Headquarters
74 High Street
Billericay
Essex CM12 9BS

Affiliated to the Council for the
Protection of Rural Essex
Number 168
May 2008

CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

Save Our Sun Corner
This was the demand of the people of Billericay in 1978 when the Billericay Society supervised and chaired a local meeting in Billericay School attended by 200 residents, despite the bad weather, showing the strength of feeling on the matter of the loss of Sun Corner to residential development plans from ECC.
Essex County Council obtained the green site of 18-acres known as Sun Corner in 1949. The following are comments from our Society scrapbooks of cuttings from the local papers of the time.
28th October 1977: Basildon wanted to buy the site at a low recreational rate. ECC wanted the site classed as ‘a prime residential development ground’ at a higher cost per acre.
November 1977: Local newspapers reported, ‘That there were plans for a multi-million pound housing estate on Sun Corner green’.
Our scrapbook for 1977 shows the proposed area of the development on Sun Corner green.
The local Member of Parliament, Mr Eric Moonman, backed the campaign by local residents to save the green.
January 1978 reported that discussions about the site had been going on for a number of years.
13th April 1978 a town meeting in Billericay School chaired by the Billericay Society passed the motion proposed by the Society: ‘That Sun corner remain an open space for recreational purposes, forever, and that it should be designated as that on the town plan’ motion supported by 4000 signatures.
The Gazette joined the campaign and backed the people’s demand and their stand against the bulldozers.
Mr Moonman MP referred the matter to Parliament and the Department of the Environment.

May 1978 the Government agreed for the Department of the Environment to act as mediator in the dispute between Basildon and the people of Billericay and ECC: ‘To end uncertainty and ambiguity’ residents wanted ‘no buildings what so ever on the site at Sun Corner’.
ECC leased the land to Basildon for 99 years rather than grant it as open space in perpetuity.
19th December 1980 ECC handed over care of the controversial site to Basildon District to take over maintenance of the land for recreational purposes. Leader of the Council added: ‘It is up to us and the people of Billericay to stand firm and say that the land is for this district, and the people of this district. Our determination to use this land as open space and the installation of play equipment will go a long way to stopping any further planning applications’.
Billericay Town Council made an application in 2007 to have the green at Sun Corner designated ‘Common Land’ in accordance with the Commons Act of 2006
Gazette Wednesday 9th April 2008, almost thirty years later, it was reported that the district council’s cabinet member for resources, Councillor Phil Turner will sit down with council planning officers ‘Nobody wants this land developed so we will look at ways of changing our policy and seeing if we can have a fair look at other ways of protecting it. This is an area of vital green space, it is the green lung of Billericay and if anyone did ever want to build on it and the people were against it I would campaign very strenuously on their behalf. The message from me is this is not going to be built on, not now, not in the future, not ever’
So people it is now up to you to make your anti-development feelings known, loud and clear, as in 1977.

Obituaries


It is with deep sadness that we report on the deaths of two prominent members of the Society:
Alan James Saunders: 27 June 1935 to 22 January 2008. Alan was Vice Chairman of the Society and we thank him for his many services to the Society as a regular committee member. Our thoughts go out to his family, wife Janet, and his children Jane and Peter.
Alan’s funeral was on the 4th February 2008 at Emmanuel Church Laindon Road Billericay. Many people attended the service in celebration of his life from the Dutch branch of the family to London friends. Macmillan Nurses and Marie Curie cancer support charities received the donations from the congregation. To quote from the bookmarks given out in memory of Alan: “A man lives again through his children. The trees that he has planted. The words that he has uttered”. From African Wisdom.
We will miss Alan’s forceful views on a number of subjects. If he disagreed with the matter under discussion he would utter forth his sonorous ‘It’s a WOMBAT’ Meaning a waste of money brainpower and time. He learnt this phrase from his time working in London as a civil servant at the Export Control Guarantee Department. The committee will miss his input to discussions. Alan was also treasurer of the Billericay Arts Association at the Fold for many years.
Ronald Turner 1919 to 13th December 2007; past Vice-Chairman and Vice President of the Billericay Society
In I989 Mr Turner, 70, was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire for political and public services. He took over the Conservative chairmanship, seeing the organisation through troubled times after the resignation of the local MP, Harvey Proctor. He also did voluntary work for Billericay Educational Trust. He was active in several voluntary positions in the town. Ron Turner lived in Parklands from 1969 until his death. Our sympathy goes out to his family for their loss.

Publicity Exhibition


The Society held an exhibition in the Reading Rooms on Saturday 19th April. Display boards depicting the growth of the town and various Society historical items were used to illustrate the work of the Society. The event was very well attended and several new members were recruited. Emphasis was placed on how previous Society activities had influenced these developments.

David Bremner
Chairman

EVENING SOCIALS

For the May meeting Sue Sincock presents an illustrated talk on the people and places in the City of London. Jim Shrub, Billericay’s own Town Crier, will tell us of this ancient tradition, for the June meeting. This will be followed in July with an illustrated talk on Warley Place, a popular destination for Society walks, by Thelma Wilson..

Programme

21st May ‘People & Places in the City’ Sue Sincock
18th June ‘Town Crier’ Jim Shrub
16th July ‘Warley Place’ Thelma Wilson
August No Meeting  

 

COUNTRYSIDE WALKS

The spring walks have gone very well with good attendances and new faces appearing all the time. Going into summer, our new programme should help keep the momentum going. With new leaders Bob Reeve and Graham Wright venturing out to Purleigh, my commitment is reduced to one walk per month, so all I need now is a volunteer to compile the programme and write these notes, any offers.


Programme
All walks are on Tuesday mornings, four miles or less, at a leisurely pace. They start at 10.00am and finish about 12.30pm. Boots and waterproofs are advised, no dogs please. Any changes of start point are announced on the previous walk, or telephone me before hand, but not on the day.

Please Note: All participants in these walks do so at their own risk. Neither leader nor The Society can be held responsible for any accident or injury suffered.

13th May: Hylands Park GR684041. Enter via gates on B1016, and park at the stable block car park and meet at the café. Doug Smith leads a stroll round the park when the rhododendrons are at their best.
27th May: Langdon EWT Reserve, GR660874 meet at the visitor centre, Lower Dunton Road. From the Dunton flyover follow sign, Horndon on the Hill. Centre is on the left about 400 metres beyond the railway bridge.
10th June: Purleigh, The Bell, GR842020. Please park on the road, not in the pub car park. Purleigh is best reached via Danbury; pub is at the far end of village. Bob and Graham will lead a Norman Skinner walk via the vineyards and Spar Hill.
24th June: Meet at the War Memorial, Billericay for a linear walk to Stock and return by bus. Walkers may join this walk at Lake Meadows car park or Queen’s Park. Further details from Peter (01277)625758.
8th July: Herongate GR626914, park in Thorndon Approach opposite cricket common. Shorter walk to Thorndon Visitor Centre for the Art Exhibition of top quality paintings by Essex artists. Your choice for lunch venue.
22nd July: Fuller Street GR749161, park and meet at the Square and Compasses, Newney Lane. From Gt Leighs on former A131, turn right at Queen Anne’s Castle towards Terling for nearly 2-miles. David leads a walk to Terling.
5 August: Rettendon The Lodge Hotel, GR787961. From Rettendon turnpike take A132 for approximately 1-mile. Entrance drive is on the left. Walk includes Rettenden Church and a murder scene. Note: No access from Woodham Road.
19th August: See next Newsletter
Walks with other groups: ask me for details.
Tuesday 20th May Chadwell St Mary 10.00 start 4½ miles.
Norman Turner
(01277) 622981

ON THE ROAD AGAIN


To-day we have naming of parts.
Herbert Reed
Time and space prevented the inclusion of these roads in the article A Road by Any other Name in the last Newsletter.
Alma Link connects the High Street with Chapel Street. A curious little road that masquerades as an entrance to Waitrose car park and was probably not intended to be used as a short cut between these roads, albeit one way. Its name was derived from Alma Hatt, Basildon’s first Town Manager.
When this link was proposed, at the time Waitrose submitted an application for a new store, the Society pressed for it to be named after Dr William Shackleton, a former missionary and outspoken preacher who owned the Gospel Hall in Chapel Street. He lived at 102 High Street, the building that flanks this road; now an insurance agency, and was a relative of the explorer Ernest Shackleton. Alma worked hard to establish the new Town of Basildon and died young while still in office. But the good, if controversial, doctor, with his Billericay connections, surely had the better claim; at least that was view of the Society.
Sunnymede, (Sunny Meadow) was Billericay’s first new estate development. It was built by Iles shortly after WW1, and some of the roads owe their names to this conflict. A strange juxtaposition of names there being nothing sunny about the first war. It was a small estate of distinctive little bungalows with pointed roofs built out of the town in open country. Road access was by way of Jacksons Lane which then connected to Outwood Common Road, incorporating what is now David’s Walk and Greens Farm Lane. Hillside was a short cul de sac that lead to a footpath to the estate. He built another estate of these bungalows near Harold Wood which he named Sunnytown.
There are many station roads most lead to long forgotten ‘Beechingised’ stations. But while Billericay retains its station it is remote from Station Road. One theory is one of proposed routes for the line through Billericay would have followed this road.
A genuine effort was made in Basildon to link the names its many new roads to features and farms in the area or local Essex personalities; for Billericay the most notable being Christopher Martin Road. With so many new roads the net had to be cast far and wide. Hence the inclusion of Crompton Close, from the electrical pioneer in Chelmsford, and Chester Hall Lane, from Chester M Hall, inventor of the achromatic telescope, who was born at Leigh on Sea. Crompton Parkinson’s factory has long gone as has Howard’s Chemical works in Ilford, but its name perpetuated in Howard Chase. So, both industrial entrepreneurs and town managers are equally transient and soon forgotten.
In case you doubt this, what is the etymology for Luckyn Lane, in Basildon?
But at least none of the names of our roads have been renamed for political reasons as was Winnie Mandela Way in Harlow.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost

PUBLISHED BY THE BILLERICAY SOCIETY

President Norman Turner 01277 622981
Chairman David Bremner 01277 626674
Vice Chairman Vacant  
Secretary Betty Gardener 01277 656838
Treasurer John Bath 01277 651890
Membership Secretaries Kate and Tony Gilbert 01277 633007
Reception Julie & Doug Smith 01277 623560
Publicity Officer Janet Warren 01277 634912
Social Secretary Marian Thilo 01277 624502

Email: secretary@billericaysociety.co.uk