Headquarters
74 High Street
Billericay
Essex CM12 9BS

Affiliated to the Council for the
Protection of Rural Essex
Number 167
February 2008

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Wednesday 19th March 2008

The Annual General Meeting of the Society will be held at the Day Centre, Chantry Way, Billericay, on Wednesday 19th March 2008 commencing at 7.30pm. Our usual regular Members’ Social will follow the meeting at 8 00p.m.
The Agenda and Minutes of last year's Annual General Meeting are attached to this Newsletter.
Positions on the Committee that become vacant at the AGM are those of: Chairman, Vice Chairman, Hon. Secretary, Hon Treasurer and Hon Membership Secretary. The Committee comprises these officers together with six other members elected at the AGM and the President and life Vice-Presidents.
If there is anyone amongst our members who feels he/she would like to put their name forward to become an officer of The Society, please forward your name to our Headquarters at 74 High Street Billericay, or come along to the Annual General Meeting and offer your services.

CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

On behalf of your committee, I wish all of our members a healthy and successful new year in 2008 and a speedy recovery to those who are ill. As we look forward to the New Year you have the opportunity to fulfil that ambition to volunteer to serve on the committee.
I am pleased to announce that for the next year your present committee has agreed to stand for re-election at the AGM. I am most grateful for their continued support of the Society and their cheerful involvement in community affairs. However, some members have indicated that this will be their last year on the committee.
The Society aims to protect the Green Belt land and our local footpaths. It also arranges social evenings and provides a ‘watch dog’ role to maintain the character of Billericay. If you wish to help in all that the Society affords then please encourage your friends or acquaintances to join the society.
Developers love an apathetic community. We have some attractive open spaces for them to make a large profit out of with no regard for our environment and quality of life. So encourage dog walkers and those who enjoy our country park areas and footpaths to volunteer.
We have to wait to gain access to the Day Centre. The delay is caused by an ‘activity booking’ immediately before ours and they require extra time to leave the hall. So we have been asked to give them space for their departure. Basildon Council needs to obtain more bookings for the Day Centre to keep it a viable community centre. Please, be patient and understanding if there is a delay in our getting access to the hall.
Exhibition
In an attempt to encourage younger members to join the Society the committee is organising an Exhibition in the Reading Rooms at 73 High Street on the morning of 19th April 2008. Please make a note in your diary and tell your friends to attend and appreciate what the Society does.
Review of 2007
As you sit back and look forward with hope to what 2008 will bring, apart from increased energy prices and political unrest, you can contemplate 2007.
Our main strength was the continued existence of the Society into its 72nd year of service to the community. The Society founded in July 1935, to stop the wholesale demolition of our old timber framed buildings and replace them with boring buildings lacking any architectural merit. This would have made Billericay just another clone town, as are so many towns today; with the same square unimaginative blocks of shops.
ECC Highways Department responded to our request for a public display and an opportunity to comment on its plans for the southern area of the High Street, and Sun Street. They have been listening to the wishes of the senior residents of Sun Street. We just need to have the pedestrian crossing sited in a better location in Sun Street.
Our members answered several consultations regarding parking in the area of Laindon Road and around the green open space land at Sun Corner.
Billericay Town Council; with supporting evidence supplied by the Society from our scrapbook collection; has submitted a planning application for the Sun Corner open space to be recognised and registered as common land.
The Society successfully campaigned to stop developers building on this open space land at Sun Corner in September 1980.
The Society also successfully campaigned against the over development of land around Norsey Wood. The Society spent some 30 years getting a conservation order on Norsey Wood. Without these activities of the Society, we may not now be enjoying the benefits of Mill Meadows and Queens Park Country Park. These are aspects worthy of some serious consideration.
John Baron, our local MP addressed the Society on the 19th September. This was the first such occasion for the Society. He spoke on relevant local issues and encouraged our efforts to protect the Green Belt land around Billericay. John Baron also supported a campaign, started by Society member and Town Councillor Terence Gandy and backed by the Society, to save the St Andrew’s Health Centre facility. This I feel will be an ongoing campaign for several years.
Another ongoing activity with which the Society has been involved and seconded onto the Town Council’s War Memorial Working Group is the question of the trees at the War Memorial and the clarity if the inscribed names on the memorial plaques.
There used to be seven trees in ‘the triangle’, as the site is referred to on old plans. This is evident from pre-World War I photographs. The presence of lichen on some of the plaques is due to the clean air as provided by the trees. That is despite the triangle being on a busy road junction. Lichen, are very fussy about where they grow. Trees help to clean the air by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen into the air. These are two very good reasons to keep these trees.
The problem with legibility of the names on the memorial is vexing. It is an historic site and cannot be pulled it down and rebuilt. The World War II memorial was built with funds raised locally at a time of great austerity in the UK to honour those who fell. To reduce costs a reconstituted stone was used for the capstone; natural stone being too expensive.
The chair of the War Memorial Working Group is a member of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, SPAB. He is most anxious to preserve the integrity of this monument.
If the names were to be re-cut the letters would be too close together and it would cause even greater deterioration to them due to weathering. To removing the lichen controlled experiments with modern chemical masonry cleaners have been conducted to highlight the letters. It is imperative that the names remain intact, and not damaged by hasty detrimental action. The Town Council are doing their best to do the right thing.
Kate Gilbert has been in contact with ECC to try to get more trees planted in the High Street. She has succeeded in getting four new trees planted this year, well done Kate.
On a bright sunny Sunday in August on behalf of the Society I led some 60 people on my second town walk. From the station the route taken was around the Workhouse site, Grey Ladies Place and up to the High Street. I have proposed to the Town Council, who sponsor the refreshments and provide the loud hailer, that should significant numbers attend in future we split the group and have two guides on duty.
The Society has sponsored a Town Walk map for the new town notice board, at the junction of Stock Road and Western Road. Bennett’s Funeral Directors are sponsoring this new notice board for the display of BTC notices.
To appreciate the countryside and the historical buildings encountered the President of the Society organises fortnightly walks. You would be surprised what views are behind some of our hedgerows.
Marian Thilo continues to provide interesting speakers for the Wednesday social evenings, the average attendance being about sixty.
On behalf of the Society Roy Mizen, our vice-president, has been appointed a consultant to the ECC for the Local Core Strategy Planning.
Did you notice in the local Weekly News that my six improvement suggestions in the August 2007 Newsletter made the headlines. We manage to get regular mentions in the local newspapers for our involvement in local activities. This publicity has encouraged a number of new members in 2007 and maintains our membership level.

Ian Fuller laying a wreath on behalf of the Society at the Remembrance Day ceremony.
Our thoughts go to all those who have lost loved ones this year especially Alan Saunders who died recently following a long illness. Alan was elected Vice-Chairman of the Society 2003. Unfortunately ill heath forced him to resign at last years AGM. His background in commerce was very useful to the society providing a guiding influence on committee meetings often steering them in the right direction.

David Bremner
Chairman

EVENING SOCIALS

The National Health Service is now firmly established and part of our lives. So Dr J Pearson’s talk in February on hospital treatment in Essex before this service was established should be very interesting. Following the AGM in March Dorothy and Graham Manley will present ‘From a Fragrant Harbour’ an illustrated talk on Hong Kong. Always entertaining, Fred Feather returns in April this time to tell us of ‘Love and the Law’. In May Sue Sincock will tell us about ‘People and places in the city’.

Programme

20th February ‘Pre-NHS Hospitals’ Dr J Pearson
19th March ‘The Fragrant Harbour’ D & G Manley
16th Aprill ‘Love & the Law’ Fred Feather
21st May ‘The City of London’ Sue Sincock

 

WALLASEA ISLAND


The RSPB Waliasea Island Wild Coast Project aims to restore this special landscape for people and wildlife in the 21st Century, helping adaptation to the challenges of climate change, and sea level rise by providing space for nature and a place for relaxation and enjoyment.
It will be an exciting landmark conservation and engineering project for the 21st Century on a scale never before attempted in the UK, and the largest of its type in Europe. It will demonstrate how land can be managed to help the coast and its wildlife adapt in the face of climate change and accelerated sea level rise.
The RSPB is working to transform a large area of arable farmland at Wallasea Island, in the heart of an internationally important estuary, back into coastal marshland. This will create a wetland mosaic of mudflats and saltmarshes, shallow lagoons and pastures. These will be criss-crossed by low-lying bunds along which visitors will be able to access much of this new 'Wild Coast'.
This project is close to the Thames Gateway and will be the closest accessible 'Wild Coast' for many people in South Essex.
This project will be developed through a broad partnership with extensive consultation to ensure that adjacent interests are not adversely affected. Significant help is already being provided by the Environment Agency.
The new RSPB-led Wallasea Island Project lies adjacent to the Wallasea Wetlands Recreation area, a Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) Managed Realignment Scheme opened to the sea in 2006, and now managed by the RSPB.

COUNTRYSIDE WALKS

We enjoyed an unexpected treat on the Ongar walk when a little owl was spotted close to the path. It kept an eye on us but seemed unperturbed by our presence. Catering facilities in Ongar were disappointing and some walkers were also put off at the Whalebone, South Woodham Ferrers due to a lack of communication between the person who took my telephone call and the staff on duty.
We enjoyed a traditional Christmas lunch at the Old Dog as usual which was preceded by a mulled wine starter at All Saints Church, Horndon on the Hill. I have to thank Peter Kiss and Bob Reeves for acting as Sherpas; carrying the refreshments in backpacks. Since Christmas fell on our Tuesday we had a long break to our first January walk. Seasonably wet weather caused this walk to take a short cut back to the Viper for lunch.
We now look forward to our spring walks programme, trying to be in the right place at the right time to enjoy the best of our local countryside. Look out for some variations on the ‘usual’ meeting places and please ask beforehand if you are not sure.

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.

5th February: Inn on the Green, Stanford-le-Hope, GR684823. Pub is opposite the Parish Church, entrance to the car park behind pub is in High Street. Mucking Creek and Thameside Walk.
19th February: Maldon, GR849075. Meet in Tesco car park (red zone) for a walk to Beeleigh Falls or Heybridge sea lock depending on the weather or a majority vote.
4th March: Cock Inn, Stock, GR689989 (on street parking for non-patrons). Peter leads a local circular walk.
18th March: Thatchers Arms, Great Warley, GR583906 (use car park to right of pub). For a leisurely look at Warley Place EWT Reserve at daffodil time.
1st April: Pleshey village hall car park GR662142, just pass the church at the far end of the village. Primroses and more, with a variation on the usual route. Lunch at the White Horse.
15th April: Mill Beach GR878077. From Maldon follow the Goldhanger Road, B1026. About ½ mile past the turn for Heybridge Basin look for the pub on the right. Walk through Chigborough Lakes Essex Wildlife Trust Reserve.
27th April: Hutton GR647947, The Plough on the A129. David will lead a local circular walk.
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 see next Newsletter. This could be your chance to lead

Walks with Other Groups
12th February: 10.30am start from Holdens Ski/golf Centre for Warley Place at Snowdrop time.
11th March: 10.00am start from Westley Heights car park, behind Harvester. Crown Hill, up to 5 miles.
8th April: to be arranged.
Lifts available and/or more details.

Essex Wildlife Trust
Events at Warley Place, Great Warley
(Next to Thatchers Arms)
Snowdrop Walks, Wednesday 13th and Sunday 17th February, meet 10.45am.
Open Weekends, Saturday 1st March to Sunday 13th April, 10.00am to 5.00pm, weather permitting, including Good Friday and Easter Monday.
3rd/4th May, plant sale at Thorndon Country Park Visitor Centre, 10.00am to 5.00pm daily.

Other Events
For details of RSPB and mid-week explorer walks contact me.


Norman Turner
(01277) 622981

Walkers on their pre-Christmas lunch walk taking a break at All Saints Church, East Horndon.
Now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust it is said to be one of the places where the head of Anne Boleyn lies. Sunny but cool weather provided excellent views across Essex towards Kent

HYDE HALL


As part of National Tree Week celebrations a Timber Trail and a Woodland Walk has been created. The Timber Trail is a self guided trail around the main garden focusing on a number of specific trees and the uses for their wood. Out on the wider estate, we have for the first time, created a walk through the shelter belts, where over 35,000 trees have been planted

A ROAD BY ANY OTHER NAME


From a small town with a few side roads where the London to Southend Road and Tilbury cross Billericay has spread across the surrounding farm land acquiring many new roads on the way. Some of these road names relate to their locations. Others were named by the whim of the developer
Stock Road, Laindon Road etc do indeed head in their respective directions as stated by Kate Gilbert in the last Newsletter, but curiously none of them become Billericay Road when they reach these places. When it crosses the boundary with Hutton London Road becomes Rayleigh Road, curiously omitting both Billericay and Wickford. These ancient road names appear to recall a time when to travel was more difficult and an adventure. But not all of Billericay’s old roads retain their old names: within living memory Western Road and Chapel Street were called Back Lane and Back Street, appropriate names that still live on in some towns. Radford Way was Charity Farm Chase, its produce going to feed the poor, before Harris’s brickworks occupied the site prior to the building of the industrial estate. A reference to the springs at the end of Crown Road caused it to be known as Sluts Hole by the locals. While the production of potash in the area resulted in Potash Road being so named.
Many other names also recall Billericay’s lost farms. In this way they also acted as direction finders as in Coxes Farm Road and Greens Farm Lane which was the end of Jacksons Lane before it was cut off at Valley Road. Peartree Street, on Chapman and Andre map of 1777, became Perry Street. Dukes Road is from Dukes (Ducks Place in 1777) a large house and farm. Gooseberry Green is also mentioned on this map. So it was appropriate to name the roads on the small development near the Pilgrim public house after varieties of this summer fruit. The nearby estate was built on a sewage works, but references to it seem to have been overlooked.
The new roads in the many developed areas that surround Billericay were manly assigned by the developer or builder. Names are submitted to the local authority and generally approved providing they are not likely to cause confusion. But West Ridge and South Ridge seem to have slipped through without comment giving the impression they are close together when they are on opposite sides of the town. The names of varieties trees are often used for new roads. This has resulted in the comment that developers name their roads after the trees they felled. The same could also be said about the roads they named after the wild birds they frightened away.
But thinking of appropriate names can be a problem. Occasionally local Historical Societies are approached to come up with a suggestion. This is preferable to using their own children’s names, as can happen. This ensures a sort of lasting memory, but far from ideal. When the site of the Plastics factory in South Green was redeveloped Billericay Historical Society was asked they could help naming the roads. At their suggestion Coopers Croft was named after a tenant from the 1839 tithe returns. However this Society was less successful with naming Albion House in Sun Street. This retirement home stands on the site of offices of the former Southend Water Co. But any reference to water was thought to be inappropriate. As was Eclipse House: the new building being sited approximately between The Sun and the site of the former Half Moon beerhouse.
The estate with roads named to commemorate the ascent of Everest was built about the time of this event in 1953. Although they could equally easily have been connected with the Queen’s Coronation since the two events almost coincided, Crown and Sceptre Way for example. However the Queen’s Park estate probably owes its name a previous queen and the grandious designs of the developers. Farming depressions in the 1890 and between the wars lead to a fall in the value of farmland. Farms in what has become known as Queen’s Park were divided into small plots and sold mainly to Londoners from the East End. Known as ‘champagne trips’ prospective buyers were given train tickets and brought out to be offered building plots for a few pounds. They were intended for self-build holiday homes, but some became more permanent as a result of the blitz. Originally Queen’s Park was the central road from Perry Street to Buckwyns, with side roads named Albert, Victoria and York. They remained as tracks until the new estate swept them all away together with most of Millhill Woods.

The Original Queens Park


While Rectory House and Vicarage Court recall the former Particular Chapel and its priest’s house, never a vicarage, in Chapel Street these developments also cover the site of Billericay’s cinema, the Ritz. But the sudden arrival of The Priory under construction in Stock Road is surprising. Our nearest is Thoby Priory near Ingatestone.
South Essex Hunt’s kennels were in Kennel Lane, as you may have expected. But you will not find Bell Hill on a map, as the road past Gatwick House is known locally, despite The Bell closing its doors for the last time some 100 years ago.
Most of the trees and bulbs on the triangle of land resulting from straightening the London Road at its junction with Mountnessing Road were planted by the Society. It is known unofficially in The Society as Perry Green a name which, given another 100 years, could become adopted.

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
Publicity Officer Janet Warren 01277 634912
Social Secretary Marian Thilo 01277 624502

Email: secretary@billericaysociety.co.uk