A small town that built ships and reinvented itself as an artistic riverside settlement. Approaching Wivenhoe from the Colchester road, the land and the river Colne appear. On the bank the town presents narrow stretch of painted houses, mast-tops, and weatherboarded cottages. At low tide the mud glistens, and wading
How prosperous is Essex? One way to answer is to look at how much people earn in the county, which can be one useful marker of prosperity (although not the only one). Unlike broader statistics which can feel distant and abstract, income-per-person is a figure that brings the focus closer
A fifty acre estate, manor house and former priory in Prittlewell was a focus for the village for centuries. That village spawned a town, and the town had grown and swallowed up the village. The squires went away, and a wealthy local jeweller had bought the estate and presented it
On the busy London Road, with traffic pressing steadily forward, not many drivers think of the fact that one of England's most ancient parish churches stands only a short distance away. Modern Southend-on-Sea with its hustle and noise grew up from the village of Prittlewell, of which St
The wind comes first, blowing hard off the Thames Estuary, flattening grass and tugging at the coats of a handful of people walking towards the stone gateway to Tilbury Fort. Above the arch, there are carved images of war across the façade: cannon, drums, banners, and at the centre the