Speaker meeting 18-Feb-10 Mary Bryan
People, Places, Names and customs of Essex A I
fter our lunch on the 18th.February we were
entertained and educated by Mary Bryan who spoke to us about the people places, names and customs of Essex. I use the words entertained and educated because Mary, a self confessed Essex Folkie , delivered her talk in a most amusing and interesting style.
n order to write this story I be- gan to jot down notes on the
back of an envelope but very quickly I found myself with both sides full and my head buzzing with so many facts and sto- ries that I gave up and sat back and just listened. There is no way that I could do Mary justice by trying to recount any one story in detail but I can say that I did not realize that Essex had such a fascinating history. I will however just list some of the things that she mentioned to act as a memory jogger for those members who were present and perhaps a prompt for those 'techies' in the club who might like to search the internet for more information.
M
ary began by mentioning Passingford Bridge, Curtis Green and
Willow Cottage, common land since the 1660's. There were place names with Celtic ( the spoken language) Roman, Saxon and Scandinavian connections. Pagan worship areas and 3 monasteries were mentioned. Essex had its own dialect (wiolets = violets) and some quaint customs one of which was the blowing up of the anvil. There were gates to Epping Forest (eg. Collier Row gate) and a palace at Havering atte Bower. Some of the famous people included Gypsy Smith, Dr. Barnardo and Happy Harry from Southend. Hornchurch was very famous for it's vellum and Seven Kings was so named because Seven ( Saxon-I think) Kings met there to thrash out a particular problem. Essex was known as the 'Boiling county' as a result of its suet puddings and it also had a reputation for good beers due to a number of local breweries.
I
do not suppose Essex was alone in having it's country cures but Mary did offer Spider's
Webs for stopping bleeding, Foxgloves for heart trouble and Honey for treating bee stings. My last notes included the names of Dr. Swallow from the 1640's, Ardley Ben a villain, Dido the hermit of Hainault Forest and finally the rather nasty Dick Turpin who was not a nice character at all. At this point I ran out of space but I hope I have mentioned enough
things to rekindle your memories of a very good after lunch speaker or perhaps to encourage you to explore further the history of Essex.
Story & photo supplied by George Larkey
A video was recorded of above speaker burnt on a DVD and post to speaker below
It is great to receive letters like above and to know that my video efforts are appreciated. Videos of speakers will soon be available Via our Clubs Webb Site Colin Davies………..
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