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Sunday 31 August 2014

Woodford Memorial Hall Annual Lecture: Monday 6 October 2014

TRENCH TALK – THE LANGUAGE OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR
BY PETER DOYLE AND JULIAN WALKER

The Trustees of the Woodford Memorial Hall have announced the title of their annual lecture 2014.

As part of the wider centenary of the outbreak of World War One, the lecture is entitled Trench Talk: the language of the First World War.

The First World War largely dictated the course of the twentieth century. Fought on three continents, the war saw 14 million killed and 34 million wounded and its impact shaped the world we live in today.

Though one of the enduring myths of the First World War is that the experience of the trenches was never discussed, the language of the trenches continues to live in the modern consciousness.

This lecture looks at how the experience of the First World War changed the English language, adding words that were both in slang and standard military use, and modifying the usage and connotations of existing words and phrases. Dozens of words entered or became familiar in the English language as a direct result of the soldiers’ experiences.

The melting pot of the combat zones, especially the Western Front, brought together in concentrated environments men from a wide range of social, cultural, occupational and geographical backgrounds. New technological and slang terms developed and spread, many of them still with us, some recognisable, others not. In this talk we will hear how the war was the catalyst for change in the words people used.

Illustrated with material from the authors’ own collections and photographs of the objects of the war, the lecture will examine how the words emerged into everyday language.

Peter Doyle is an author specialising in the British experience, and the material culture, of war. A member of the British Commission of Military History, and secretary of the Parliamentary All Party War Graves and Battlefield Heritage Group, he is the author of many works of military history and the material culture of warfare, most recently The First World War in 100 Objects and Remembering Tommy, both published by The History Press. A regular speaker at conferences and in invited lectures, he has given numerous specialist battlefield talks and battlefield tours. He is an occasional visiting lecturer at the US Military Academy, West Point.

Julian Walker works in education at the British Library. He is the author of a number of books on the English language and on social history. Having recently organised an international conference on Languages and the First World War, he is currently preparing a book on this subject, while researching the development of First World War slang. He is the co-author, with Peter Doyle, of Trench Talk; his most recent publication is The Final Touch, Cosmetics through the Ages, published by the British Library.

Full details of the 2014 lecture are:

Date Monday October 6 2014  Time 7.45pm  Location Woodford Memorial Hall (next to St Mary's church), High Road, South Woodford, E18
Tickets £7 (to include wine/light refreshments), in advance or on the door
More information Memorial Hall office, Monday-Friday 0900-1200,  020 8505 3352

Notes to Editors
  1. Woodford Memorial Hall is managed by an independent trust, but is closely linked to St Mary's church.
  2. A lecture is held annually on a topic of general interest to the local community.

Wednesday 27 August 2014

War Memorials and War Graves in Harlow

An illustrated war memorial book, which has been produced as part of Harlow’s World War One centenary, has been produced by the Harlow Council in partnership with local residents and community groups.  It can now be read online at www.harlow.gov.uk/ww1

It is a fascinating record of all those soldiers with a connection to Harlow who gave their lives during the First World War. 

The work includes those named on the following War Memorials:
Great Parndon Memorial Cross
Netteswell & Burnt Mill Memorial Cross
Potter Street, Latton and surrounding district Memorial Cross
Old Harlow Memorial Cross

This is an ongoing project and will be updated with new photos and information as time goes on.


The Essex Society for Archaeology and History has obtained a hard copy of the 'first edition' for accession to its own Library at the University of Essex. 

In addition a war memorials and war graves map is being produced by the First World War project team to complement the book.

Monday 25 August 2014

Great War: The Peoples' Story

"WW1 through the eyes of ordinary people" is how ITV's Sunday docu-drama 'The Great War: The Peoples' Story' is described.  This is compelling television where actors give life to the words contained in letters and diaries.  Historians will know the value of these sources and how reciting extracts this way adds dimension to the words.  In Episode 3 (broadcast 24 August 2014 but available on the ITV Player for a month) the Reverend Andrew Clark of Great Leighs in Essex was featured.  His diary from the Home Front, his observations of troops in the village, of Zeppelin air raids, and of the families who had lost loved ones, was published a number of years ago in greatly edited form as 'Echoes of the Great War'.  It was this title 'echoes' that The Revd Andrew Clark penned in the opening lines at the beginning of the war.  The book is bedside reading, and will be over the next four years.

Sunday 24 August 2014

Essex Society for Archaeology and History: Visit to Davy Down and North Stifford

Davy Down and North Stifford: 16 August 2014

Delving through past volumes of Transactions, in August 1903 “The members of the Society to the number of about thirty-five, assembled at Grays Station at 10.30am and proceeded in brakes to Stifford Church”.  Theirs was a day’s church crawling.  Some 111 years later a similar number visited the area again by own modes of transport at a leisurely start time of midday!  Some new faces were present: our programme included items of interest to the new Essex Industrial Archaeology Group.  Our predecessors would have noticed very many changes had they been with us.

Pumping Station at Davy Down
Our first of five “events” was a visit to the Pumping Station and Filtration Plant at Davy Down.  The site is still operated by Essex and Suffolk Water although the Pumping Station’s remaining diesel engines are redundant.  Beneath the Pumping Station is a well 42 metres deep which was dug into the chalk ridge by hand in the 1920s.  From its base a 500 metres horizontal line was excavated to create a flooded tunnel.  It produces 1 million gallons a day and used to supply clean water directly towards Barking, Brentwood and Linford.  There was a lifting station at Warley: the building is now converted to flats.
Pumping Station engine
Now the water from the Davy Down Water Treatment Plant is mixed with water supplied from Hanningfield Reservoir.  Most of the water collected in Essex is surface water but many will be surprised that some is obtained from as far away as the Kings Lynn area by tunnel and river transfer.  Davy Down is a rarity because of its geological situation.  The water was originally extracted by three diesel engines, of which two remain, one in working order.  The height of the building allows for the engines to be lifted and moved.

Filtration Plant: Davy Down
The adjacent Filtration Plant (1923) is still operational having been completely refitted about 10 years’ ago.  The interior is kept at a constant 10oC.  Chlorine is added to remove the naturally occurring manganese and iron which would otherwise stain bathroom fittings.  Filtration occurs through sand and gravel in one of six filtration tanks.  A centrally operated computer monitors performance and back washes fed from an elevated water tank outside the building to extract the unwanted substances. 

Viaduct over the Mardyke
Our second event was a walk along Davy Down, under the viaduct (1897) to view the River Mardyke.  The Down is a flood plain, and regulator of high water to the nearby River Thames, so would not be walkable in the winter. Our guide pointed out various flora and fauna that inhabit this important landscape.

Once inside, John Matthews presented a talk on ‘Walking the Mardyke’ from its several sources to its end at Purfleet draining into the River Thames.  Mardyke means boundary ditch, forming what was the boundary of Chafford and Barstable Hundreds.  Stifford is one of a very few parishes which straddles both sides.  Its official source is in Holdens Wood at Warley Gap, but it is also fed by drainage ditches at Bulphan Fen, and another source at Hobbs Hole near the Thames Chase Forest Centre.  Old Hall Pond is another within Thorndon Country Park, once the home of Lord Petre.  The Harrow Inn (currently closed) marks one end of a footpath called ‘The Mardyke Way’.  At various points along the way there are fords which appear to be places where ancient towpaths crossed from one side of the river to another.  Barges used to use the river.  The way meanders under a bridge at Stifford and through Davy Down past the viaduct and under the M25 before reaching the RSPB Bird Sanctuary, built on an old twentieth century firing range, at Purfleet.  The Mardyke enters the Thames through gates which control its flow.

Stifford Lodge, now the Park Inn
Cliff and Jan Cowen, authors of the book ‘The Idyll in the Middyl’ (2012), then hosted a guided tour of North Stifford “the idyll hidden in the middle of urban sprawl”.  A souvenir illustrated booklet was given to each visitor.  The street contains many seventeenth century thatched cottages, in-filled by modern homes during the twentieth century.  The Dog & Partridge Public House used to be named the ‘Clock house’ which used to maintain the village’s clock.  Down Clockhouse Lane opposite was the former Stepney Children’s Home (1901).  Only the water tower is preserved.  Near the church is Coppid Hall of mid eighteenth century brick and by the roundabout at the end of the village the Park Inn, formerly Stifford Lodge of the same period but extended during the twentieth century.

North Stifford Church
Finally, tea at the church: an opportunity to view the many brasses which it possesses.  One exceptionally early example by the altar table is a half-length effigy with inscription translated “Pray for the soul of Sire Ralph Perchehay, once rector of this church”.  Its date: c.1365.  There are also brasses to the Ardalle and Lathum families which the Guide Book says were reset in the east wall of the Chantry Chapel during the nineteenth century, and certainly were viewed and recorded there when Christy et al wrote their series ‘On Some Essex Brasses’ in our past Transactions at the beginning of the twentieth century.  The exterior has a lovely squat thirteenth century tower with broach spire.  The building is constructed of local sandstone quarried from nearby West Thurrock and over the Thames at Northfleet.  The War Memorial is in the middle of the east end of the churchyard.

I mused about the visits made back in 1903 with now.  Much has changed though the old cottages and brasses in the church would be recognisable.  What has not changed is the enthusiasm of local historians and of the acknowledgement in all written work, past and present, to a Rev. William Palin (1803-82), who published the first history, ‘Stifford and its Neighbourhood’, back in 1871.  The Transactions do not give a detailed account of the church visit, merely saying that it has been “fully described … by the Rev. W. Palin M.A.”.  Palin is one of the historians recalled by the late W. R. Powell in his second essay ‘Beyond the Morant Canon’ in the Society’s more recent Transactions.  This reproduces an engraving from Palin of the bridge over the old ford and Ford Place (now derelict).  The latest offering ‘The Idyll in the Middyl’ has been acquired for our Society’s Library as Palin’s successor and acts as a record not only of change but continuity.

Sources:
Cowin, Jan & Cliff.  The Idyll in the Middyl (2012)
TEAS, ‘New Series’ Vols 7, p245-247; 9, p41-43, 189.
Essex Archaeology and History, ‘Third Series’ Vol. 26 p195-199.


Andrew Smith

Friday 22 August 2014

ESAH160: First World War Exhibition: St Lawrence Heritage D...

Highly Recommended Exhibition.  ESAH160: First World War Exhibition: St Lawrence Heritage D...: The St Lawrence Heritage Discovery Church is currently staging an exhibition on World War I and the Dengie Hundred.

Thursday 21 August 2014

Essex Industrial Archaeology Group. Anniversary Meeting: Saturday 1 November 2014

Essex Industrial Archaeology Group
Anniversary Meeting: Saturday 1 November 2014, 10.30 am.
At Abbey Barn, St Marks College, Audley End.
Cost £7.00 including refreshments.
EIAG meeting, followed by a talk by Prof Marilyn Palmer on: ‘The Use of Technology in Country Homes’.
Prof Marilyn Palmer is Emeritus Professor of Industrial Archaeology at Leicester University.

There will be an opportunity to visit Audley End House to see the Technology talked about by Prof. Marilyn Palmer after the lecture, but this will be at your own expense.

The Essex Industrial Archaeology Group is a sub group of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History.

Wednesday 20 August 2014

Woodham Walter Torcs

A reader has referred us to images of bronze ages torcs found at Oak Farm, Woodham Walter in 1991.  See the Unlocking Essex site: http://unlockingessex.essexcc.gov.uk/uep/custom_pages/monument_detail.asp?content_page_id=89&monument_id=1033324&content_parents=48 .  The Essex Society for Archaeology and History featured these finds in their Transactions, ‘Third Series’, Volume 25 p1-2, with a good illustration on the cover of that edition.

Sunday 17 August 2014

WW1 Commemoration Event: Roman Circus House, Colchester. 24 August 2014

Roman Circus House

You are invited to our WW1 commemorative event on Sunday 24th August 2014 at Roman Circus House and in the garden of the former Sergeants’ Mess Colchester to mark the centenary of the start of British action in WW1 at the Battle of Mons (23rd-24th August 1914) and to commemorate the XIVth Brigade RFA of the Artillery Barracks and the Battle of Le Cateau (26th August 1914) and to remember everyone who served in WW1


Roman Circus House:
10.30am-4.30pm open day with café, WW1 recipe cake, small exhibition including audio of a soldier of the XIVth Brigade RFA
1.00pm & 2.00pm.  guided tour of former Artillery Barracks led by Peter Hall
3.00pm & 3.30pm.  junior ‘Generation’ Corps of Drums garden of the former Sergeants’ Mess:
4.00pm.  songs and poems performed by three local soloists, the Concord Singers, and Tim Freeman
4.30pm.  drumhead service led by Father Richard Tillbrook, with the Colchester Royal British Legion Standard-bearer and Harwich RBL brass band bugler, including two-minutes’ silence

Colchester Archaeological Trust
Roman Circus House, Roman Circus Walk, Colchester  CO2 7GZ
http://www.thecolchesterarchaeologist.co.uk



Friday 15 August 2014

Latin Summer School: 15 - 19 September 2014

Centre for Bibliographical History
Nil Desperandum:
ab initio intensive Latin Summer School
Monday-Friday, 15th-19th September 2014
University of Essex , Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ

For good or ill, Latin was the lingua franca of Western European civilisation for over a millennium. It may no longer be the sine qua non of a liberal education but it is certainly a perennial desideratum for scholars studying Europe’s learned culture from the Middle Ages to the later modern period. This course is for those who have become aware of the cultural significance of Latin but have not had chance to study the language intensely. It will provide a firm grounding in the subject and will also consider the position of Latin in European culture – primarily in books, but also beyond – in both the early modern and contemporary culture.

Registration Fee: £325.00 - £500.00 depending on your eligibility for discounted fees


For enquiries, contact Dr David Rundle, Co-Director of the Centre, on cbh@essex.ac.uk

Thursday 14 August 2014

British Archaeology

The Essex Society for Archaeology and History subscribes to 'British Archaeology' for accession to its own Library housed at the University of Essex.

The July / August 2014 edition includes major features on Stonehenge, and how it has changed as a premier tourist attraction - must go - and Rentlesham in Suffolk, the place where the families of those buried at Sutton Hoo once lived.

Wednesday 13 August 2014

Industrial Archaeology News

The Essex Industrial Archaeology Group, part of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History, is an affiliated member of the Association for Industrial Archaeology.  As members we now receive copies of 'Industrial Archaeology News', one copy is accessioned to our Library at the University of Essex. 

The Summer 2014 bulletin (No 169) includes a review of the origins of the AIA, including a picture of the Euston Arch in London which John Betjeman and others campaigned, unsuccessful, against its demolition. 

Tuesday 12 August 2014

West Essex Archaeological Group: Publications

 Would it be possible to publicise the availabilty of these two publications from the West Essex Archaeological Group on the blog?  I hope the scans have come through all right

1) The Romano-British Temple at Harlow.
A record of the excavations carried out by members of the West Essex Archaeological Group and the Harlow antiquarian Society, between 1962 and 1971, on the Flavian Romano-British temple situated about 250 yards west of Harlow Mill railway station.
The excavation showed that the temple was the last stage in a long religious development of the site, going back to the Bronze Age. The first phase of the temple dates to the late 1st century AD, and it continued in use well into the 4th century AD.

139pp, illustrated, soft-back. Price £7.00 plus £2.50 p&p


2) Exploration and Discovery in South-West Essex
A series of reports on excavations carried out by the West Essex Archaeological Group in the South-West Essex area, between 1968 and 1989.
Sites include High Beach, Whittals Field (Abridge), Piggotts Farm (Theydon Bois), Havering Roman settlement, Wanstead Park and Woolston Hall water mill.


120pp, illustrated, soft-back. Price £7.00 plus £2.50 p&p

Both are available from Andrew Madeley 

Monday 11 August 2014

Davy Down & Stifford Church is the next Essex Society for Archaeology and History: 16 August 2014

Davy Down is an urban riverside park in the Mardyke valley.  There is a 19th century 14 arch brick viaduct which is still in use carrying the c2c line, the highest span is 10 metres.  There is also a Stifford water treatment works, built in the late 1920s.  The diesel engines are no longer required but are still in place, the water being pumped up by an electric motor now and supplies water to around 45,000 people in the surrounding district.  There is wildlife galore in the park, and scrap metal sculptures of the creatures that inhabit the park.  Stifford Church is a 13th century church in the village of North Stifford.  The village and the church are mentioned in the Domesday Book, and a guided tour of the main street, looking at a few old buildings as we go up for refreshments and look around the church.

Members of the Society will be making their visit on Saturday 16 August 2014.

Sunday 10 August 2014

Essex Regiment on Norwich Market Place: 10th August 1914



Postcard photographs from 100 years ago today.  Pte Frederick Garnham, commemorated on the Highwood War Memorial, was one of the number. He was killed on 8 September 1914.  For more go to: http://www.blackmorehistory.co.uk/garnham_family.html


Saturday 9 August 2014

First World War Exhibition: St Lawrence Heritage Discovery Centre. 2 August to 14 September 2014

The St Lawrence Heritage Discovery Church is currently staging an exhibition on World War I and the Dengie Hundred.

As the name implies, the principal focus is on the activities of the armed forces within the local area and the contribution by local people in many spheres.

Numerous contemporary photographs illustrate and help to tell the story, well supported by personal memoirs, official regimental War Diaries and general information. Details of those who made the supreme sacrifice have been researched as well as some who served and survived.

The exhibition should hold something of interest to anyone interested in the locality or in our military and maritime past or the early years of air warfare.

Exhibition extended to 28 September 2014

Location: St Lawrence Church, near Southminster, CM0 7LN. Open Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays, 2 August -28 September inclusive, 2.30 - 4.30 pm or other times by arrangement.

Monday 4 August 2014

Remember

Inscribed on the wall of the
Ongar War Memorial Medical Centre
Tuesday 4 August 1914
11pm
The moment when Britain entered the Great War

"The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time"

An hour of national remembrance

Greensted: First World War Fallen

The High Country History Group is preparing a book to commemorate the beginning of the First World War with a comprehensive record of those who died and are remembered from the four parishes of Greensted, Stanford Rivers, Stapleford Tawney and Theydon Mount.

Martyn Lockwood, its author, would be interested to hear from relatives, especially if photographs survive, of those listed below.

Curiously there is no memorial in the church to those parishioners of Greensted who died in either war.  The reason is unknown. 

However the names are inscribed on a Roll of Honour once in the foyer of now demolished Ongar War Memorial Hospital. (The original is now in the Essex Record Office). 

Roll of Honour previously in
Ongar War Memorial Hospital
The Roll records four names of men from Greensted who died in World War One:

- J. Argent
- E. Crisp
- C.H. East
- E.G. East

These are: James Argent, Ernest Crisp, Edward George East and possibly Charles Herbert East.


Essex Record Office: First World War Resources

The Essex Record Office has produced a list of resources for those wishing to explore further the Great War.  For more information see: http://www.essexrecordofficeblog.co.uk/first-world-war-resources/ 

High on the list is a book by Paul Rusiecki entitled 'The Impact of Catastophe: The people of Essex during the First World War (1914 - 1920)' produced in 2008.

Stapleford Tawney: First World War Fallen

The High Country History Group is preparing a book to commemorate the beginning of the First World War with a comprehensive record of those who died and are remembered from the four parishes of Greensted, Stanford Rivers, Stapleford Tawney and Theydon Mount.

Martyn Lockwood, its author, would be interested to hear from relatives, especially if photographs survive, of those listed below.

The memorial is on the south wall of the nave of St Mary’s church.  It was unveiled on Sunday 7th November, 1920, by Sir Drummond Cunliffe Smith.

In addition there is a board giving the names of the former pupils of Stapleford Tawney school who served between 1914-1918. 

Those named on the War Memorial are:

-         Arthur Godsafe
-         Henry Hartgrove
-         Robert Mepsted
-         Albert Starling
-         Arthur William Starling
-         Walter Stubbings
-         Malcolm Sworder
-         Norman Sworder
There is also an entry for George Herbert Fish who died in the Second World War.

In the tower at St Mary’s, is a board showing the names of those men from Stapleford Tawney who fought in the Great War.  Interestingly there are no names beginning A – F.  It shows the names of those who survived the conflict as well as those who were killed. 

However the names of the two Sworder brothers are missing.

The Roll of Honour contains the following names:
Stapleford Tawney
Roll of Honour

TO COMMEMORATE
THE NAMES OF THE MEN OF
THIS PARISH WHO FOUGHT FOR
ENGLAND AND LIBERTY
IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918

GODSAFE A.
STAINES R.
GOULD S.
STARLING A.
GREEN W.
STARLING A.W.
HAMMOND W.
STARLING J.
HARTGROVE H.
STUBBINGS J.
HILLS F.
STUBBINGS T.
MEPSTED R.
STUBBINGS W.
MEPSTED H.
SURRIDGE F.J.
MOORE H. (M.C.)
SURRIDGE T.F.
PERRY J.
SURRIDGE T.
PURNELL A.
TUCKER J.
PURNELL W.
TUCKER W.
SARLING H.
TURNER H.
SARLING J.
WEST T.W.
SNOW F.H.
WHITBREAD W.


Ongar War Memorial Medical Centre Roll of Honour

Ongar War Memorial Medical Centre Roll of Honour

The Ongar War Memorial Medical Centre occupies the site of the former Ongar War Memorial Hospital.  The present building, which houses the Ongar Health Centre (the town’s G P Surgery) was opened very recently although the building itself was completed in 2012.

In the Reception area of the Centre is a new Roll of Honour, which was dedicated in May 2012.  I understand that it may be viewed by prior appointment.

The former Ongar War Memorial Hospital was opened as a cottage hospital in August 1933, some 15 years after the end of the First World War.

Inside the former building was a Roll of Honour, now preserved in the Essex Record Office [ERO A10815].

The document contains a list of several men who fell in the district and is arranged by parish.  Those parishes included are: Ongar, Shelley, High Ongar, High Laver, Willingale, Greensted, Kelvedon [Hatch], Stanford Rivers, Stapleford Tawney, Theydon Mount, Stapleford Abbots, Stondon Massey, Lambourne, Fyfield, Berners Roding, Navestock, Moreton, Little Laver, Abbess Roding, Beauchamp Roding, Doddinghurst, Blackmore, Norton Mandeville, and Bobbingworth.

The lists are by far from complete, contain duplications of commemorated names and incorrectly spelt names.  This is probably because records were not carefully checked some years after the close of the Great War. (War Memorials erected later than the immediate years after the conflict are known to contain mistakes e.g. Maldon).


Turning to the exterior of the present building, there is a mural of poppies which include the words:

“At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.  When you go home, tell them of us and say for their tomorrow, we gave our today.”


It is a dedication to the people of Ongar who sacrificed their lives in the First World War and subsequent conflicts.

Theydon Mount: First World War Fallen

The High Country History Group is preparing a book to commemorate the beginning of the First World War with a comprehensive record of those who died and are remembered from the four parishes of Greensted, Stanford Rivers, Stapleford Tawney and Theydon Mount.

Martyn Lockwood, its author, would be interested to hear from relatives, especially if photographs survive, of those listed below.

The memorial to those who died in both wars is situated on the south wall of the nave of St Michael’s church.  In addition there are two Commonwealth war graves in the churchyard (2nd World War). 

There is also a wooden board in the nave giving the names of old boys of Theydon Mount school who fought in 1914-1918.

Those named on the War Memorial are:

-         John Coller
-         Walter George Freshwater
-         Hugh Meikle Miller
-         Henry Joseph Perry
-         Frederick Town
-         Thomas William Ward
-         Stanley Thomas West
-         James Bushnell

The Roll of Honour reads:
Roll of Honour / To Commemorate / the names of the men / of this parish / and Old Boys of this School / who fought for / England and Liberty / in the Great War 1914 – 1918.
Bonner L G
Bushnell J  
Coller J   
Coller W 
Freshwater E E   
Freshwater W G 
Groves G   
Hammond W 
Hartgrove H  
Latchford W 
Miller H M  
Parker W 
Perry C 
Perry G 
Perry H J  
Perry G  
Prior A 
Prior A 
Raby D  
Raby H 
Starling A 
Starling A W  
Starling J  
Stubbings F G  
Stubbings W 
Summers S W  
Tarling J 
Tarling A S 
Town F 
Tricker B A  
Tricker W 
Turner H  
Tyler C W  
Ward T W 
West J W  

West S T