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Coordinates: 51°31′N 0°22′E / 51.51°N 0.37°E / 51.51; 0.37

Orsett
Baker Street Windmill
Orsett  Orsett shown within Essex
OS grid reference	TQ645815
Unitary authority	Thurrock
Ceremonial county	Essex
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	GRAYS
Postcode district	RM16
Dialling code	01375
Police	Essex
Fire	Essex
Ambulance	East of England
EU Parliament	East of England
UK Parliament	Thurrock
List of places: UK • England • Essex

Orsett is a village and ecclesiastical parish located within Thurrock unitary district in Essex, England, situated around 5 km north-east of Grays. All residences within the postal district of Orsett have RM16 3__ postcodes.

History[link]

It has historically been a primarily agricultural community situated at the southern edge of the old ice age flood plain traversed by the river Mardyke.

Orsett contains a ring and bailey earthwork known locally as Bishop Bonner's palace. On the gravel terrace, there is a neolithic Causewayed enclosure discovered by as a result of crop marks which showed on aerial photographs taken by Dr St Joseph of Cambridge University.^[1] It has three concentric ditches with a number of breaks or causeways. The enclosure was used as a burial ground by the Saxons and contained at least three barrows visible on the aerial photo.^[2]

Orsett Heath in the south of the parish was formerly part of an extensive area of heathland that included Terrel's Heath.

Layout and Facilities[link]

The centre of Orsett is aligned on an east-west axis along the High Road upon which the parish church of St Giles and All Saints is located along with the animal pound and lock-up opposite Rowley Road. Its former workhouse on Rowley Road was developed into a large modern hospital in the 1960s but has, since the 1980s, been reduced in size once again despite intense local opposition. Most of the former shops in the High Road - e.g. the hairdressers, the Post Office opposite the Church, the butcher's shop, Pigg's store and the store selling honey - along with the blacksmith's in Rowley Road have closed to be replaced by just one convenience store, which itself contains a small post office, succeeding the previous Post Office, which closed due to retirement in mid-2009.^[3]

Two public houses have survived in the centre of the village, one being the prize-winning Whitmore Arms, the other the Foxhound, and outside the village centre, Orsett has one additional pub - The Kings Arms. The Orsett Cock, for many years a landmark, closed its doors as a public house in 2010, and is currently (March 2011) undergoing conversion into an Indian restaurant called Voujon.

Orsett also has 2 BP Garages off the A13, which both have M&S convenience stores, whilst the south services also possess a McDonalds fast food establishment.

Education[link]

The village's primary school has been located since the mid-19th century in School Lane educating children up to the age of 14 until 1944 and to 11 thereafter.

Buildings[link]

Apart from some small-scale Council housing in Ridgewell Avenue to the North of the High Street, there was no significant growth in residential development until 1954-55 when new properties were erected in School Lane. These were followed by further developments on the former site of the Anglican Rectory (known as Herga Hyll following its sale), off Rectory and Conways Roads and off Rowley Road. During the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, a new housing estate was built on land that belonged to the old container site, and some of the ex-military Orsett Camp site, between Stanford Road and Orsett Golf Course. This estate is commonly known as Bonners (after Bishop Bonner), and contains Whitmore Hall, the 'Home of Orsett Scouts'. During 2009, planning permission for a further 11 new homes was granted for the westernmost part of this estate.

Most of the former hospital site has been re-developed as housing in the last five years. The redevelopment provided 200 houses, despite being within the green belt and avoided the need to provide affordable housing on the site.^[4]

The historic Orsett Hall on Prince Charles's Avenue, the home of the Whitmore family until their estate was sold in the late-1960s, was destroyed by fire in May 2007 but was rebuilt during 2008/09.^[5] The exterior design is in keeping with the original Georgian building. It was used for a Help for Heroes charity event on 11th April, 2010. Orsett House is an early-eighteenth-century house off the High Street and on the western edge of the village.

It has a well-equipped village hall at its western end and a centre for the churches in the High Street.

Sport[link]

Orsett is home to a very well known cricket club and to a football club HSSC Orsett. It has one tennis court and a bowling green.

Politics[link]

Orsett is part of a ward that also contains Bulphan and Horndon-on-the-Hill. Politically, it has traditionally been Conservative. Mrs Teresa Gorman, the former Conservative Member of Parliament for the Billericay constituency, is probably Orsett's best known resident.

Notes[link]

1. ^ DR Wilson, Air Photo Interpretation (Tempus, 2000)
2. ^ Brown, Nigel, ed. (2004). The Archaeology of South Essex. Essex County Council. p. 11 and 38. ISBN 1-85281-245-1. 
3. ^ Your Thurrock - A New Sub Post Office for Orsett
4. ^ Drivers Jonas Deloitte -consultants to the Basildon & Thurrock Hospital Trust
5. ^ The Thurrock Gazette, 1st Nov 2007

External links[link]

Media related to Orsett at Wikimedia Commons

• Orsett Church on Essex Churches website

Yu Dafu
Born	(1896-12-07)December 7, 1896 Fuyang, Zhejiang, China
Died	September 17, 1945(1945-09-17) (aged 48)
Occupation	Short Story writer and Poet

Yu Dafu (simplified Chinese: 郁达夫; traditional Chinese: 郁達夫; pinyin: Yù Dáfū; Wade–Giles: Yu Ta-fu) (December 7, 1896—September 17, 1945). Born in Fuyang, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, was a modern Chinese short story writer and poet.

Early years[link]

Yu Dafu's father died when he was three, leaving the family poverty-stricken and destitute. He received a number of scholarships through the Chinese government and went on to receive a traditional Chinese education in Hangzhou. Chronologically he studied in Jiangxing-Fu Middle School (before he came to Hangzhou), Hangzhou-Fu Middle School, Yuying Academy^[1] (育英学堂, formerly of Zhejiang University).

In 1912, he entered Hangchow University (later its major part merged into Zhejiang University) preparatory through examination. He was there only for a short period before he was expelled for participation in a student strike.^[2]

He then moved to Japan, where he studied economics at the Tokyo Imperial University between 1913 and 1922, where he met other Chinese intellectuals (namely, Guo Moruo, Zhang Ziping and Tian Han). Together, in 1921 they founded the Chuangzao she 創造社 ("Creation Society"), which promoted vernacular and modern literature. One of his earlier works Chenlun 沉淪, also his most famous, published in Japan in 1921. The work had gained immense popularity in China, shocking the world of Chinese literature with its frank dealing with sex, as well as grievances directed at the incompetence of Chinese government at the time.

In 1922, he returned to China as a literary celebrity and worked as the editor of Creation Quarterly, editing journals and writing short stories. In 1923, after an attack of tuberculosis, Yu Dafu directed his attention to the welfare of the masses.

In 1927, he worked as an editor of the Hongshui literary magazine. He later came in conflict with the Communist Party of China and fled back to Japan.

Second Sino-Japanese war[link]

After the start of the Second Sino-Japanese war, he returned to China and worked as a writer of anti-Japanese propaganda in Hangzhou, and later in Zhejiang. From 1938 to 1942, he worked as a literary editor for the newspaper Sin Chew Jit Poh in Singapore.

In 1942 when the Imperial Japanese Army invaded Singapore, he was forced to flee to Sumatra. Known under a different identity, he settled there among other overseas Chinese and began a brewery business with the help of the locals. Later he was forced to help the Japanese military police as an interpreter when it was discovered that he was one of the few "locals" in the area who could speak Japanese.

In 1945, he was arrested by the Kempeitai when his true identity was finally discovered. It is believed that he was executed by the Japanese shortly after the surrender of Japan.

Works[link]

• Chenlun 沉淪 "Sinking" (1921)
• Riji jiuzhong 日記九種 “Nine Diaries” (1927)
• Guoqu 過去 “The Past" (1927)
• his first novel?? (1928) (moderately successful)
• his second novel?? (1932)
• Chuben 出奔 "Flight" (1935)

His most popular work, breaking all Chinese sales records, was Jih-chi chiu-chung "Nine Diaries", which detailed his affair with the writer Wang Ying-hsin. The most critically acclaimed work is Kuo-ch'u or "The Past", written in 1927.^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

• Encyclopædia Britannica 2005 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, article- "Yü Ta-fu"

External links[link]

• Works by Yu Dafu at Project Gutenberg