Jaywick Martello Tower: Visited 26 February 2016

In defence of the vulnerable East Coast during the Napoleonic Wars, 29 Martello Towers were built between Brightlingsea and Aldeburgh. Jaywick is ‘Tower C’ but was beset with difficulties during construction owing to the marshy land and sank five feet into the ground.  It took three years to complete and when finished in 1812 the war was over.  

It contains 750,000 bricks which came from Grays and were landed on the beach by flat bottomed barges. Construction could only be done during the summer months because of the difficulties in using lime mortar.  

Access was originally to the first floor, the living quarters designed for 24 musketeers. The ground floor was for storage of supplies, food and ammunition sufficient for a month’s stay.  Many soldiers stayed at Weeley Barracks a few miles away.  The open top, the gun deck, once held three 24lb cannons and three howitzers.  The glass cabin is a later addition intended as a coastguard lookout.  

Thirty-eight members of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History attended this Friday lunchtime meeting.  Now a museum, Jaywick Martello Tower is open during the summer months.

Essex Dove Houses (5)

 High House Dovecote

Dovecotes were used as a source of food – meat and eggs – as well as dung.  A number of examples remain in Essex. This one at High House, Purfleet, dating from the late seventeenth century retains its nest boxes as well as the revolving ladder called a portence.

It was photographed when the Essex Society for Archaeology and History visited High House in September 2014.

New Location Designated for Essex Society for Archaeology and History Library

"Watch this space" could be have been the words to describe the setting of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History's Annual General Meeting last Saturday (13 June 2015).  Members gathered in the newly extended Albert Sloman Library at the University of Essex for the first public meeting held there.  In autumn 2015 the Society’s own library will relocate to this new dedicated space on the first floor.  Members sat in the area to be fitted out as a Reading Room and saw the room behind glass panels which would house the collection of books amassed over the Society's 163 year history.  It is considered to be one of the most important archaeological libraries in the region.  

Work nears completion on extended
Albert Sloman Library (rear)

The University generously allowed the Essex Society for Archaeology and History to place intact its Library there in 2000 when expansion of the Hollytrees museum in Colchester required space to be freed up.  The University is also custodian of other important county specialist collections. The ESAH Library was housed in the basement area which the University felt was unsatisfactory.  The library building extension is a fulfillment of a long-held vision to conserve collections in a better environment.

Following the AGM members were able to view the Society's Library in its current location.

Essex Society for Archaeology and History. Visit to Mersea Island and its Museum, 16 May 2015

Oyster beds, West Mersea

Oysters, fish and salt for preservation.  These are three reasons why man has inhabited Mersea Island since at least the Iron Age where pottery has been found.  On its coast are red hills where salt was extracted from seawater.  A Roman Villa was excavated next to West Mersea Church in 1923 and a burial urn found. A Roman wheel tomb was discovered in 1896 but destroyed for house building in the 1960s.  The Strood, the causeway onto the Island which is regularly flooded at high tide, dates from the seventh century. 

St Peter & St Paul Church, West Mersea

St Peter and St Paul’s Church West Mersea dates from 1050 replacing the Minster originally constructed in the seventh century. The tower contains septaria and Roman tiles taken from the aforementioned villa.  Fishing is illustrated by fish weirs dating from Anglo-Saxon times.  Down the coast road fish restaurants and an Oyster Bar demonstrate the ongoing history of the island. The native oyster is available when there is not an ‘R’ in the month: between May and August the oyster spawns.  By the Victory public house is a property flying a Welsh flag. It was here that the blueprint of the Mulberry Harbour was secretly drawn.

Where the Mulberry Harbour was designed

The pencil drawings were found many years later in the loft-space. Mulberry harbours were used in the D-Day landings of 1944. Winston Churchill is said to have come to Mersea Island in the dead of night to meet and enjoyed a brandy or two after hours at the pub. East Mersea was the parish of the Victorian clergyman, Sabine Baring-Gould, writer of ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ and novelist of the atmospheric ‘Mehalah’, a story of salt-marshes.   

The Essex Society for Archaeology and History has a strong association with the Island and, in particular, the publication of the archaeological research at the Mersea Barrow, excavated 1912. 

Lead box and glass bowl
Mersea Museum

The cremated remains it contained were taken to the Colchester Museum at the time, but a century later have been subject to a reassessment which discovered that prior to burial frankincense was poured over the remains. Rhea Brettell, of Bradford University, the author of an item which appears in the current (4^th Series, 4^th volume) Transactions, explained its significance in relation to the under-researched area of Romano-British mortuary practices.  The interment was of a wealthy, adult male, around late first early second century.  It is the earliest burial with a resin, to date, outside of Egypt.

West Mersea cottages

The lead-lined box and glass bowl containing the remains are now on long term loan at the Mersea Museum, and was seen on the visit. 

Several members went to the Mersea Barrow during the afternoon while others were given a blue badge guide of West Mersea.

The day was hosted by Sue Howlett and members of Mersea Museum. 

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 10^oC.  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

Colchester Castle Addendum

Colchester Castle Addendum: Documentary evidence

The opportunity for historians to visit the empty shell of the building, and to compare it to other examples, has led to the conclusion that Colchester Castle originally had no more than two storeys.

Historians have been misled by the notion that the Castle once had four floors.  C. Henry Warren wrote of Wheely that, “this insensitive citizen did actually get as far as removing the two upper storeys (hence the dwarfed nature of the Castle today), when bankruptcy prevented him from completing his intentions” (Warren, 1950, 119).

J. H. Round dismissed Morant by stating “how utterly untenable is the theory that Colchester Castle was never higher than at present” (Round, 1882, 94) drawing comparisons with the Norman-built White Tower in London.

Morant’s Colchester volume of 1748 should be read in a new light. 

“It suffered from the ill-judged attempt of John Wheely … many of the Roman bricks were taken away and sold, with most part of the free-stone at the coins and in the inward arches of the building.  A fine well was destroyed, and the tops of the towers and walls forced down with screws, or blown up with gunpowder … but after the great devastations, the remaining walls being so strongly cemented, that the profit did not answer the charge for further demolition, he was forced to desist” (Morant, 1748, 7). 

This is further supported by an oral account.

The eighteenth century antiquarian and engraver, Chelmsford born Joseph Strutt (1749 – 1802) writes at length on Colchester Castle in his volume entitled ‘Manners’ in 1774 (rediscovered recently in the Librarian’s Office at Hollytrees, and an omission from accession).

“I could not learn for certainty whether the top of the wall had been garretted or not, though an old man, who happened to be there when I was, informed me that he remembered something like embattlements at the top before it was so shamefully abused, great part of which were forced down with screws and gunpowder, and so falling down on the walls and vaults below, made lamentable havock and devastation, to the eternal shame of the despicable perpetrators, as it is to the great praise and honour of the present worthy owner, who takes great pains to repair and preserve this valuable antiquity”  (Strutt, 1774, 27).

This eye-witness account appears to limit the demolition work to the embattlements and part of the Castle’s roof only.  The “worthy owner” at that time was, of course, Charles Gray.

Bibliography

Morant, Philip, M.A.  The History and Antiquities of the most ancient Town and Borough of Colchester in the County of Essex. In three books collected chiefly from manuscripts. With an appendix of records and original papers. (Meggy & Chalk, Chelmsford, 1815)

Round, J. H. The History and Antiquities of Colchester Castle (Benham & Co, 1882)

Strutt, Joseph.  Manners, Customs, Arms, Habit &c of the Inhabitants of England. Volume 1.  (T. Jones, London, 1774)

Warren, C. Henry.  Essex (Robert Hale Ltd., 1950)

Essex Society for Archaeology and History: Visit to Colchester Castle, 6 April 2013

Vaulted Chapel, Colchester Castle -
used as the original room for the Museum

Society visit to Colchester Castle: 6 April 2013

New insights to the history of Colchester Castle were given by Philip Wise, Curatorial and Collections Manager, when members of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History visited the building on 6 April 2013.  The visit presented a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to view the building empty of its museum artefacts: the Castle is closed for redevelopment now until Easter 2014.

Colchester Castle was built in two phases: the first dates from the 1070s according to an entry in the Colchester Chronicle; the second phase was constructed after 1101, being the earliest reliable date when King Henry I granted the Castle to one Eudo Dapifer, the Constable of the Castle.  At that time the forebuilding and at least a second storey was added.

Colchester Castle as seen today is unique for three reasons.  Firstly, it is the largest Norman Keep ever to have been built in England, and perhaps Europe, on account of the fact that it rests on the footprint foundations of the Roman Temple of Claudius which survived only a few years after the Roman occupation until the town’s destruction by Boudicca in 61AD.  Secondly, it was built in distinct building phases, perhaps on account of a threatened Viking invasion.  Thirdly, that the Castle was partly destroyed by John Wheely who received a contract to demolish the building in 1683.  It has been a matter of conjecture how much building material Wheely removed.

Interior showing distinct building materials and phases

The Castle was always said to be the sister building to the White Tower in London.  However the medieval document attributed to Bishop Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester (1077-1108), is now considered to be a fake.  (Gundulf was the architect of the keep at Rochester Castle and the White Tower of London.)  This opens the possibility that Colchester Castle did not originally have four floors, which seems extraordinarily tall given its elevated position compared to the Tower of London standing sentinel by the River Thames guarding the City.

The building did not have a basement area so, unusually, the ground floor was the storage area and the first floor the Great Hall.  It was originally divided into three portions with two sturdy walls, one of which was destroyed by Wheely.  The walls were required because the size could not be spanned with a whole roof in timber.  Examining the position of the missing wall at ground level there is evidence that it was once arcaded, contained arches to let more light into what was a large and dingy space: the spring of the first arch survives. 

There was a prison on the ground floor, used until 1835.  Among those held there were Dutch sailors and protestant martyrs.

The interior shows a ground floor constructed of brick and septaria, found in north east Essex, whilst the first floor contains Roman tiles built in herring-bone fashion.  The quantity of recycled Roman material is enormous, so much so that many historians, even as late as the Victorian era, thought the building itself to be Roman.  The walls would have been plastered over and perhaps elaborately painted.

Capital on Norman south doorway

The external doorway is indisputably Norman having capitals on either side similar to Durham and Lincoln Cathedrals.  Visitors would enter and ascend the staircase immediately on the left to the first floor, under what is now a later-built turret on the south-west corner.  This is the largest surviving stone staircase from Norman England.  At the top was a waiting room with two garderobes for convenience.  The later designed Charles Gray room, so named after the eighteenth century owner who lived at the adjacent Hollytrees house and had the Castle in his private gardens as a genuine ‘folly’, has a fireplace where there was an original Norman one.  Then there is the Great Hall, a vast space, into which visitors would come before the King.  The room has Y-shaped chimneys running from the hearths and at the north-west corner there is a grand entrance, where the King would ascend a separate set of stairs (once covered) through a ‘presentation doorway’ to meet his subjects.  Henry I, Stephen, Henry II and King John all visited Colchester Castle.

One third of first floor formed private accommodation: a private audience chamber, a garderobe, and the Royal bedchamber.  The bedchamber was the only access on this floor into a vaulted crypt or chapel, which seems inconvenient for all other than the King, and has been the subject of recent debate.  Originally it was thought that a separate staircase entered the chapel but this has now been dismissed, so it is thought that this was a private chapel and that others used the chapel in the bailey, which was exposed in an archaeological dig in the 1930s, and whose remains can be seen to the south side of the building.  If then the vaulted space referred to is a chapel not a crypt, then the roofed room above was not a chapel at all but merely a roof-space or further floor. 

The opportunity for historians to visit the empty shell of the building, and to compare it to other examples, has led to a view that Colchester Castle originally had no more than two storeys.  Double height Great Halls were rare and any walkway which surrounded the room would have been interrupted by the Y-shaped flues.

The importance of the Castle building to the history of Colchester is of such merit that when reopened much of the story of the building will also be told as part of the Museum’s interpretation of the town’s 2000 year history.

Colchester Museum, 1909

The Essex Society for Archaeology and History can claim a long association with the Museum at Colchester Castle.  The Society was formed in 1852 with an aim to establish a Museum in the town.  In 1860 that goal was achieved through its opening at the Castle, in what is now called the chapel, in joint ownership with Colchester Corporation.  The Society met frequently at the Castle in its early years.  The Society amalgamated ownership of its artefacts in 1926 and had representatives on the museum’s management committee until 1986.  Such was the growth of the museum in the inter-war years that a separate museum was created at Hollytrees.  The Castle was entirely roofed over in the mid-1930s; itself a necessity, because the foundations were showing alarming cracks and urgent repairs were required.  Today the Essex Society for Archaeology and History has the ownership of a Library, originally started by Charles Gray and added to since its formation.  The Library collection was transferred to Hollytrees when it opened as a Museum in 1929 but is now held separately at the Albert Sloman Library, University of Essex.  The Society still has a Librarian’s Office at Hollytrees which is in regular use.

For more information on the historians’ Study Day at Colchester Castle on 12 March, follow this link: http://www.cimuseums.org.uk/castle/news/friday-15-march-2013.html

Andrew Smith

Holy Trinity Church, Littlebury: Annual General Meeting

Holy Trinity Church, Littlebury

Holy Trinity Church, Littlebury was the venue for the Annual General Meeting of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History this year.  Following proceedings and tea, the local history group gave a talk and tour of the building.  In the churchyard is an unusual carved monument to, and by, Rev. H J Burrell.  He carved the screen the North Chapel in 1911.  The North Door, older than the Victorian Church, is fifteenth century decorated with shears.  For more on the church follow this link to an external website: http://churchesinessex.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/littlebury-essex.html

Rev H J Burrell memorial detail

Carved shears on north door, Littlebury Church

Visit to Colchester Castle

Interior of Colchester Castle - showing two building phases.

Last but by no means least, the Essex Society for Archaeology and History was today given a guided tour of the empty shell of Colchester Castle - stripped of its museum artefacts ahead of a major refit.  Over the last month the Castle has been the venue for a Craft Fayre, Lecture, Concert, Beer Festival, a Zombie event and a symposium which has reevaluated and reinterpreted the history of the castle building.. 

The Castle was built in two distinct phases, with the second being constructed with walls in herring bone fashion. 

A short video gives an overall impression of the structure. 

A fuller report of the Society's visit will appear on this site in due course.

Harwich

Electric Palace Cinema, Harwich

The Harwich Society were our hosts on an all-day excursion to the compact historical town on 24 September 2011.  Members assembled outside the Electric Palace cinema, now one of the oldest surviving purpose-built picture houses.  It was founded by Charles Thurston and opened in 1911 following the passing of the Cinematograph Act of 1909 which forbade the showing of films in tents, requiring a projection room to the separated from the auditorium on account of dangerous inflammable nitrates which existed with reel film.  The projectionist climbs a ladder to his room from the east side of the building.  It was named ‘electric’ to sound innovative, new and clean like the new source of power which was then sweeping Edwardian England. The fact that the Electric Palace did not have mains electricity until 1927 did not matter.  Cinema was only in its second decade when the venue was built, and it was another form of media, television, which caused its sudden closure in 1956.  For the next thirty years the building was locked and became a place for fishermen to store boats.  The local Council proposed its demolition in favour of a lorry park but this was met by so much opposition that a group of volunteers was formed to save and restore both the exterior and interior to its former Edwardian glory using the original blueprints.  Today attendees sit in a 199 seated auditorium for weekend showings of both modern and vintage films as well as Jazz concerts. At one time 452 people were crammed on benches.  The digital age is now upon us and the venue has had to change with the times by investing £70,000 in new technology. The old will be kept and used in tandem with the new.  My late Uncle, a film, cinema and theatre organ enthusiast, used to wax lyrical about the Electric Palace after it reopened in 1981.  It was lovely to visit one of his old haunts.  Charles Owen, Hollywood actor and local resident is today a great supporter of the Electric Palace Cinema. The lovely, compact Edwardian-style venue has rightly been accorded Grade II* listed status, is much loved by the town and appears to have a great future in store.

St Nicholas Church

Nearby, St Nicholas Church was rebuilt in 1822 using the latest mass produced materials of the industrial revolution.  With its soaring slender pillars, large windows and three-sided gallery it is a large and bright worship area.  A church had been sited here since 1177.  One of Harwich’s most famous residents, Christopher Martin, who sailed The Mayflower in 1620, married here twice.

Christopher Martin is remembered at his former home on one of the many informative plaques sited by the active Harwich Society.  Local enthusiasts are attempting to rebuild adjacent to the railway station a replica of The Mayflower which they hope to float in the harbour.  Their more immediate quest is to source around 200 suitable oak trees.

Next to the church is the former Three Cups inn, which only in the last generation became a private house.  It is reputed that Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton stayed there, but evidence is flimsy to say the least.  Mr Bull was the landlord in 1820s, and I was able to contribute a story (reproduced below) which adds to the social history or folklore of the place.  Sharing research is one of the pleasures of an amateur local historian.  Our volunteer guide, a musician and local Morris dancer, hopes one day to weave the story of Harwich into folk-song, and the passage gave him a ready-made chorus.

The story of the Three Cups is taken from a commonplace book, written by Edward Henry Lisle Reeve of Stondon Massey in 1881.  It reads:

“Mr Smythies of Colchester is to be remembered among other reasons for his celebrated toast at the hostelrie of ‘The Three Cups’ at Harwich.  The ‘Three Cups’ was kept by a Mr Bull who was a universal favourite. Mr Smythies being called upon for a toast when dining there one evening gave, to the delight of the party assembled, this following sentiment.

““Here’s to health of Mr Bull

And may his Cups be always full”.

“We have said Mr Bull was popular.  And no wonder.  He was a man whom it was impossible to put out of temper.  At any rate he was capable of enduring considerable provocation without a murmur.

“On one occasion twelve officers [of the West Suffolk Militia] were to dine together at the “Three Cups”.  While waiting for dinner to be served they began to form a wager among themselves as to the possibility or impossibility of ruffling the temper of Mr Bull, and for the sake of the bet, they divided their number equally, six taking one side, and six the other.  Dinner was served in due course, and Mr Bull, according to his custom, brought on the first dish – a beautiful salmon – himself.  This the officers found great fault with, saying that it was bad, and odoriferous.  And, all through dinner, they took occasion to complain of everything brought to the table.  The very bill at the end they grumbled at, and called the items in question: the wine – the best Mr Bull could produce – they voted positively disagreeable.  Mr Bull came forward himself to apologize.  He was not the least ruffled, but said that he was truly sorry not to have given satisfaction, as he had taken a great deal of trouble about the dinner, and could only say that he begged they would think no more about the bill, but let it pass.  Upon this they all burst into a hoarse laugh; explained to Mr Bull that they had had a wager at his expense, voted him a capital good fellow, paid the bill, and ordered just such another dinner for the ensuing week.”

Treadwheel Crane

Returning to the tour, the re-sited Treadwheel Crane was originally built in 1667 for the Harwich Navy Dockyard and remained in use until 1928.  It is the only surviving example having a double treadwheel.  It was operated by human exertion but unfortunately the mundane of how men worked it is lost in the mists of time.  Perhaps small gangs hauled vessels out of the harbour keeping time by using a sea-shanty or similar work song.

Samuel Pepys, the famous diarist, was Member of Parliament for the rotten borough of Harwich in the 1660s and also Secretary of State to the Navy. His influence brought a dockyard from the Thames to Old Harwich, which “stands between two strands”. A bell on the street towards the Ha’Penny Pier records that Thomas Darby of Ipswich cast it in 1666.

We passed the High Lighthouse (built 1822), which in the 1960s was the home of a local resident known as ‘Lighthouse Lil’.  Alignment with the Low Lighthouse out at sea allowed safe passage into the harbour for sailors.  The Low Lighthouse was painted by Constable: his canvas is now in the Tate Gallery in London.  The High Lighthouse now marks the end of an 81-mile walk from Epping Station called the Essex Way, and I can personally recommend it having completed the whole route over five days back in 1996.

Rainback

Fresh water was always a problem in Harwich. Older houses had brick-built wells in their gardens which stored rainwater. These are known as rainbacks. Members trooped through a house of a kindly resident to view an example in his small back garden.  Thomas Cobbold had plenty of trade on tap when he set up his Brewery in 1727 but brackish water and expensive transportation of a fresh supply proved so impractical that he moved his operation to Ipswich, where the firm stayed until very recent years.

The Harwich Redoubt was built during the Napoleonic Wars between 1808 and 1811.  It formed part of a strategic defence stretching from Southwold in Suffolk to Eastbourne on the south coast.  From its prominent position the town could be defended through 360 degrees by 24lb guns firing up to a range of a mile, as far as Felixtowe across the river.  Several Martello towers along the coastline and Stour and Orwell River estuaries were pointed out by the guide.  The fort itself is 180 feet in diameter and has a dry moat 20 feet wide.  It fell into disuse after the Second World War.  The Harwich Society, recognising its importance began work in 1969 to remove debris thus beginning an ambitious project of restoration using mainly voluntary labour. In doing so members discovered an original gun thrown down in the moat, which was excavated and hauled to its original position.  Rooms inside the amphitheatre-like structure, called casements, tell the story of the Redoubt and the town.

In Harwich Redoubt

Our day finished with an excellent tea served by the churchwardens of St Nicholas Church in the Church Hall, the former Infants School.  All around the old town is evidence of a community which cares about its rich history and heritage.  The Harwich Society is an energetic and enthusiastic body of volunteers of 40 plus years standing which brings the social history of the town alive.  They hope that we will visit again either as a Society or as individuals.  For me a revisit with Pevsner’s Perambulation (updated by James Bettley) would be a good basis for future investigation, perhaps during next year’s Harwich Music Festival.

This item first appeared in the ‘Newsletter’, Winter 2011

Stow Maries Aerodrome

Memorial at Stow Maries Aerodrome

Twenty-four ex farm buildings and a flying field achieved Grade II* listing status in May 2012, just days before the Society’s visit to the site (on 19 May).  Stow Maries Aerodrome is the only intact First World War built site in the country.  Its present owners took on the farm in 2007 and with a band of some fifty volunteers are in the process of restoring the buildings: the ninth is in progress.  The Turner family occupied the land between 1914 and 2007, except during the gap when used for military activity. During the First World War the aerodrome was used by 37 (Home Defence) Squadron, which also operated from Goldhanger and Rochford (now London Southend airport).  Their courage and bravery is remembered in the presence of a new War Memorial on the site commemorating those who died in the cause of defending their country using very basic aeroplanes and navigational aids. The remote site is a haven for wildlife and the owners are keen to develop conservation projects alongside the restoration of the buildings. The new owners gave Society members a magnificent tour and thanked the Society for a donation made last year towards the memorial.

This item first appeared in the ‘Newsletter’, Summer 2012