Latest Publications
Lexden Hundred (Part) including Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe
Ed. Janet Cooper assisted by Shirley Durgan and C. C. Thornton
Volume X explores the area of Lexden hundred to the north and west of Colchester. In the 19th century the area was renowned for its landscapes, made famous by the painter John Constable. The low hills and valleys, particularly Constable's own Dedham Vale, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, have attracted increasing numbers of tourists, as well as other artists, chief among them Sir Alfred Munnings. Throughout its history the area has been dominated by Colchester, and the economy has been almost wholly agricultural with much of its produce serving the borough's market. The coming of the railway in the mid 19th century enabled farmers to diversify into market gardening and seed production for customers in London.
There are three small towns in the area with strongly marked characters. Dedham, an important centre for the cloth trade from the 15th to the 18th century, and a market town by the late 16th century, has a rich variety of timber-framed and brick-fronted buildings. Wivenhoe was a port serving Colchester and had a ship-building industry from the 16th century. Earls Colne, a failed medieval market town, grew in the 19th century with the establishment of R. Hunt and Co.'s Atlas Engineering Works, which continued into the 1980s.
(Published 2001) ISBN 0 19 722795 3 Price: £85.00 Sterling
Now available from Boydell and Brewer Ltd., Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 3DF. Tel: 01394 412900. Fax: 01394 411477. E-mail: boydell@boydell.co.uk . Website: www.boydell.co.uk .
By the Clacton VCH Group
This illustrated book combines the history of Clacton-on-Sea during the Second World War from documentary evidence with the story of ordinary people living through an extraordinary period. In peacetime Clacton was a town whose economy was largely based on providing seaside holidays to thousands of people, but in wartime the holiday trade had to be suspended. Instead, the people who remained in the town came to feel that Clacton, because of its coastal situation, represented part of the ‘front line' in the struggle to defend their country against the enemy. The transitory population was no longer holidaymakers, but members of the armed services.
ISBN: 0-9546458-0-4
Published 25 Nov 2003 . Price £5.00
Copies are available in person from Clacton and District Local History Society at Clacton Library,
Or:
by post in the UK at £5.00 + £1 postage and packing (total £6.00) from Mr. Colin Preen, 14 Highview Avenue, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, CO15 4DY. Cheques payable to "Clacton VCH Group".
For overseas orders please e-mail: vchistory@essex.ac.uk
The research and publication of the Clacton VCH Group has been supported by the VCH Essex Appeal Fund, the VCH Trust and the VCH Central Office, Institute of Historical Research.