development, if we can associate the word development with such an outcome, will destroy a wide sweep of Essex farmland. It is just this land that we associate with the tranquillity, the beauty and the honesty of Essex. The development will carve a strip out of the county from which only the pockets of the operators will flourish.

The development will bring the sore of the unsightly, supporting infrastructure. Despite our Master’s stated intentions towards control of this disfigurement, our lives will be blighted into eternity. There will be pollution. The evil and noxious gases will threaten the health of all that they contact, plants, trees, animals, you and me. We urge you to resist the plan. Support our campaign with all the energy you can muster!

We refer, of course, to the:

Plans and Sections
of the London and Bury St Edmunds Railway
Commencing by a Junction with the
Eastern Counties Railway
in the Parish of Stratford in the County of
Essex
and Terminating in the Cricket Field in the
Parish of St James in the Borough of Bury St
Edmunds
in the County of Suffolk
1845-461,2

These plans have recently been published and their availability is due to the solicitors Pennington and Bisgood. The plans show the railway leaving Stratford. The rail line then passes through West Ham, Wanstead, and, following the Roothing Valley, Woodford, Chigwell and Loughton. After Theydon Bois and Lambourne, where the railway crosses the River Roothing, the line cuts through the southern tip of Theydon Mount, passing through the land of the Reverend Sir Edward Bowyer Smyth.

The proposed railway then just touches Stapleford Abbots, before passing through Stapleford Tawney and the land of both the Reverend Smyth, referred to already, and the late Sir Charles Smith, his estate presently being administered under his will by the trustee Spencer Smith. The route enters Stanford Rivers near to Passingford Bridge. Still within the estate of the late Sir Charles, the line veers to the North of the cottages wherein live Jonathan Stokes, James Mead, Widow Clark, Samuel Hutchins and John Bareham. Mary (Widow) Jennings, who lives in Lawns, farms most of the land around here. The railway intends to cross the road, from West to East, between Lawns and Wayletts, where Mary Mott resides. How their peace will be disturbed!

The proposed line now crosses the River Roothing for a short distance before crossing back to approach close behind our new Ongar Union Workhouse. How long will the Workhouse survive when subjected to the constant thunder of the heavy engines? Living South of the Workhouse, in John Kynaston’s cottages, Isaac Taylor, William Pivet, William Furlong and John Mott, and their families will sleep no more. The Reverend Horrocks Cocks, in the Chapel, must prepare to have services greatly disturbed.

Those good people of Stanford Rivers, tenants of Capel Cure, towards Ongar, Charles Clark, James Green, John Knight, William Rayner and Edmund Haymer will not rest easy. Joshua Wilson’s holding, and his tenants Edward Garret, Robert Star, Robert Dix, will be within earshot. Capel Cure, and his tenants, James Mansfield, William Judd, James Lane, James Flack, William Wood, John Welsby, William Pearce, Mary Woolmer, Sarah Thorogood, Thomas Wood and Abraham Surry, the baker, and all their families, will all forsake their tranquillity.

The railway then crosses again, briefly, the River Roothing, where it enters Navestock, before passing East of Coleman’s Mill and the Windmill of William Kynaston, leaving to enter High Ongar, East of Green House and Bottles Farm.

The line then departs Ongar, at a distance of 17 miles from its origin, almost crossing the River Roothing at High Ongar Bridge before passing through Fyfield (and “Clatterfool End”). On its Route to Dunmow, the line skirts West of the Church at Beauchamp Roothing. Never very far from the River Roding, the successive parishes of Abbotts Roothing and Leaden Roothing are visited before the line leaves the river to pass through Aythorp Roothing, High Roothing, Great Canfield and Great Dunmow. The Cricket Field in Bury St Edmunds is reached 59 miles and 4 furlongs from Stratford.

HELP US DRIVE THIS
MONSTER FROM OUR MIDST!

At a scale of 13.3” to one mile, the map accompanying the plan runs to 31 sheets, of which 24 are in Essex. At such a scale, the map is very detailed, as implied by the above commentary. The survey appears to be accurate but the surveyor is unknown. The map defines the intended track and a region 100 yds on either side of this track. The owner and tenants of all fields and houses within this region are noted in the Book of Reference. The map was published 5 years after the local Tithe Award map, adding to such parish detail. Additionally, within the map volume, a number of sheets provide details of the gradients. Of course, the railway, like many others, was never built.