Tags
biogeography, Buckhurst Hill, East Anglia, Essex, floods, identity, Jonathan Meades, landscape, marshes, place, poetry, tide, water
Essex Marsh, by Diana Hale, acrylic on paper
Jonathan Meades‘ recent BBC4 programme ‘The Joy of Essex‘, replete with characteristic provocations, utopian visions and other little known eccentricities, inspired me to relive some of my own joys of Essex, searching out paintings and photographs and taking advantage of an opportunity for some biogeography, or topography of the self. Not difficult as I was actually born there, or at least in what used to be Essex, as was everything east of the River Lea at one time.
Although my birth certificate says the London borough of Redbridge as that was where the hospital was, in fact my parents were living with my grandparents in Buckhurst Hill, in the Epping Forest district of Essex. Appropriately, as it was where my father’s family had ended up, it is not far from Hale End (on the map between Walthamstow and Chingford). Incidentally there is now a new Hale village next to Tottenham Hale, not that far away from Hale End and not far from where I now live – a pleasing circularity. ‘Hale’ apparently means ‘a hollow place’ in Old English so I think there are plenty around.
The Hale side of my father’s family migrated to urban London from Hampshire in the 19th century, progressing East to Barking, and meeting my grandmother’s family who had migrated into East London from Suffolk, then Loughton (where my father was brought up), then Buckhurst Hill. Having moved away shortly after I was born it was only when I returned to London to go to university that I rediscovered my Essex/London roots.
Interestingly in view of recent attitudes, my ‘Little Guide to Essex’, first published in 1909, says in the preface
‘There is a heresy current, among not a few persons who ought to know better, to the effect that Essex is a flat and uninteresting county. It is to be hoped that this little book will do something towards freeing a county, brimful of attractions both natural and artificial, from the aspersions of such a libel.’
Twas not always so as this quote from the poet Michael Drayton (1563-1631) in the same guide shows
‘For Essex is our dower which greatly doth abound
with every simple good that in the Ile is found.’
John Betjeman predated Jonathan Meades in rehabilitating Essex, focusing however on more traditional aspects
‘The deepest Essex few explore
Where steepest thatch is sunk in flowers
And out of elm and sycamore
Rise flinty fifteenth-century towers.’
Robert Macfarlane has more recently lauded wild Essex, with a TV series Wild Places, featuring Essex, following his book Wild Places, which included a walk around the Dengie peninsula.
It is the coastal areas and in particular the marshes, that I find most aesthetically intriguing though, flat maybe but never boring. Bordered by the Thames estuary in the south, and with the estuaries of the rivers Crouch, Blackwater, and Colne in succession, and finally the Stour as the northern border the coastline is in fact one of the longest of any English county. This, together with more edgelands from islands such as Canvey Island (not strictly an island but anyway the home of the wonderful Dr Feelgood), Two Tree Island, the former rubbish dump of Southend, Foulness and Mersea Island, means an excess of winding creeks amid marshy landscapes. I love the minimal reduction of land, sea and sky, the strong horizontals and the ever-changing tide and light.
Two Tree Island
Two Tree Island
Blackwater Estuary
Blackwater Estuary
Low tide at Leigh on Sea
It needs to be remembered though that marshes are susceptible land – threatened by airport builders and others who cannot see their beauty. They can also mean disaster and death for those living nearby, when high tides inundate the land, as the floods of 1953, 60 years ago this week, showed.
Related articles
- The Joy Of Essex saw Jonathan Meades eloquently reclaim the county (metro.co.uk)
- Essex: the only way is up (guardian.co.uk)
- New Humanist Blog : The joy of Essex (rationalist.org.uk)
- Great Flood anniversary marked (bbc.co.uk)
- http://www.opendemocracy.net/ken-worpole/great-tide-of-31-january-1953
Some good pictures there. I’ve walked 1000′s of miles around Essex, including the places you mention above. Some pictures with a wider POV would show the surprising isolation and bleakness of a county many discard as ‘TOWIE’.
Thanks for that – it is encouraging to find so many supporters of ‘wild’ Essex!
Some great pictures here. It’s interesting because I live in the province Zeeland in the Netherlands and much of the landscape is, or was, very similar to that of Suffolk and the Thames Estuary. In fact I believe that Dutch engineers were used to construct water defences along much of that coastline in the 16th or 17th centuries. There’s not much ‘wild’ space left here unfortunately. It’s mostly been drained or built over, but here and there it’s still possible to see what it must once have been like – very similar to your photos.
Thanks Steve – there certainly are a lot of similarities and past connections between East Anglia and the Netherlands, in architecture as well as environment. I think the wilder parts of the Netherlands though now are in the north more?
Hi Diana, I don’t think it’s possible to talk in terms of wildness where the Netherlands are concerned – I doubt that there’s a square meter anywhere that isn’t man-managed to some degree. There’s more space in the north, away from the cities, and where we live isn’t too bad, but really you’re talking about tiny, flat areas that have to be carefully preserved. As for the Dutch connection, I remember seeing quite few Dutch place names in Suffolk and East Anglia when I was there a few years ago. Apparantly there were large settlements of Hollanders in that area in the 16th and 17th centuries. There’s also the fascinating story of the engineer Cornelis Vermuyden which you can read in Wikipedia if you’re interested.
Thanks Steve, sorry your comment went into my spam for some reason, so I’ve only just seen it! I take your point about the Netherlands and ‘wildness’. It can be on a small scale and relative though I guess.
Fascinating, Diana- I grew up in Chelmsford and to this day retain a kind of love/hate relationship with the town, but you’re absolutely right that the coastline and marshes are treasure troves of bleak wildness, that would probably come as a great surprise to most, given the county’s public image. The countryside of the Essex/Suffolk border is beautiful too, although that area is probably better known, thanks largely to John Constable.
J.A.Baker, author of The Peregrine, was an Essex man:
http://thehauntedshoreline.wordpress.com/2012/08/12/the-shaken-kaleidoscope/
There’s a link in there to an excellent Robert Macfarlane piece on Baker, too. I didn’t know Macfarlane had been writing about Essex- must check that out.
Thanks for the comments – I am finding more and more fellow Essex people! I must read the Baker book – i have been meaning to for ages and came across another reference to it today. I do like inland parts of Essex too, even some around Colchester! I think when you have always lived somewhere when young there is a tendency to want to escape.
Just checked out your post on Baker – very moving and I will definitely read it soon.
Thanks – it’s a wonderful book, I can’t imagine you will be anything other than entranced – I was absolutely stunned by it.
Great post, Diana. Every county has its other side, and Essex probably more than most. I thought the Meades programme was really marvellous – provocative, erudite, a little arch – he doesn’t even bother to strip away the cliches, he clearly doesn’t need to. Mind you, my local supermarket would be fascinating seen through Meades’ eyes – or rather, described through his mouth.
Thanks, Laurence. Meades is always interesting even if he is often perversely provocative! A good antidote to so much anodyne TV.
Lovely post, Diana… I love your beautiful painting – which, along with your atmospheric and light-filled photos – and your obvious love for the Essex landscape – has brought the spirit of the place to wonderful life on my computer screen! For a couple of years, we lived close to the Kent marshes, and fell in love with their very special atmosphere during our long walks beside the windswept creeks…
Thanks Melanie – the Kent marshes are very similar being just across the estuary!
There are fresh and brackish water marshes on St. Mark’s Wildlife Refuge (northern FL) as well as what is still believed to be a “pristine” salt water estuary ecosystem. Your post reminds me of my recent visit to St. Mark’s and encourages me to supplement my photos with marshes and estuaries. Thanks for that. Also enjoyed your bit of Hale history. Yet again, a post for remembering.
Karen
I shall look forward to some of your marshes and estuaries now Karen. I went past Hale Village today and was tempted to take a photo of the towering blocks of flats!
Your photos certainly bring out the wild beauty of the marshes
Thanks – I like ‘wild beauty’ very much.
Lovely atmospheric post. Estuaries have an atmosphere all of their own. Hard to describe to easy to feel.
I’m glad I conveyed the distinctive marshy atmosphere!
Loved this piece as an Essex girl myself. Spent many long hours as a child looking up at ths skies lying in old oyster beds in Paglesham where my grandmother lived. I can smell the salt in the air and hear the skylarks just looking at your photos! Many thanks.
Glad to bring back memories to a fellow Essex girl – I didn’t say anything about the birds, or the oysters, but you are right about skylarks.
Love the look of the marshes. Not used to so much flatness! Don’t know Essex at all so with your post and the Meades programme it’s good to get some sense of the place by proxy. Thanks Diana.
You have probably now got a rather strange view of Essex then! Still at least it shows it is not just night clubs and beauty parlours.
“every simple good that in the Ile is found” – what a lovely expression. Beautiful painting, Diana!
Thanks Lois. That quote sounds a bit reminiscent of the ‘Isles of Wonder’ too i think.
Hi Diana. Marshes are the cradle of life… so important for water storage and protection from flooding. I like the painting. Lots of movement, and the clouds look like the wings of angels. Jane
Thanks Jane. I seem to remember seeing marshes in some of your photographs and they do have that abandoned air you like too.
Beautiful images, Diana. Thank you. In comparison, over here in Tasmania, everything is sunburnt to a crisp.
Thank you for appreciating. I know we have very different weather from you!
What lovely colours in your painting (we call it akvarell). And the photos too, I like them very much. Needs to go to Essex….
Thanks Bente – nice to see a Norwegian appreciating Essex!
Diana, what an absolute treat. Maybe I would say that as an Essex lad. Glad to see Mersea getting an honourable mention.
Thanks Mike – I didn’t realize you were an Essex lad! I nearly included a photo of Mersea – lovely place, especially for seafood.
I certainly am! Born in Barking (still Essex back then) and spent many years near Chelmsford. The county certainly has a lot to offer for photographers.