by Desconhecido
After the Romans left, the Saxons gave the town its modern name of Colchester, which means ‘the Roman fortress on the River Colne’, and in the 11th century the Normans constructed THE LARGEST KEEP EVER BUILT IN EUROPE, on top of the Roman temple of Claudius. Even though it was reduced from four storeys to two, the keep remains the largest in England, and covers one and a half times the ground space of the White Tower of London.
Harwich
CHRISTOPHER JONES (c. 1565–1622) was born in HARWICH, the son of a ship-owner, and lived at No. 21 Kings Head Street. On 23 December 1593 he was married in St Nicholas church to Sara Twitt, daughter of a neighbour. Sara died tragically young at 27, and Jones was married for a second time in St Nicholas in 1603. His second wife’s family had extensive shipping interests, and Jones became part owner of a Harwich-registered cargo ship called the Mayflower. In 1620 the ship was commissioned to carry 102 pilgrims to start a new life in America, with Christopher Jones as captain. The Mayflower left Plymouth in September that year and after a 66-day voyage made landfall at Cape Cod. The pilgrims disembarked at what is now called Plymouth Rock, but spent the winter living on the Mayflower, which didn’t set sail for England until March 1621. Christopher Jones died the following year and is buried at Rotherhithe in London.
The ancient port of Harwich, with its narrow medieval streets and passageways, has long played an important part in England’s maritime heritage, serving as a haven port for English ships, a naval shipyard and as a gateway to the Continent.
In 1918 the entire German U-boat fleet surrendered to Admiral Tyrwhitt at Harwich.
On Harwich Green is THE ONLY TREAD WHEEL CRANE IN THE WORLD. It was built in 1677 in the Naval Yard and was worked by men walking on the inside of the wheels, a hazardous activity if the load took control and the wheel suddenly went into reverse.
The ELECTRIC PALACE CINEMA, in Kings Quay Street, built in 1911, is THE OLDEST UNALTERED CINEMA IN ENGLAND STILL IN USE.
Tilbury
It was at WEST TILBURY, on the River Thames, that Queen Elizabeth I addressed her troops while Sir Francis Drake was battling the Spanish Armada in the English Channel. Bare-headed, mounted on a charger, and attended by the Sword of State, the Queen uttered these inspiring words:
I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart of a King, and of a King of England too, and I think foul scorn that any Prince of Europe should dare to invade the borders of my realm.
Although the docks at Tilbury are amongst the biggest in the world now, West Tilbury, the site of the royal camp where the stirring event took place, remains a secluded spot, set back from the river in marshland and reeking of olden times.
Coggeshall
East Anglia was the first region in England to use bricks since the Romans, and THE EARLIEST ENGLISH BRICKWORK can be found in the remains of a 12th-century abbey just south of COGGESHALL. The arches of LONG BRIDGE in Coggeshall’s Bridge Street are made from the same bricks, which makes it THE OLDEST BRICK BRIDGE IN ENGLAND. The abbey’s GRANGE BARN also dates from the 12th century and is THE OLDEST SURVIVING TIMBER-FRAMED BARN IN EUROPE.
Maldon
THE ONLY TRIANGULAR CHURCH TOWER IN BRITAIN dates from the 13th century and is attached to the church of ALL SAINTS at MALDON. A window in the church was given by the people of Malden, Massachusetts, to commemorate LAWRENCE WASHINGTON, who is buried in the churchyard in an unmarked grave. He was the great-great-grandfather, and last English ancestor, of the first American President, George Washington.
All Saints, Maldon
Tiptree
Arthur Charles Wilkin was born in Tiptree, near Colchester, in 1835. In his late twenties he took over his parents’ farm and began to specialise in growing fruit, which he supplied to London jam-makers. Transport difficulties eventually forced him to consider making his own jam, and when he was introduced to an Australian merchant who agreed to take as much strawberry jam as he could produce, Wilkin set to with a will. The buyer wanted jam that was free from glucose, colouring and preservatives, and it was decided to call the product conserve, to distinguish it as being of high quality, and to use the name Britannia Preserving Company, which would give the company a good profile in Australia.
The first jam was made in his farmhouse kitchen to Wilkin’s wife’s recipe, using three boiling pans and a couple of traction engines brought in off the farm to provide power. Mechanisation was introduced in the 1890s, and Arthur Wilkin’s 200-acre (81 ha) farm has grown into 1,000 acres (405 ha) and a factory which produces nearly 90 different conserves, preserves, chutneys, honeys and marmalades for sale all over the world. The Tiptree trademark was adopted in 1905 and the company name changed to Wilkin and Sons Ltd.
Arthur Wilkin died in 1913, but the business is still family run, and Trewlands, the house where Arthur Wilkin was born, has been preserved and incorporated into the works complex. There is a shop and museum and a daily ‘tasting time’ to make sure standards are being kept up.
Little Maplestead
The tiny, exquisite church at LITTLE MAPLESTEAD, north of Halstead, is the smallest and latest of England’s four round churches.
Well, I never knew this
about
ESSEX FOLK
Captain Lawrence Oates
1880–1912
LAWRENCE OATES grew up in the family home of Over Hall in GESTINGTHORPE, and after his father died in 1896 Lawrence became lord of the manor. After Eton, he signed up for the Inniskilling Dragoons and fought in the South African War, where he was mentioned in dispatches, and also served in Ireland, Egypt and India. Not happy with army life in India he applied to join Robert Falcon Scott’s second Antarctic expedition to be first to the South Pole, and greatly impressed Scott with his fitness and enthusiasm. Oates loved animals and so was put in charge of the expedition’s ponies.
The trek to the South Pole was arduous, and when they arrived to find that the Norwegian Roald Amundsen had got there first, their spirits were dashed. On the way back their rations began to run out and Oates, suffering from terrible frostbite, found himself holding the others back. He soon realised what he must do. Waking early after a fitful night, he stumbled out into the blizzard with some of the most courageous words ever spoken: ‘I am just going outside. I may be some time.’
Oates was never found, but a rough cross was set up near where the bodies of Scott and his companions were discovered, bearing the inscription ‘Hereabouts died a very gallant gentleman.’
Oates’s fellow officers placed a memorial tablet in the little 14th-century church at Gestingthorpe, and every week, until she died in 1937, Oates’s mother walked to the church from Over Hall next door to polish the brass.
WILLIAM BYRD (1539–1623), the foremost composer of the Elizabethan age and creator of THE BAROQUE STYLE OF ORGAN AND HARPSICHORD MUSIC, is buried in the churchyard at Stondon Massey. As a Catholic ‘recusant’ his grave remains unmarked.
Beside the altar in the tiny church at FOSTER STREET, across the M11 from Harlow, lie Benjamin Flower and his two daughters Sarah and Eliza. SARAH FLOWER, born in 1805, wrote the hymn sung as the Titanic sank beneath the waves, ‘Nearer My God to Thee’. She was married to WILLIAM ADAMS, who invented the UNIVERSAL FISH JOINT, still used on modern railways to connect the rails together in a way that allows trains to pass over them at high speeds.
GUSTAV HOLST (1874–1934) wrote his most celebrated work, The Planets, while on long weekends at his family’s country home in THAXTED, during the First World War. He also played the organ in Thaxted church and inaugurated the town’s Whitsuntide festival.
SIR EVELYN RUGGLES-BRISE (1857–1935), founder of the Borstal prisons for young offenders, was born in FINCHINGFIELD.
Born in Dagenham
SIR ALF RAMSEY (1920–99), football manager with Ipswich Town and England. In 1966 he became the only England manager to win the World Cup.
DUDLEY MOORE (1935–2002), comedian, actor and musician.
TERRY VENABLES, England footba
ll team manager, born 1943.
SANDIE SHAW, pop singer, born 1947. The first UK winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, with ‘Puppet on a String’ in 1967, she was famous for always performing in bare feet.
Born in Ilford
EVA HART (1905–96), one of the last survivors from the Titanic, who became a professional singer in Australia.
RAYMOND BAXTER (1922–2006), Second World War fighter pilot and presenter of the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World.
IAN HOLM, stage and screen actor, best known for playing Bilbo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, born in 1931.
DAME MAGGIE SMITH, actress, who won two Oscars, for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in 1969 and California Suite in 1978, born in 1934.
KATHY KIRBY, 1960s pop singer, born in 1941.
NOEL EDMONDS, radio DJ and TV presenter and producer famed for Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, Noel’s House Party and Deal or No Deal, born in 1948.
RICHARD LITTLEJOHN, author and newspaper columnist, born in 1954.
JANE LEEVES, actress, best known for playing physical therapist Daphne Moon in the American TV comedy series Frasier, born in 1961.
Gloucestershire
DARK DEEDS ∗ BIRTHPLACE OF MODERN
CONSERVATION ∗ BIGGEST NORMAN TOWER
∗ CHEESE ROLLING ∗ CHAMPAGNE
∗ MANOR HOUSES
Tewkesbury Abbey, with the biggest Norman tower in the world.
GLOUCESTERSHIRE FOLK
Edward Jenner ∗ W.G. Grace ∗ Robert Raikes ∗ Beatrice Webb ∗ Frederick Sanger
Berkeley Castle
The little town of BERKELEY is an oasis of calm set in flat land between the River Severn and the M5. It is dominated by the castle, looming above the water meadows, impregnable and stern, proud home to the Berkeley family since the days of Henry II, and THE OLDEST CASTLE IN ENGLAND STILL INHABITED BY THE FAMILY WHO BUILT IT. The Berkeleys are one of only three English families who can trace their roots directly back to their Saxon ancestors.
Dark deeds were done at Berkeley Castle. One September night, as the mist rolled in off the Severn, the townsfolk were awoken by hideous screams that went on and on, sending birds wheeling into the sky and dogs howling with terror. Eventually the cries faded into whimpers and then a thick, brooding silence. The next morning, the horribly mutilated body of KING EDWARD II was found in his cell in the castle, done to death most foully, by two knights sent from his own Queen.
The previous year Edward II had been forced by his wife, Queen Isabella, and her lover, Roger de Mortimer, to abdicate the throne in favour of his young son Edward III. The old king was sent to end his days at Berkeley, tended to by a sympathetic Lord Berkeley. He lived too long, however, and made the guilty Queen uneasy, so she sent her men, SIR JOHN MALTRAVERS and SIR THOMAS GURNEY, to hasten his demise. Lord Berkeley was sent away and the knights set about their task, taunting the King for his homosexuality, putting flowers in his hair and finally killing him by inserting a red-hot poker deep into his bowels.
The Abbot of Gloucester came in reverence to claim the body, and Edward III, shocked by his father’s cruel death, raised a splendid tomb for him in Gloucester Cathedral. It soon became a place of pilgrimage, and the wealth the pilgrims bought with them built the glorious medieval cathedral we see today, a wondrous monument wrought from an evil act.
Slimbridge
A popular tenant of the Berkeley estate is the WILDFOWL AND WETLANDS TRUST at SLIMBRIDGE, founded in 1946 by SIR PETER SCOTT, son of the polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott. Covering 1,000 acres (405 ha) and home to 164 different species of bird, it is THE LARGEST AND MOST VARIED WILDFOWL CENTRE IN THE WORLD and THE ONLY PLACE IN ENGLAND WHERE YOU CAN SEE ALL SIX SPECIES OF FLAMINGO. Slimbridge is considered to be the birthplace of modern conservation.
Tewkesbury
The tower of TEWKESBURY ABBEY is THE LARGEST NORMAN TOWER IN THE WORLD. Buried inside the Abbey, beneath a simple brass plate on the floor of the sanctuary, is Edward, Prince of Wales, son of Henry VI, killed by the Duke of Clarence at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471.
The old oak door of the church at DIDBROOK, in the Cotswold Hills a few miles east of Tewkesbury, has holes in it made by Yorkist bullets, fired at Lancastrian soldiers who had fled from the Battle of Tewkesbury and sought refuge here. These marks were made by some of the earliest bullets ever fired from a handgun.
The Saxon font in the church at DEERHURST, on the River Severn near Tewkesbury, is THE OLDEST FONT IN ENGLAND.
Cheese Rolling
One to be ready!
Two to be steady!
Three to prepare!
Release the Cheese!
(The signal for the specially invited guest ‘roller’ to let go the cheese)
And Four to be off!
And so begins the annual CHEESE ROLLING competition at COOPER’S HILL, near Brockworth.
Slightly nutty people come from all over the world, from Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the home of dangerous sports, and even Wales, to chase an eight-pound Double Gloucester Cheese down a precipitous Gloucestershire hillside on Bank Holiday Monday at the end of May – for fun.
The ceremony, which used to take place on Midsummer’s Day, dates back hundreds of years to pagan times and is thought to have its roots in fertility rites and supplications for a bountiful harvest. There are the remains of an ancient British fort at the top of the hill, which suggests that some sort of activity may have taken place here even before the Romans arrived.
There are five races, one of them for ladies, and the first person to reach the bottom of the hill in pursuit of the cheese wins . . . a cheese! The course is 600 ft (183 m) long and the average slope is 1 in 2, although in places it is 1 in 1.
In olden times there was no limit to the number of runners, but for safety reasons races are now restricted to a maximum of 15 competitors. There are no entry qualifications – it is first come, first served.
Cheese rolling can be very dangerous, and every year sees a crop of injuries, usually sprains and bruises. The cheese has been known to bounce into the crowd, and in 1997 the cheese hit a spectator and sent him flying down the hill.
The cheese has been rolled without a break every year in living memory, although the actual race has been cancelled three times recently, once for health and safety reasons, once as a result of foot-and-mouth disease, and in 2003 because of an earthquake. On these occasions the organisers rolled a solitary cheese down the hill to maintain the tradition.
Champagne
CHAMPAGNE was invented in England by a doctor, CHRISTOPHER MERRETT, born in WINCHCOMBE in 1614. In 1662 he presented a paper to the Royal Society in which he sets out a technique for making wine sparkle by adding sugar and molasses. This had been made possible by the invention in 1630 by ADMIRAL SIR ROBERT MANSELL, of a coloured glass, incorporating iron and manganese, which could be used to make bottles strong enough to contain the fermentation process.
This ‘méthode traditionelle’ was adopted in 1695 by a French monk and winemaker in the Champagne region of France called Dom Perignon, who used it to give sparkle to his own wines.
Nether Lypiatt Manor
Two English Manor Houses
Nether Lypiatt Manor
Prince and Princess Michael of Kent once lived in the exquisite, dream-like, NETHER LYPIATT MANOR, hidden away in the hills above Stroud. It was built in 1698 by ‘Hanging Judge’ Cox, whose son ironically hanged himself in one of the rooms, and is supposed to haunt the place. Nether Lypiatt creates a magical illusion as it appears suddenly and unexpectedly beside a tiny, single-track hill-top Cotswold lane. It has 20 acres (8 ha) of gardens and is the loveliest of English houses.
Cowley Manor
COWLEY MANOR, 5 miles (8 km) north of Cheltenham, is a stunning Palladian-style mansion, very similar in looks to Cliveden, set in 50 acres (20 ha) of informal gardens, with lakes, cascades, a big rock garden and woodland walks. It was built in the 1830s by Sir James Horlick of the milky drinks family. He is buried in the chu
rchyard alongside, and is reputed to climb in through the large window that overlooks the graveyard and walk up and down the first-floor corridor. He is, apparently, perfectly friendly.
Also buried in the churchyard of the enchanting little 12th-century church next door is Dorset innkeeper Robert Browning, 17th-century ancestor of the poet.
Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, Alice Liddell, used to visit Cowley regularly to stay with her uncle, who was the rector there.
At the turn of the millennium Cowley Manor was bought by Jessica Sainsbury and turned into a luxury hotel and spa. Whether Sir James Horlick still walks the corridor is not in the hotel literature.
Buried in the church at Coberley, the next-door village, is buried Dick Whittington’s mother Joan. She lies beside her first husband, Sir Thomas Berkeley. Dick Whittington, Joan’s son by her second husband, Sir William Whittington, was born at Pauntley, north of Gloucester, in 1358, and became Lord Mayor of London four times.
Well, I never knew this
about
GLOUCESTERSHIRE FOLK
Edward Jenner
1749–1823
In sharp contradistinction to the awful murder of Edward II at Berkeley Castle, lying in the chancel of the church at Berkeley is a man who saved lives. Born in Berkeley, the son of the vicar, EDWARD JENNER became a doctor and naturalist, and was determined to find a cure for smallpox, the most deadly disease of his time. As a countryman, he was familiar with country lore, including the belief that milkmaids who had caught cowpox never contracted smallpox. In May 1796 he vaccinated a farm boy, JAMES PHIPPS, in the arm, with cowpox taken from the hand of a dairymaid, SARAH NELMES. A few weeks later he inoculated the boy again, this time with smallpox, and when Phipps did not develop the disease, Jenner knew his theory was correct.