The marshes of Essex have been valued for their salt content through the Prehistoric and Roman eras right up until present day where Maldon sea salt is still a nationwide export. Whilst it is now favoured as a seasoning, its historical value lay in its ability to preserve food prior to the use of ice…
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The small woodland of Mundon Furze is the last surviving area of ancient woodland on the vast and desolate Dengie Peninsula. Nearby is a copse of ‘petrified’ trees appearing out of the marshland mist like a landscape from a horror film. Their past is completely mysterious. The dead oak trees are not actually petrified or…
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Upnor Castle is an Elizabethan artillery fort, built in 1559 protect the dockyard and Royal Navy ships docked in the Medway. Construction took 8 years to built the fort following orders from Elizabeth I, who was worried about tensions with Spain. 80 men would have been at the site as it’s peak – today it…
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Winchester Palace was built in the 12th-century and served as the London townhouse for the Bishops of Winchester. The Bishop of Winchester was a major landowner in Southwark, in Surrey, and he traditionally served as the King’s Royal Treasurer, performing the function of the modern Chancellor of the Exchequer and therefore had to frequently meet with…
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Berners Roding is a tiny village in the mid-Essex countryside. In fact, it is barely a village at all. Compared to a 1777 map, the village appears to have hardly changed, perhaps even shrunk. Consisting of a few farm buildings and a row of houses, it may not even be established enough to be classed…
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How does Cressing Temple reflect what was going on in the wider world? Cressing Temple is located in North Essex and the two surviving Medieval barns have never been out of use since the 13th Century when they were built under the Knights Templar military Christian order who at the time took part in the…
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St. Mary’s is located at the top of the hill in Benfleet highstreet. After the Norman conquest of England in 1066, a small church was built on the site of the current one (c.1067). Its western wall still forms part of the church today. In the 1100s the church as we know it was built…
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Moated sites are as the name suggests – wide ditches full of water that would have surrounded an island which would have had a domestic or religious building on it. They were mostly built during the medieval period around central and eastern England, often to show wealth and status in the countryside. The Howbury moated site…
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If you happen to be walking past the orangutan enclosure at Colchester Zoo, keep an eye out for the ruins of the All Saints’ Church. Although a church or temple had existed on this site since the Roman era, the current church was built in the late 13th century, used to serve Stanway Manor, which…
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Cooling Castle is a 14th-century castle situated 6 miles north of Rochester. The castle was built in the 1380’s by the Cobham family to protect the Thames from the threat of invasion from the French. The castle has an unusual layout, comprising two walled wards of unequal size next to each other, surrounded by moats and…
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