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Previous page: Cottages and church in Wendens Ambo, Essex. Above: Timber-framed buildings in Britain's oldest recorded town, Colchester. Right: Tea rooms in Lavenham, Suffolk. Facing page: Dawn over beach huts on Mersea Island
8 BRITAIN
f you travel to the far east of London, you will soon find yourself on the outskirts of the vast metropolis and ready to step into the countryside of Essex. The border – where Greater London ends and Essex
begins – is somewhat blurred thanks to the rapid growth of the capital over the years, but when you hit north Chingford, with its pretty flint flushwork church on the green and its boutique shops, you know you are almost there. Pause here and take a stroll along the
high street and very soon you reach lakes populated by pushy geese and ducks, who think nothing of chasing you for food. Just beyond lies the Queen Elizabeth Hunting Lodge, originally the Great Standing, built for Henry VIII in 1543 as a place to entertain guests and a vantage point for watching hunts on Chingford Plain – spectators would even join in, firing arrows from its upper floors. A little further east, you arrive at
Epping Forest. Stretching from Manor Park to Epping, this 6,000-acre ancient woodland is the largest open space in London, much of it designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation. Essex is a county of contradictions and complements.
All types of landscape are present here, from sandy beaches in the east, to ancient woodland in the west; the mud flats of Canvey Island in the south to the rolling green fields of the north. Many fine houses and examples of
historical architecture dot the landscape, including the Tudor gatehouse Layer Marney Tower, built around 1520 and today surrounded by curious cattle and other animals who roam freely in the grounds (trying to convince a cow – who has decided to take a nap in the entrance drive – to move, is quite an experience) and the 17th-century Audley End House, the location for many fabulous outdoor concerts and festivals over the summer months. An abundance of quaint chocolate-
box villages, such as Wendens Ambo and Finchingfield, share the county with traditional market towns, including Saffron Walden, Great Dunmow and Halstead. But there are also the ever-increasing urban areas surrounding the historic centres of Chelmsford and Colchester, which are just as beautiful and bustle with life. While the county town of
Chelmsford is worth a visit – especially
to view its 15th-century cathedral or explore the grounds of historic Hylands House – it is Colchester, with its Roman origins and the largest Norman keep in Europe that draws most people from around the world. Colchester is the oldest recorded town in the country.
Founded by the Romans in AD50 as their capital in Britain, Camulodunum was the site of a great temple and monumental arch before the Iceni, under the leadership of Queen Boudicca, razed it to the ground in around AD60.
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