County in England
Essex
Essex has one of England's longest county coastlines, the world's longest pleasure pier, Britain's oldest recorded town and a nuclear bunker hidden under a farm.
Key information
- County
- Essex
- Nation
- England
- Population
- about 1.8 million (2021 Census)
- Known for
- Southend Pier, Colchester's Roman roots, Marconi's radio, oysters, Maldon salt and Tiptree jam
- What locals are called
- Essex boys and girls; there is no formal name for them
- Famous people
- Boudicca, Dick Turpin, Jamie Oliver, Grayson Perry
- Football clubs
- Colchester United, Southend United, Chelmsford City
About Essex
The county that began as a kingdom
Essex means the land of the East Saxons, and it really was a kingdom before it was a county. The three curved swords on its flag are seaxes, the short blades that gave the Saxons their name. Its Christian story starts early too. St Cedd arrived from the north and, around 654, built a chapel of Roman stone on the Bradwell shore. St Peter-on-the-Wall still stands there, looking across the Blackwater estuary. Not far away, at Greensted near Ongar, stands the oldest wooden church in the world, its walls made of split oak trunks from the 11th century. In 2003, ahead of road-widening works in Southend, archaeologists uncovered the Prittlewell burial, an untouched chamber now dated to roughly AD 575–605, probably around AD 580. It was full of gold-foil crosses, drinking horns and a folding stool. It ranks among the great Anglo-Saxon finds.
Britain's first capital went up in flames
Colchester is billed as Britain's oldest recorded town. As Camulodunum it became the first Roman capital of the province after the invasion of AD 43. Then, in about AD 60, Boudicca of the Iceni led her rebels down from the north and burned it to the ground. The Romans rebuilt it, and plenty of their work survives. The Balkerne Gate is the largest surviving Roman gateway in Britain. The remains of a Roman chariot-racing circus, found in 2004, are the only ones known in the country. The Normans then built Colchester Castle on the foundations of a Roman temple. Its keep is the largest Norman keep in Europe.
Where the world first heard the wireless
In 1912 Marconi opened the world's first purpose-built wireless factory in Chelmsford. In 1920 the opera singer Dame Nellie Melba sang into a microphone from his works there, and the broadcast was heard across Europe. In 1922 a Marconi team in nearby Writtle began the 2MT transmissions, among Britain's first regular entertainment broadcasts. Chelmsford is also home to Essex County Cricket Club. Essex won six County Championships between 1979 and 1992: three under Keith Fletcher, in 1979, 1983 and 1984, and three under Graham Gooch, in 1986, 1991 and 1992. A modest county side became the team everyone else feared. Back in Colchester, the football club has its own party piece. In 1971 Colchester United, then a Fourth Division side, beat the mighty Leeds United 3-2 in the FA Cup, and fans still talk about it.
A coastline that never seems to end
Essex has one of the longest county coastlines in England, roughly 350 miles of estuaries, marshes, creeks and islands. Only Cornwall, at around 422 miles, is commonly quoted as longer. Mersea Island is cut off from the mainland when the tide covers the Strood causeway. Canvey Island gave the world the pub-rock band Dr Feelgood. Southend-on-Sea has the longest pleasure pier in the world, stretching 1.34 miles (2.16 km) into the Thames Estuary. It even has its own railway to carry you to the end. Further along the coast, Harwich was the home port of Christopher Jones, master of the Mayflower. Tilbury is where Elizabeth I rallied her troops in 1588, and where the Empire Windrush docked in 1948.
Oysters, salt and a very famous jam
Essex eats well. Colchester and Mersea oysters have been prized since Roman times, and the town still holds an oyster feast each autumn. At Maldon, salt has been harvested from the Blackwater for centuries, and the flaky crystals of Maldon sea salt now sit on tables worldwide. In Tiptree, Wilkin & Sons have made jam since 1885 and grow their own Little Scarlet strawberries. Jamie Oliver grew up in Clavering, where his parents ran the pub, the Cricketers. Then there is Maldon's Mud Race, where competitors splash across the muddy bed of the Blackwater for charity.
Bacon, bunkers and bad reputations
Every four years, couples in Great Dunmow try to win the Dunmow Flitch, a side of bacon given to a pair who can convince a jury they haven't regretted their marriage for a year and a day. Thaxted keeps its morris dancing alive, and Gustav Holst lived in the town in the years he finished The Planets. Under a quiet farm at Kelvedon Hatch lies a Cold War bunker. It was built in 1952–53 as an RAF air-defence operations centre under the ROTOR programme, then later adapted into a regional government headquarters for use after a nuclear attack. Essex has had its villains. Dick Turpin was born at Hempstead, and Matthew Hopkins, the self-styled Witchfinder General, hunted his victims around Manningtree in 1645. Today the county's image owes more to the 'Essex girl' joke, the 1980s 'Essex man' and reality TV. But Essex is the home of Grayson Perry and the Dedham Vale of Constable's paintings, and of Depeche Mode, who formed in Basildon.