Essex
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Visit to Rayleigh and Hadleigh – 20th July 2019
“Princes”, Anne, bells, Colchester Castle, Edmund Bonner, Edward III, Elizabeth Wydeville, Essex, executions, Hadleigh Castle, Hadleigh Essex, Henry III, heresy, Holy Trinity Church, Hubert de Bergh, Hundred Years War, hunting, John, Kent, Martyrs’ Memorial, Queenborough Castle, Rayleigh, Rayleigh Mount, Rayleigh Museum, Rayleigh Windmill, Richard III Societyvia Visit to Rayleigh and Hadleigh – 20th July 2019
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Maldon
All Saints Maldon, Anglo-Saxons, Battle of Maldon, beards, Beeleigh Abbey, books, Byrthnoth, Charles I, Coes, Danegeld, Earls of Essex, Edward IV, English Civil War, Essex, Ethelred II, George Washington, Henry Bourchier Earl of Essex, Isabel of York, JD Wetherspoon, Little Easton, Maeldune Centre, Maldon, Maldon Grammar School, Moot Hall, reburials, Rose and Crown Maldon, royal portraits, St. Peter’s Maldon, statues, taxes, Thomas Plume, Thomas Plume’s Library, VikingsFollowing an unsuccesful Viking raid in 924, the battle of Maldon took place in August 991 and the result was a victory for the Norse invaders. Byrthnoth, the Essex earldorman who led the Saxons that day, was among those killed and Ethelred II instituted payment of the “Danegeld” to pacify the Vikings. This Byrthnoth statue…
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The Bishop, the MP, the scientist, the historian and the brewer
brewing, chaplains, clerical celibacy, de heretico comburendo, Edward IV, Edward VI, Essex, executions, Henry VIII, Hugh Latimer, illegitimacy, Jasper Ridley, JD Wetherspoon, John Knox, Mary I, Matt Ridley, MPs, Nicholas Ridley, Nicholas Ridley MP, Northumbria, Old St. Paul’s, Oxford, Professor Jane Ridley, Ralph Shaa, sermons, Sir Edwin Lutyens, Tewkesbury, Thomas Cranmer, University of Buckingham, VictoriaThe preacher at St. Paul’s stated that the late King’s surviving issue were illegitimate. On this occasion, it wasn’t Dr. Ralph Shaa on 22nd June 1483 about Edward IV’s sons but Rt. Rev. Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London and Westminster, on 9 July 1553 about Henry VIII’s daughters, at which time Jane was proclaimed. As…
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A group of ram-raiders in Dedham, Essex drove their vehicle into the facade of a plain, old Co-Op, causing considerable damage–and revealing behind the 1950’s front a timbered-framed merchant’s house built around 1520, with earlier medieval features such as a hearth and a large cauldron blocking the doorway, possibly as a talisman to ward off…
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Haunted Essex
Colchester Castle, Cross Keys Saffron Walden, Essex, executions, Green Man Harlow, Harwich Redoubt, haunting, Howards, James Parnell, Kelvedon Nuclear Bunker, Manningtree, Matthew Hopkins, Mistley Pond, North Weald Station, Red Lion Colchester, Rose and Crown Colchester, St. Osyth, Ursula Kemp, Valence House Dagenham, White Hart Coggeshall, witchcraftSome of the venues in this article are surprising and the nocturnal visits sound very expensive but they include some classic historical venues. In Colchester, the Castle and (Howard) Red Lion are included, as is the Redoubt at Harwich, although the Kelvedon Nuclear Bunker and North Weald Station are much newer. In the north of…
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A constitutionally important “Tudor” servant
Admiral Thomas Seymour, Anne Askew, Battle of Preston, Catherine of Aragon, Civil War, Colchester, Court of Augmentations, Dissolution of the Monasteries, Earls of Warwick, Edmund Bonner, Edward Seymour Duke of Somerset, Essex, executions, Felsted, Henry VIII, Hugh Trevor-Roper, John Fisher, John Hurt, Kimbolton Castle, Leez Priory, Marian persecution, Mary I, Parliament, Paul Scofield, Robert Bolt, siege of Colchester, Sir Richard Rich, Speakers of the Commons, St. Neots, Stephen Gardiner, Thomas Cromwell, Thomas More, Thomas Wolsey, torture, Tower of London, WalesWe tend to have rather a negative view of Sir Richard Rich, or Baron Rich of Leez as he became in February 1547, nowadays. In this, we are somewhat influenced by Robert Bolt’s portrayal of him, as a “betrayer” of More, together with the history of Trevor-Roper. One Bolt line, memorably delivered by Paul Scofield…
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So where exactly is “Orwell”?
Christopher Jones, Christopher Newport, Edmund Earl of Kent, Emma Lady Hamilton, Essex, Felixstowe, Harwich, Harwich Society, Horatio Nelson, Ipswich, Isabella de Valois, Jamestown, John Cromwell, Kathryn Warner, landing, maps, Orwell, pubs, River Orwell, River Stour, Roger Mortimer, Samuel Pepys, Shotley Peninsula, Suffolk, Three CupsHarwich Town station is the end of the line, a twenty-five minute ride from Manningtree and the north-eastern extremity of Essex. As you cross the main road from the station car park, turning left takes you past a series of old buildings with Harwich Society plaques amid a modern setting. Some of these commemorate people such…
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I had never looked into the English origins of George Washington’s family, although I did know that his ancestors were associated with Washington Old Hall, Washington, Tyne & Wear. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/washington-old-hall So I am surprised to discover that the family was also associated with other places, including Purleigh in Essex (http://www.kenmore.org/genealogy/washington/descendants.html) and Sulgrave Manor in…
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If the witchcraft trials at North Berwick in the 1590s and later in England, of which Pendle in 1610 is an example, happened because James VI/I fervently believed in witchcraft, as shown by the three characters in Macbeth, it can be argued that the subsequent decline in such cases came because judges and Charles I…
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In January 1400, after the failure of the Epiphany Rising that was intended to remove Henry IV from the throne and restore Richard II, John Holand, Earl of Huntingdon, the younger of Richard’s half-brothers, fled from London. The weather was foul, and time and again his vessel was driven ashore. Eventually he gave up, and…
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