High Country History Group

Rendezvous: 15:00; Black Bull, Fyfield, back car park (furthest from pub).

Walk: Cross the Roding behind the pub and then 2 (flat) miles on the Essex Way to Willingale, led by Patrick Griggs

Visit: We will visit the two churches of St Andrew’s and St Christopher’s which share the same churchyard in Willingale and we hope to have a guide from the local history society to take us round.

Walk: Rather than take the same route back to the Bull we will walk down to the Old School and thence to Miller’s Green and then follow the Roding back to Fyfield, a distance of 2½ (flat) miles.

Refreshments: Having used the Black Bull’s car park (and walked a few miles) some of us may feel under an obligation to take a beer in the pub before heading for home!

Footwear: As long as June is relatively dry, strong shoes or trainers should be fine.

Alternative: Non-walkers would be welcome to meet us in the churchyard at Willingale at about 16:00.

On 26 June 1697 Sir John Bramston, of Skreens near Roxwell, decided to visit friends at Albyns near Stapleford Tawney. His daughter had taken the coach horses to London, so he was reduced to using two borrowed horses (one of which was young and inexperienced), as well as a borrowed coachman. All went well until ‘goeinge apace downe a hill beyond Ongar, a butcher comeing up loden, and not getting out of the way, the chariot run upon him, and threw the butcher off, and I was afraid had mischeived the fellow, for he cried out on his back; but my men helped him up again, and I presume he had no hurt, for I never heard more of it.’

He resumed his journey to Albyns but the younger horse proved excitable and difficult to control. On driving up the chase to the house, the young horse refused to stop and, on being reined in hard, fell to the ground kicking. It succeeded in dislodging the footboard, causing the coachman to topple off the box and fall between the animal’s legs. Only the swift intervention of the Albyn’s servants in restraining the horse saved the man’s life, as well as preventing the death or injury of those still inside the coach.

The footboard was nailed back, and Sir John returned to Skreens after his visit with a horse borrowed from Albyns to replace the excitable youngster, as well as another coachman. It should be noted that Sir John was nearly 88 years of age when this incident occurred, but reported these events in his autobiography in a matter-of-fact way. Accidents involving horses were probably a part of daily life.

Oh quaint old Essex town! Your sheltered ways
Have fared so gently in this vale of tears;
That looking back with thought of other days,
One sees no change to mark the passing years.
I hear the same wind whisp’ring thro’ the trees,
Where Livingstone once wandered with his books:
I hear the same low murmur of the bees,
And recognise the cawing of the rooks.

Oh peaceful Essex town! you’re very old;
The Romans built within your lines a camp;
Your stones have oft resounded, so I’m told,
With Caesar’s sturdy warriors’ martial tramp:
I hear their shouts re-echo in the breeze;
Ye Britons, read about them in your books;
The sounds of Roman axe and falling trees
Are heard above the cawing of the rooks.

Oh, quiet old Ongar town! I’ve heard it said
When Cromwell and his Ironsides held their sway,
That many of your sons both fought and bled
To help the King they loved to win the day.
I heard the cry ‘For Cromwell and the Lord!’
Whilst students donned the helm and closed their books,
The sound of war’s alarms, the clash of pike and sword
Were heard above the cawing of the rooks.

Some day, I hope my ship will come to town,
And bring to me the fortune overdue;
I’ll buy a little cot and settle down,
And make my home, old Ongar town, with you.
I’ll rise each day to greet the early dawn,
And dawdle with my fishing and my books;
I’ll wander through the cornfields in the morn,
And listen to the cawing of the rooks.

Next this Houfe took into Confideration the Charge agaift John Merdith, Doctor in Divinity, Parfon of Stanford Rivers, in the County of Essex. And this Day he being by Order of this Hofe to appear, and he failing, Richard Cox testified upon Oath, “That he ferved the Order of this Houfe, at his Lodgings, upon Wednesday laft.”
Hereupon this Houfe, taking this as a Contempt, proceeded againft him; and thefe Witneffes were produced:

Ric’d Cox teftified, “That he hath not been at his Charge at Stanford Rivers this Nine Months.”

Francis Flewing , Ric’d Cranfield teftied, That the faid Dr.Meredith is at Oxford, with the King’s Army.

Hereupon this Houfe, taking the whole Bufinefs into Confideration, adjudged, “That for this Offence, the faid Dr Meredith fhall be fequeftered from his Living of Stanford Rivers, and the Profits thereof; and that Matthew Ellifton, Master of Arts is hereby appointed to officiate the faid Cure during the Pleafure of this Houfe, and fhall be allowed fuch Maintenance for the fame as this Houfe fhall appoint, when they are informed of the tur Value of the faid Living; and the Profits of the faid Living to be fewqestered into refponsible Hands.”

ORDERED, That the Perfon that is appointed by this Houfe to officiate the Cure of Stanford Rivers, shall have the whole Profits allowed him for his Pains.

*********
A further note regarding Dr Meredith is to be found in the Memorials of Oxford, Volume 1
All Souls College
Many of the wardens of this college highly distinguished themselves in the times in which they lived: but none went through such vicissitudes as Dr. John Meredith. He was sometime fellow of Eton, of which college he afterwards became provost; rector of Stanford Rivers, in Essex, in 1641, and chaplain to the earl of Newburgh; who being chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster bestowed on him the mastership of Wigston’s hospital at Leicester, on the sequestration of the celebrated Chillingworth, 1643-4; but the omnipotent house of commons of that day interdicted the appointment.

He was also deprived of his rectory of Stanford Rivers in May following an arbitrary vote of the house of lords. But he lived to be restored to all his preferments in 1660, nearly twenty years afterwards, and did in 1665.

I was amused by the following article reported in the Essex Newsman newspaper in 1870.

A benevolent gentleman residing at Wrabness recently presented on of his neighbours, a poor cripple, with a donkey and cart, in order that they might assist him in earning a livelihood. On Sunday last the man lent his donkey to a person for a drive to Manningtree, who on his arrival there tied it to a tree in Mr Viall’s yard. During his absence the animal, in attempting, as it is believed to brush off the numerous flies which were tormenting it, got its fore foot entangled in the halter, and the weight of its body caused such a pressure on the windpipe that when the man in charge returned a few minutes later he found the donkey quite dead from strangulation. A mock inquest on the body was held at one of the inns in the town, when a verdict was returned of “Involuntary suicide caused by the visitation of flies.”

Registers of Stapleford Tawney. Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1558 to 1752. Fifty copies printed, numbered and signed; subscription price, ten shillings and sixpence.

These Registers were printed with the permission of the Rev. Lewis Newcomen Prance MA, The following names amongst others occur:

Artherope, Baker, Becke, Benton, Bone, Bowes, Bowles, Burton, Cakebread, Casse, Cave, Chevings, Grave, Maulter, Quarke, Gray, Mott, Collop, Green, Nicholson, Comerford, Haddon, Orghar, Con, Hardwicke, Perry, Crabb, Cracknell, Harris, Hutchin, Ramsey, Randall, Dowset, King, Reed, Franks, Resley, Freshwater, Lord, Richardson, Fuller, Luther, Robinson, Rumball, Searle, Shadbolt, Smith, Threader, Turke, Turner, Waylett, White, Wood, Wright.

All copies sold.

A tea and Welcome Home was given to the returned soldiers in the Schoolroom. Twenty-two ex-Service men were present. Sir Drummond C. Smith, Bart., occupied the chair, and the following committee helped with the arrangements: The Rev. S. M. Stanley, Mr J. Miller, Mr A. Green, Mr R. Waltham, Mr. J. Padfield, and Mr Sledge. Laddies supplied the tea, and made the tables beautiful with flowers. The Rev. S. M. Stanley gave the men a hearty welcome home. He wished they had a hut so their wives, parents, and sweethearts could have been present with them. Fifty-five men left the two parishes in answer to the call of their country. Two were still serving in India, Major Bonner and H. Tricker. They met not forgetting those who had made the noble sacrifice. Sixteen of the fifty-five would not return.

The memorial to the fallen was nearly completed at Mount Church and it was hoped soon to have the Tawney Memorial in place in the church.

Each man received as a souvenir an inscribed cigarette case. Sir Drummond said he would like to add to the Rector’s rmarks his thanks to them all. Mr J, Miller proposed thanks to the Rector, and Mr R. Waltham proposed thanks to Sir Drummond. Mr. J.Padfield proposed thanks to the ladies, Mrs Stanley, Mrs Yeates, Mrs Chambers, Mrs Padfield and Mrs and Miss Sarling.

Lt. Malcolm Sworder, officially reported killed in action, March 18, 1918, was the youngest son of Mr and Mrs Harry Sworder, of the Hall, Stapleford Tawney, and subsequently of Whittles Hall, Springfield. He was an Old Chelmsfordian, and came from British Columbia in the first Canadian Contingent as a trooper in Lord Strathcona’s Horse R.C.

He was promoted to the rank of sergeant, and being subsequently recommended for a commission, was gazetted to his old regiment, afterwards transferring to the R.F.C. Before leaving England for Canada, he was in the Essex Imperial Yeomanry.

His brothers Lt. Norman Sworder R.F.C., Observation Balloon Corps, and Sec. Lt. G. Hope Sworder, 7th Dragoon Guards and A.D.C. to a Major-General of a Division of Indian Cavalry, are both on active service.

At Epping Petty Session on Friday, before A.J. Edwards Esq. (chairman), Sir Victor Buxton, Bart., E.A. Ball, A. W. Leech, W.W. Nicholls, P.g. Thompson, C. W. Skinner, and E. J. Wythes, Esqrs., Mary Hunter, Hill Hall, Theydon Mount, widow of Lt.-Col C.E. Hunter, was summoned under the Food Hoarding Order in respect of tea and sugar alleged to exceed the requirements of her household – the quantities being 49lb of tea and 98lb of sugar. Mr E. J. Naldrett, instructed by Mr Arnold Richardson prosecuted on behalf of the Ongar Food Control Committee, and Mr. H. A Colefax, K.C., and Mr. C. E. Jones defended.

Mr Naldrett said since the proceedings were instituted the Appeal Court had decided that tea was not an article of food and with the consent of the Bench he would withdraw this summons. The Bench allowed the case to be withdrawn.

In the sugar case, Mr Naldrett said that P.s. Denny and two constables visited the defendant’s premises early on the morning of Jan. 28. Mrs Hunter was not at home and the housekeeper showed them the storeroom where they found the 98lb of sugar referred to, and took it away. The housekeeper said the sugar was kept for the purpose of making jam this year. If that were so it was not the right thing to do as sugar required for jam-making had to be obtained in a particular way. A person might be allowed to save some out of rations, but the quantity seized at Hill Hall was not so saved. Before the police left, a daughter of Mrs Hunter invited them to search the house, but nothing further was found. The tradesman with whom Mrs Hunter was registered for sugar supplied her between April 10 and Dec 28 of last year with 518lb of sugar, ad from Jan 12 to Jan 26, when the rationing order was in force, with 33½lb. The average number of persons registered was 16. If there were other people at the house they should have been registered with their own grocer, and Mrs Hunter had no right to supply them with sugar.

P.s. Denny said there was no attempt to conceal anything. Augustus Hills, grocer, Epping, said 22 persons were registered at the house, and they were supplied with less sugar in January than they were entitled to. Mrs Hunter’s groceries included sugar, had been reduced by about one-third of the total supply formerly ordered. C. F. Lintott, Inspector under the Enforcement of Orders branch of the Ministry of Food, said he searched Mrs Hunter’s London house, but found only small supplies.

Mr Colefax contended that there was absolutely no evidence of hoarding. Voluntary rationing has been put into operation by Mrs Hunter before the Government’s scheme came out, and the servants were given a corresponding increase in wages. The number of people at Hill Hall fluctuated considerably, and the number staying there at the beginning of the year was nearer 40 than 16. In January, although Mrs Hunter was entitled to 45lb., she only had 33½lb. of sugar. If there was any accumulation of stores it arose from the fact that people were eating less than they were entitled to. Mrs Hunter said she had no intention whatsoever of hoarding. The Hall had been used as a convalescent home for soldiers till October, when it had been closed, as the work was too much for the doctor. There was a possibility of its being re-opened. There has been a number of shoots at the Hall, but the game were not artificially fed, and they were afterwards sent to hospitals. Mrs Yates, housekeeper, said the sugar was the accumulation of her savings.

The Bench retired, and on their return the Chairman said they had decided to dismiss the case as the Bench did not consider there had been any contravention of the Order, They allowed no costs in that case, but in the case which was withdrawn they allowed £5 5s costs. Mr Colefax: I hope we shall get both our tea and sugar back.

I had heard of him since I began to know myself because he was a step uncle to my father and born about 10 years before him (1860) at the ‘Wheatsheaf” Nine Ashes. I got to know him by sight in Brentwood up to about 1928, when I belive he died – in Billericay infirmary, or paupers end up. A diminutive figure with a large mottled nose, and a squeaky little voice speaking in broad Essex dialect. Such a dialect as you seldom hear now, 1970, having been eradicated by 46 years or so of BBC broadcasts and later TV. Mores the pity as it had considerable humour about it, but to be fully appreciated, spoken with a long drawl, unsuitable for what little expression one has time to explore himself now. Time is money and everything is calculated in terms of time.

I suppose Joe had a formal Christian baptism and this could be ascertained by a perusal of the church registers of High Ongar for that period. But legend says, he had another and more boisterous one at the “Wheatsheaf” Nine Ashes. This was done I gin, I understand, and undoubtedly the High Priest would have been Bob Amos – 1828-1917. A sporting farmer, living hard by at Lorkins Farm, on Christian name terms with Jim Mace, and not a bad artist with his fists himself. Could play a fair tune on a piana, or a strapping chorus girl from London, could he inveigle her down to his farm. An excellent shot with a 12 bore was he, and muzzle loader before it. He could mix in any company – high or low – with a strong preference for the latter.

This baptism would in modern parlance – be right up his street. With him would be Dick Oliver a younger protégé of Bobs in the fist game, Choikey Brazier, Hookey Winger, Rhubarb Chandler, and other worthies. They all earned a tough ill paid living in agriculture, and the taking of the products thereof to the Metropolis. Especially hay for the teeming horse population there. Also among them, would be also certainly be Lardie Farmer, a very kind person, but also of necessity rough and tough, and of most uncertain temper. Always came in for a certain amount of teasing from the poverty striken community, but the teaser would find himself with bodily injuries, if he took things too far.

So little Joe was christened in gin, and with this inestimable start, proceeded to grow. He grew up in a rural environment, his father and my great grandfather being a jack of all trades such as thatching, sheep shearing, horse clipping and haybinding. He was also the licensee of small country beerhouses and was landlord of three of these oasis – “The White Horse” burned down finally, after degenerating into a private residence on Paslow Common, the Wheatsheaf, and finally the Shepherd inn on Kelvedon Common. Little Joe was to grow to manhood in the last named pub and by his appearance and cunning left his nickname “Monkey” as part of the unofficial title there: premises acquired viz – The Drum and Monkey.

Joe’s father was a poacher and the receiver and disposer of poached game. He always obeyed the eleventh commandment, by never being caught at his pastime. Little Joe’s mother, being as broad as she was long, became the Drum, of the Drum and Monkey. She died of cancer on these premises.

JM

The British Library has launched online its vast newspaper archive. Visitors to the website http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk can search for entries in newspapers free of charge. Digitised copies of the originals are subject to a subscription payment.

The site boasts, quite rightly:

“We have scanned millions of pages of historical newspapers and made them available online for the first time ever.

“Search millions of articles by keyword, name, location, date or title and watch your results appear in an instant.

“Compare this with hours of painstaking manual searching through hard copies or microfilm often requiring a visit to the British Library in North London and it is easy to appreciate the ground breaking nature of this project.”

Up to 40 million pages will be scanned onto the archive over the next ten years.

Several Essex newspapers are included in the project, including the Essex Chronicle, which first published in 1764. Microfilm copies of this newspaper (along with the Essex Weekly News) are available to view in the Local Studies section of Chelmsford Library.

It is now possible to use the British Library website to pinpoint, by date and page number, articles in the Essex Chronicle then look at the detail free of charge on microfilm in the local Library. The resource will drastically cut the length of time taken to find relevant articles – previously a needle in a haystack approach - and opens the door, for the first time, to a wide range of undiscovered local topics.

To illustrate the site’s usefulness, one of my friends is writing a history of a local church – Ingatestone United Reformed Church – which celebrates its bicentenary in 2012. It was known that the first building, erected in 1812, was pulled down and replaced in 1840, but little else from this early period. Using the archive pinpointed within minutes three highly relevant articles:

Essex Chronicle 1 May 1840. Page 3 “independent chapel at Ingatestone has been pulled down and is about to be rebuilt on an enlarged scale”
Essex Chronicle 8 May 1840. Page 3, “dilapidated state … pulled down”.
Essex Chronicle 16 October 1840. Page 3 “to be reopened … 22 inst”

Why not try the site for yourself?

In Journal No. 39 (March 2011) I reported on the rediscovery in the Essex Society for Archaeology and History office of a Victorian Gentleman’s scrapbook. The work contains several drawings of local churches which in some cases pre-date their Victorian rebuilding. I stated that the compiler was unknown, other than the initials CKP.

Two members have advised me that CKP is C.K. Probert of Newport (1820-1887). Probert was an early member of the Society, an antiquary and collector. The Society's printed library catalogue of 1923 lists MS items described as the Probert Collection ('Chas K Probert, Newport, Essex Nov 24 1883 written on the inner cover'). These were rough notes about 48 churches (the few listed in the catalogue were all in NW Essex, but Gt Chrishall is not mentioned). The catalogue indicates that they formed the basis of 12 MS volumes which were bequeathed to the British Museum in 1889. His papers may be consulted at the British Library and College of Arms (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/searches/subjectView.asp?ID=P23530).

The scrapbook dates from the second half of the 1850s through to 1885, and begins by concentrating on parishes in the north west of the county. Of particular interest are the sketches of churches made before the Victorian restorers appeared on the scene. For example, Bobbingworth shows the timber bell tower prior to restoration in 1841, and St Mary’s, High Ongar with a belfry and tall and slender spire before much rebuilding in 1858. .

James Bettley, a member of the Society (known to many as the author of the updated Buildings of England; Essex book) wrote: “Apart from the Suckling/Buckler cuttings, I thought it the single most useful source on 19th century church restoration in Essex that I have come across – the sketches and photos of churches before they were restored provide very valuable evidence. I was surprised to find, when I compared some of the photos of Radwinter, that the very photos in the scrapbook were used to illustrate A Deuce of an Uproar, where they are credited to Probert – so someone knew of this resource and used it in the 1980s”.

It is intended that the book be transferred to the Essex Record Office for safe keeping and allow it to be used by the public.

It is a cold house and an old house. The walls are thin. The windows let in the draught. Solar panels are not cost effective, not yet anyway, and planning permission needs to be sought before installation. The exterior plasterwork should not be disturbed. But we could increase the thickness of the loft installation – one easy solution . . . but the loft needs to be cleared!

Clearing the loft of the spoils of a sentimental collection amassed over a lifetime is not entirely a joy. It can be dirty, hot work but it does bring into focus a nostalgic view of one’s passages through life; old school books, and yes the odd school prize; the football programmes long since forgotten; magazines commemorating some event rendered into obscurity; the newspaper published the day after 9/11; china from past generations; picture frames, sometimes with pictures in them; trunks, empty.

But there are “finds” as well. You knew that they were there, just could not place that cardboard box in which they had lived out their retirement. So amongst this haul we found an urn-shaped trophy, silver-plate but quite handsome. The engraved title inscription, with the accompanying list of winners reads:

PERPETUAL CHALLENGE CUP
PRESENTED BY
THE FOUR TEES GREENSTED
TO THE
ONGAR AND DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY
FOR THE WINNER OF
OPEN JUMPING EVENT

1949 H. Gabriel
1950 E. A. Appleby
1951 H. Gabriel
W. Chapman
1952 W. Chapman
1953 D. R. Smith Esq, “Paddy”
1954 H. Holmes Roma
1955 G. J. Banham
1956 Mrs R. Arnitage
1957 H. Holmes “Diana”
1958 R. Dale
1959 Miss M. Vidler
1960 Miss V. Clark

So who were the “Four Tees”? What was the “Open Jumping Event”? Can you offer any further details on the background to the trophy? Do you have a cup with a history that has been deserted in the loft?

We have been favoured by Mr. Thompson, the able and experienced governor of this asylum, with a statement of expenditure for the past year, for the relief of the aged and indigent poor of ten parishes, which together include a population of upwards of three thousand two hundred, almost exclusively agricultural. The workings of this establishment as regards the advantages to the public and the poor themselves, may be considered a fair example of what will be derived from the new poor laws, if party prejudice is laid aside and the system recommended by the bill is allowed to have a fair trial. We have before us a statement of expenditure for the year ending the 27th of November 1835. At Stanford Rivers the sick, the feeble, and the orphan, derive those comforts which treble the cost would not procure for them at their own houses, whilst to the vicious and turbulent, this workhouse is indeed, “for a prison but a milder name,” and instances have occurred, that such characters, by restraint and judicious treatment, have been reclaimed and have escaped that contamination they had probably acquired, if mixed with others as worthless as themselves. The gross expenditure is divided into nine parts, and the charge apportioned to each parish, is in proportion to the number of paupers of each class sent to the house for maintenance in the course of the year.

The first class includes males and females, under the age of 10 years; this class in rated as two-ninths. The second class includes males and females between the ages of 10 and 15 years, rated as three-ninths. The third class consists of males above the age of 15 years, and is rated a four-ninths, The total expenditure for the past year ending the 27th of November is £526. 15s. 7d.
The following is a statement of the number of paupers maintained during that period, distinguishing the classes, which were sent to the House from each of the ten parishes:-

1st Class
2nd Class
3rd Class
Abbotts Roothing
33
58
40
Bobbingworth
33
99
117
Great Warley
109
97
174
Greenstead
52
-
130
Little Laver
69
18
58
Stanford Rivers
147
339
297
Stapleford Abbott
217
177
1
Staplefor Tawney
171
136
62
Stondon Massey
60
75
52
Shelley
-
56
56

891
1055
977

These classes, when added together make a gross number of 2923, and an average of 56 weekly. The food consists of meat twice a week; broth, rice, milk gruel, puddings and bread the other five. Nothing can exceed the cleanliness of every department, as regards linen, bedding, and rooms; and the air they breathe is calculated to promote health and long life. The sturdy paupers are generally engaged in cultivating the garden, and the women capable of doing any work, and the children, knit stockings which over and above what is required for the establishment, are distributed to the parishes in the Union; in the present year they will receive 117 pairs.

In the course of three years, there has been a surplus of 343 pairs of stockings. The cost for maintaining and every other charge has been decreasing in three years in the following proportions –

1832, the cost per head was 3s.6d
1833 - 3s.3½d
1834 - 3s. 3¼d

In 1833 the expenditure was £644. 19s. 11½d, the average number in the House being 65; in the present year the average number being 56, the expenditure was £526. 15s 7d; this sum includes extra nourishment for the sick. The number now in the house is 60; four deaths only occurred in the year. The establishment has been but little troubled with able bodied paupers since the first year, and real necessity only will induce them to apply; in such cases they are admitted and provided for, but the vicious, if not reclaimed, are sent to the tread wheels at Springfield; seven of this class have been so dealt with; twelve have absconded, and four were ultimately transported.

In each parish of the Union, there are those who were continually applying for relief, but who now find means to maintain themselves. Several cases of fraud by pretended illness, have been detected, and the rules of the establishment have effected a reformation in habitual drunkards.

In the year 1824, the poor rated in Stanford Rivers amounted to £826; in the first year of the Incorporated Workhouse, it was reduced to £436, and since to £254. This must be highly satisfactory to the rate-payers of each parish, with the strict, but humane manner in which the house has been conducted under the present excellent system. But the reduction of the poor rates is not the only advantage derived by the system. Such a saving might induce some to suspect that the poor were pinched; but the following facts may be taken as evidence to the contrary, and that the condition of the poor has been materially improved. The sum of £118 was last year paid by the poor of Stanford Rivers, consisting of 130 families, into a clothing club; and the poor of Bobbingworth, one of the united parishes, have also raised for the like purpose, £46.11s.8d. The clothing clubs are deservedly encouraged. Mr Jonathan Stokes very kindly receives the money, and the clubs are becoming general; persons working in the parishes are also admitted members. Men and women are allowed to deposit three-pence per week, and a child two-pence. To the amount of each depositor, a fund is provided by subscription among the inhabitants, to add five-pence to every shilling so deposited. This act of benevolence has tended greatly to promote sobriety and economy among the poor.

PROGRAMME

2012/2013

“New Towns in Essex”
by Gareth Gunning

8.00pm, Thursday, 25th October
Toot Hill Village Hall

This talk is a repeat of a talk presented to the Essex Society for Archaeology and History at their prestigious annual Morant Lecture. The talk sets out to explore the founding principles of the design of Basildon, and Harlow, in particular. The talk reviews how original intentions have been compromised by new considerations and external factors over sixty years. The talk is copiously illustrated.

The talk for the 22nd November has still to be confirmed.

Meetings are held in Toot Hill Village Hall.
Meetings start at 8.00pm.

Visitors £3. Refreshments.

Details from 01277 364305.