English Excursions: Histories and Mysteries of North Essex
ENGLISH EXCURSIONS
Essex is a place where you learn to expect the unexpected — and never more so than right at the northern edge of the county, along the banks of the River Stour which forms a natural boundary with Suffolk.
The river rises in Cambridgeshire and flows east into the North Sea. At Manningtree in Essex it widens out, becomes more of an estuary and for the first time is tidal. From here to Harwich where the river meets the sea 12 miles later, there’s history and mystery at every turn.
Standing on Holbrook Bay, which is part of the River Stour, Manningtree’s name is thought to be derived from “Many Trees”. It once lay claim to being the smallest town in England, with no more than 700 inhabitants living in an area of only 20 hectares. There were those who disputed this, notably the 350 people of Fordwich in Kent, which, coincidentally, sits on another River Stour. In any case Manningtree lost all hope of claiming or retaining the title when it merged to become a single parish with nearby Mistley and Lawford in 2009, thereby losing its official status as a town, even though most people still refer to it as such.
In the 17th century Manningtree was home to Matthew Hopkins, the infamous Witchfinder General. His claims that he had heard local women making a pact with the devil led to their executions as witches. Today you’ll find him lurking on the sign at the entrance to the town.
Moving east along the banks of the estuary we shift from history to mystery at the village of Mistley where, overlooking the river, two magnificent and classically ornate towers stand just inside the entrance to a small cemetery, seemingly for no reason whatsoever. Built in the neoclassical style, they look more like tall, slender pavilions, decorated with ionic columns and cornices, each topped by a cupola.
The towers date back to the 1770s when civil servant and politician Richard Rigby of Mistley Hall was Chief Secretary of Ireland and Paymaster General of the Forces. Mistley at this time was a trading port, but Rigby decided to make the area more upmarket, calling in architect Robert Adam to help turn the area into a fashionable spa. It didn’t happen, but Adam’s services were retained to build a new parish church. Rigby’s brief was for it to be grand and easily seen from the windows of his mansion.
When it was built it was all of that, looking more like a small cathedral than
a parish church. In the 18th century most churches followed the traditional design of a rectangular building with a tower on the western end. But Adam’s ideas were far from traditional. Out went convention and in came an unconventional design featuring towers at both eastern and western ends of the building. The actual church that lay between the towers was small by comparison, a single storey with a pitched roof and ornamental entrance porches on the north and south sides. You can see how it looked on a sign at the entrance to the cemetery.
The parish church of Mistley stood for nearly 100 years, but in 1870 it was replaced with a more fashionable Gothic Revival church built nearby. The main body of the old church was demolished, but the towers were allowed to remain intact. Two local families bought them with the intention of using them as mausoleums. It never happened. The towers fell into disrepair but were restored to their former glory in the 1950s, which is the way you can see them today, standing alone, dwarfing the graves that surround them.
All Saints’ Church, further east along the road in Wrabness, is of a far more conventional design, apart from one detail: it has no tower. So, without a tower, where are the church bells? They are in a wooden cage in the churchyard, of course.
The church dates back to the 12th century and, originally, had a tower that housed five bells. In the 17th century the roof of the chancel and the tower both collapsed. The roof was rebuilt, but the tower wasn’t. Instead, two of the bells were placed in a wooden structure in the courtyard. It was intended to be a temporary solution but 300 years later they are still there.
Further east, beside Wrabness Railway Station, at the end of the today somewhat politically incorrect-sounding Black Boy Lane, there stands a house that is sometimes referred to as the Taj Mahal on the River Stour.
It resembles a cross between a church and a fairytale gingerbread house, with a highly ornamental design in four diminishing sections that look as though they could telescope into each other. Its walls are adorned with green and white tiles arranged in symmetrical patterns; its golden roof is topped with unusual ornamentation that includes a statue of a naked lady; the windows, which diminish in size with each of the four sections, protrude from the roof in domed dormers; inside the walls are adorned with brightly coloured tapestries, decorative panelling, ceramics and mosaics.
The house was designed by artist and poet Grayson Perry. It was built as a shrine to a woman called Julie by her second husband. Julie was born on Canvey Island, but later lived in Basildon, Colchester and Wrabness. She was killed when she was knocked down by a scooter driven by a curry delivery driver. At least that’s the story. Julie, in fact, didn’t die under the wheels of a curry-delivering scooter rider, because she never actually lived. She is a fictional character whose biography was dreamt up by Perry in a long poem, written to provide a social history of Essex since the Second World War.
The Grayson Perry House is one of the most remarkable buildings in this part of Essex. It is available for holiday rentals, but is so popular that prospective holidaymakers are required to enter a ballot for the chance of winning an opportunity to stay there.
Onward then to Harwich, a town that is positively bursting with mystery and history. Its main claim to fame right now is that it is home to the Mayflower Project, a group of people who are busy building a replica of the famous ship with the intention of sailing it to America in 2020 to mark the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrim Fathers’ voyage to the New World.
The reason this is happening in Harwich is because the Mayflower was built in the area and was registered in the town. Its captain, Christopher Jones, lived at number 21 King’s Head Street, in a 16th-century house that bears a plaque stating: “The home of Captain Christopher Jones, Master of the Mayflower”. The Mayflower and its captain, however, are far from the only historical aspects of Harwich.
Entering the town along Main Road, watch for signs to the Redoubt, the largest ancient monument in the area.
Visit Essex, Essex County Council, County Hall, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 1QH Tel: 03330 130177 www.visitessex.com
Historic Harwich, Tourist Information Centre, Tendring District Council, Town Hall, Station Road, Clacton-on-sea, Essex CO15 1SE Tel: 01255 686633 www.historicharwich.co.uk
Mayflower Project, George Street, Harwich, Essex CO12 3ND Tel: 01255 318023 harwichmayflower.com