Essex () is a
ceremonial and non-metropolitan
county in the
East region of England, and one of the
home counties. It is located to the northeast of
Greater London and is one of the most populous counties in England. It borders with
Cambridgeshire and
Suffolk to the north,
Hertfordshire to the west,
Kent to the South and London to the south west.
Essex County Council is the principal local authority for much of the county, sharing functions with twelve district councils. The
county town is
Chelmsford. The southern Essex boroughs of
Thurrock and
Southend-on-Sea are governed separately as
unitary authorities. It was
established in antiquity and formed the eastern portion of the
Kingdom of Essex. Sections of the county closer to London are part of the
Metropolitan Green Belt, which prohibits development. It is the location of the regionally significant
Lakeside Shopping Centre and
London Stansted Airport; and the
new towns of
Basildon and
Harlow.
History
Toponomy
The name ''Essex'' originates in the
Anglo-Saxon period of the
Early Middle Ages and has its root in the
Old English ''Ēastseaxe'' (i.e. the "East Saxons"), the eastern kingdom of the
Saxons. In 527 AD, occupying territory to the north of the
River Thames, incorporating much of what later became
Middlesex and
Hertfordshire, though its territory was later restricted to lands east of the
River Lea.
Colchester in the north east of the county is Britain's oldest recorded town, dating back to before the Roman conquest, when it was known as
Camulodunum, and was sufficiently well-developed to have its own mint. Subsequently the Kingdom of Essex was subsumed into the
Kingdom of England and Essex eventually became a county.
Modern period
Essex County Council was formed in 1889. However, the
County Borough of West Ham, and from 1915 the
County Borough of East Ham, formed part of the county but were not under county council control. A few parishes were transferred to other counties at this time; parts of
Haverhill, Kedington, and Ballingdon-with-Brundon went to
Suffolk, and Great & Little Chishill and Heydon to
Cambridgeshire.
Southend-on-Sea also formed a county borough from 1914 to 1974.
The boundary with Greater London was established in 1965 when East Ham and West Ham county boroughs and the Barking, Chingford, Dagenham, Hornchurch, Ilford, Leyton, Romford, Walthamstow and Wanstead and Woodford districts were transferred to form the London boroughs of Barking, Havering, Newham, Redbridge and Waltham Forest. Essex became part of the East of England Government Office Region in 1994 and was statistically counted as part of that region from 1999, having previously been part of the South East England region. In 1998, the districts of Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock were separated from the shire county of Essex becoming unitary districts.
Governance
The county of Essex is divided into a number of local government districts. They are
Harlow,
Epping Forest,
Brentwood,
Basildon,
Castle Point,
Rochford,
Maldon,
Chelmsford,
Uttlesford,
Braintree,
Colchester,
Tendring,
Thurrock, and
Southend-on-Sea. The last two boroughs are
unitary authorities which form part of the county but are not administered by the county council.
Essex Police also covers the two unitary authorities.
County council
The county council was formed in 1889, and it meets at the County Hall, in
Chelmsford. Before 1938, it regularly met in London near Moorgate, which had been more convenient than any place in the county. It currently has 75 elected councillors. Before 1965, the number of councillors reached over 100. The County Hall, which dates largely from the mid-1930s, and is decorated with fine artworks of that period, mostly the gift of the family who owned the textile firm,
Courtaulds, was made a
listed building in 2007. The Essex County Council is currently controlled by the
Conservative Party. The chairman of the county council 2006–08 was Gerard McEwen of Norton Mandeville near
Ongar, and since May 2008, Elizabeth ("Bonnie") Hart, of Hockley.
In November 2008, the council advertised in the European Journal for a private sector "delivery partner" to provide a wide range (and potentially all) of its services. The value of such a contract could amount to £5.4 billion. The arguments advanced in favour of such a step include better service quality and greater efficiency. However, critics including the council's opposition leader have complained of zero consultation before launching this procurement. The council nevertheless hopes to choose a partner before the elections scheduled for June 2009.
The county council has until recently had a partnership with the British Telecom company which has generated a debate locally about the effectiveness of such arrangements. In January 2009, the council's cabinet decided to terminate this contract early. The trade union Unison has questioned the council's competence in managing major private sector contracts. Press reports indicate that BT are considering taking legal action against the council. Unison estimate that the cost to the taxpayer of early termination could be as much as £50m.
The political composition of the county council is as follows.
Geography
The highest point of the county of Essex is Chrishall Common near the village of
Langley, close to the
Hertfordshire border, which reaches . The ceremonial county of Essex is bounded to the south by the
River Thames and its estuary (a boundary shared with
Kent County); to the southwest by
Greater London; to the west by
Hertfordshire with the boundary largely defined by the
River Lea and the
Stort; to the northwest by
Cambridgeshire; to the north by
Suffolk County, a boundary mainly defined by the
River Stour; and to the east by the
North Sea.
The pattern of settlement in the county is diverse. The Metropolitan Green Belt has effectively prevented the further sprawl of London into the county, although it contains the new towns of Basildon and Harlow, originally developed to resettle Londoners following the destruction of London housing in World War II but since much expanded. Epping Forest also acts as a protected barrier to the further spread of London. Because of its proximity to London and the economic magnetism which that city exerts, many of Essex's settlements, particularly those on or within driving distance of railway stations, function as dormitory towns or villages where London workers raise their families.
Part of the south east of the county, already containing the major population centres of Basildon, Southend and Thurrock, is within the Thames Gateway and designated for further development. Parts of the south west of the county such as Buckhurst Hill and Chigwell are contiguous with Greater London and are included in the Greater London Urban Area. A small part of the south west of the county (Sewardstone), is the only settlement outside Greater London to be covered by a postcode district of the London post town (). To the north of the green belt, with the exception of major towns such as Colchester and Chelmsford, the county is rural, with many small towns, villages and hamlets largely built in the traditional materials of timber and brick, with clay tile or thatched roofs.
Economy
Industry is largely limited to the south of the county, with the majority of the land elsewhere being given over to agriculture. Harlow is a centre for electronics, science and
pharmaceutical companies, while Chelmsford is the home of Marconi (now called
telent plc and owned by
Ericsson of Sweden since 2005), Basildon home to
New Holland Agriculture's European headquarters and Brentwood home to the
Ford Motor Company's European HQ.
Loughton is home to a production facility for British and foreign
banknotes. Chelmsford has been an important location for
electronics companies since the industry was born, and is also the location for a number of insurance and financial services organisations, and is the home of the soft drinks producer
Britvic. Other businesses in the county are dominated by
light engineering and the
service sector.
Colchester is a garrison town, and the local economy is helped by the
Army's personnel living there.
Parts of Eastern Essex suffer from high levels of deprivation, with the most highly deprived wards being in Clacton and Southend. In the Indices of deprivation 2007, Jaywick was identified as the most deprived Lower Super Output Area in Southern England. Unemployment was estimated at 44% and many homes were found to severely lack basic amenities. The Brooklands and Grasslands area of Jaywick were found to be the third most deprived area in England, only Liverpool and Manchester rated higher. In contrast though, South West Essex is a mostly affluent part of Eastern England because the area forms part of the London commuter belt. South West Essex has a large middle class presence and the area is widely known for its Independent schools. In 2008, ''The Daily Telegraph'' found Brentwood and Ingatestone to be the 19th and 14th richest towns in the UK respectively.
Transport
The main airport in Essex is
London Stansted Airport, serving destinations in Europe and Asia. The Lib-Con coalition government formed in May 2010 has agreed to resist an additional runway at Stansted, so curtailing the operator's ambitions for expansion.
London Southend Airport, once one of Britain's busiest airports, is undergoing rebuilding,will offer schedule flights to Ireland and offers limited passenger flights each summer to the
Channel Islands; a new railway station is nearly complete on the airport's eastern boundary and a runway extension will then be built in a south-westerly direction. There are several smaller airfields, some of which owe their origins to military bases built during World War I or World War II. These are popular for pleasure flights or flying lessons; examples include
Clacton Airfield,
Earls Colne Airfield, and
Stapleford Aerodrome.
The Port of Tilbury is one of Britain's three major ports, while the port of Harwich links the county to the Hook of Holland and Esbjerg. A service to Cuxhaven closed in December 2005. Plans have been approved to build the UK's largest container terminal at Shell Haven in Thurrock and although opposed by the local authority and environmental and wildlife organisations now seem increasingly likely to be developed.
Despite the existence of the Dartford Road Crossing to Dartford, Kent, across the Thames River, a ferry for pedestrians to Gravesend, Kent, still operates from Tilbury during limited daily hours, and ferries for pedestrians operate across some of Essex's rivers and estuaries during spring and summer. The M25 motorway and M11 motorway both cross the county in the extreme south and west, linking those parts of the county with Kent, Hertfordshire and Cambridge. The A127 and A13 trunk roads are important radial routes connecting London and the M25 to the south of Essex. The A12 runs across the county from the south west to the north east and not only carries traffic within Essex but also traffic between London and Suffolk, east Norfolk and the ports of Felixstowe and Harwich.
There is an extensive public transport network. The main railway routes in Essex include two lines from the City of London to Southend-on-Sea, operated by c2c from Fenchurch Street railway station (including a route via Tilbury) and by National Express East Anglia from Liverpool Street station; the Great Eastern Main Line from Liverpool Street connecting to Harwich and onwards into Suffolk and Norfolk; and the West Anglia Main Line from Liverpool Street linking to Stansted and onwards into Cambridgeshire. The Epping Forest district is served by the London Underground Central Line. The routes operated by National Express East Anglia (formerly known as "One") and c2c, are both owned by National Express. There are also a number of branch lines including the Sunshine Coast Line linking Colchester to the seaside resorts of Clacton-on-Sea and Walton-on-the-Naze via the picturesque towns of Wivenhoe and Great Bentley. The Crouch Valley Line, another branch line, links Wickford to a number of riverside communities via South Woodham Ferrers and Burnham-on-Crouch to Southminster.
South Essex Rapid Transit is a proposed public transport scheme which would provide a fast, reliable public transport service in, and between, Thurrock, Basildon and Southend.
Education
Education in Essex is substantially provided by three authorities being
Essex County Council and the two unitary authorities,
Southend-on-Sea and
Thurrock. In all there are some 90 state secondary schools provided by these authorities, the majority of which are comprehensive, although one in
Uttlesford, two in
Chelmsford, two in
Colchester and four in
Southend-on-Sea are selective. There are also various Independent Schools providing education in Essex.
The University of Essex, which was established in 1963, is located just outside Colchester, with two further campuses in Loughton and Southend-on-Sea. University Campus Suffolk, with a main campus in Ipswich and five centres in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, is a joint venture between University of Essex and University of East Anglia. Anglia Ruskin University was awarded university status in 1992 and has campuses in Chelmsford and Cambridge.
Culture
The County's
coat of arms comprises three Saxon
seax knives (although looking rather more like
scimitars) arranged on a red background; the three-seax device is also used as the official logo of Essex County Council having been granted as such in 1932.
The emblem was attributed to
Anglo-Saxon Essex in Early Modern historiography. The earliest reference the arms of the East Saxon kings was by
Richard Verstegan, the author of ''A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence'' (Antwerp, 1605), claiming that "
Erkenwyne king of the East-Saxons did beare for his armes, three [seaxes] argent, in a field gules". There is no earlier evidence substantiating Verstegan's claim, which is an anachronism for the Anglo-Saxon period seeing that heraldry only evolved in the 12th century, well after the Norman conquest.
John Speed in his ''Historie of Great Britaine'' (1611) follows Verstegan in his descriptions of the arms of Erkenwyne, but he qualifies the statement by adding "as some or our heralds have emblazed".
The traditional county flower of Essex is the cowslip (''Primula veris''), locally known as the paigle or peggle, and frequently mentioned in the writings of Essex bucolic authors such as Samuel Bensusan and C. H. Warren. In 2002, the Common Poppy (''Papaver rhoeas'') was named the county wildflower after a poll of residents (which excluded the cowslip) by the plant conservation charity Plantlife. Samuel Bensusan and others have suggested that if Essex had a county bird, it would be the lapwing (known locally as the peewit) whose lonely cry characterises the Essex marshes known as saltings.
Essex is also home to the Dunmow Flitch Trials a traditional ceremony that takes place every four years and consists of a test of a married couples devotion to one another. A common claim of the origin of the Dunmow Flitch dates back to 1104 and the Augustinian Priory of Little Dunmow, founded by Lady Juga Baynard. Lord of the Manor Reginald Fitzwalter and his wife dressed themselves as humble folk and begged blessing of the Prior a year and a day after marriage.
The Prior, impressed by their devotion bestowed upon them a Flitch of Bacon. Upon revealing his true identity, Fitzwalter gave his land to the Priory on the condition a Flitch should be awarded to any couple who could claim they were similarly devoted.
By the 14th century, the Dunmow Flitch Trials had achieved far-reaching notoriety. The author William Langland, who lived on the Welsh borders, mentions it in his 1362 book ''The Vision of Piers Plowman'' in a manner that implies general knowledge of the custom among his readers.
Landmarks
Over 14,000 buildings have
listed status in the county, and around 1000 of those are recognised as of Grade I or II* importance. The buildings range from the 7th century Saxon church of
St Peter-on-the-Wall, to the
Royal Corinthian Yacht Club which was the United Kingdom's entry in the "International Exhibition of Modern Architecture" held at the
Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1932.
Places of interest
Abberton Reservoir
Arena Essex Raceway
Ashingdon (The site of the Battle of Ashingdon in 1016)
Audley End
Clacton-On-Sea
Colchester Castle File:CL icon.PNG File:Museum icon (red).png
Chelmsford Cathedral
Colchester Zoo
Colne Valley Railway
East Anglian Railway Museum
Epping Forest
Frinton-on-Sea
Great Bentley File:Forestry commission logo.svg Home to the Largest Village green in England
Harlow New Town
Hedingham Castle
Ingatestone Hall
Kelvedon Hatch (Secret Nuclear Bunker)
Loughton
Maldon Historic market town site of the Battle of Maldon
Mangapps Railway Museum File:HR icon.svg File:Museum icon (red).png (Burnham-on-Crouch)
Marsh Farm Country Park
Mersea Island
Mistley towers
Mountfitchet Castle
North Weald Airfield
Orsett Hall
St Peter-on-the-Wall
Saffron Walden
Southend Pier
Thaxted
University of Essex (Wivenhoe Park, Colchester)
Waltham Abbey
Notable persons
''See :Category:People from Essex.''
Sister counties and regions
Jiangsu, China
Picardy, France
Thuringia, Germany
Henrico County, Virginia
Accra, Ghana
See also
The Earl of Essex
Q Camp: WWII camp in Essex
List of civil parishes in England
Lord Lieutenant of Essex
High Sheriff of Essex
Notes and references
External links
Visit Essex
Essex County Council
Seax – Essex Archives Online
Digital Images of Essex
Essex Registration Service
Dunmow Flitch Trials
Essex Gigs 2010
BBC Essex
British History Online
Essex Churches
Essex Community Forums
Category:Non-metropolitan counties
Category:NUTS 2 statistical regions of the United Kingdom
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