Creating 10 panels to cover 1,000 years of history across the 14 parishes of Rochford District was no easy task. The call went out to each parish for information, with our aim set to include as many important facets as possible. Additional research was gathered and our historians discussed the initial draft of 14 panels to refine them into a set of 10.
Each panel covers a time period and a theme and was designed to be displayed both individually and collectively with the others. There are overlaps in dates across the panels but no gaps.
|
Panel |
Period |
Title |
Content |
Artist |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
1016-1080 |
Saxons-Danes-Normans |
1016 Battle of Assandune; 1020 Ashingdon Church; Stigand and Bayeux Tapestry extract; 1066 coronation of Harold & William |
Daniel |
||
|
2 |
1080-1180 |
Domesday Days |
Map marking old place names and items mentioned in Domesday Book, e.g. beehive, vineyard, watermill, animals, ploughs, Rayleigh Castle (1070, named in Domesday Book) |
Sally / Olly |
||
|
3 |
1100-1500 |
Historic Churches |
Old churches across the district; Foulness & South Fambridge rebuilt in 19th C |
Carol |
||
|
4 |
1180-1300 |
Markets & Maritime |
Markets & Fairs: towns developed around the markets, ale houses, animals & corn to market, blacksmiths, etc. Maritime: boat building, sheep farming on marshy islands, fishing, oyster catching, wading birds, watermills, 1210 ‘sea defences’ law created named islands |
Sally |
||
|
5 |
1300-1500 |
People & Places |
Manor Houses; nobility (Mary de Bohun marrying future Henry IV); Peasants Revolt 1381; Hullbridge causeway used by Canterbury pilgrims; Ashingdon Church pilgrims; farming; brick making; goods on barges to London; Royal woodland; first chapel on Foulness; Thomas de Stapel as sergeant-at-arms to Edward III |
Sally |
||
|
6 |
1500-1700 |
Turbulent Times |
Rochford Hall (Anne/Mary Boleyn, Richard Rich leaving money for Almshouses); Protestant martyrs (1555); Congregationalists meeting in secret at Rochford Hall; Puritans join Pilgrim Fathers (John Winthrop, first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony); Canewdon witch trials (1580); Dutch protestants come to Foulness/Wakering; Bishop Lancelot Andrewes (family owned Chichester Hall) a major translator of the King James Bible (1611) |
Sally / Ian |
||
|
7 |
1620-1820 |
Law & Order |
Sea trade increases, Barling/Wakering named as sea ports; Smuggling (‘Hard Apple’ Blyth) & ship wrecking. Lawless Courts; Barling ‘gallows field’ and gaol; John Harriot (founder of Thames River Police and local “Rochford Hundred Association Against Murderers Felons & Thieves”) |
Sally |
||
|
8 |
1700-1950 |
Social & Christian Change |
Congregationalist public school (1741); Poor Law of 1835 & Workhouse; Police Stations (1840); Women’s Suffrage disorder (1912); Hockley Spa (1842); Philip Benton (c.1860s). Methodism comes to Rochford via Leigh fishermen (1820); James Banyard forms Peculiar People (1837); Baptist in Rayleigh (1797); Rayleigh Elim church (1926) |
Daniel |
||
|
9 |
1820-2020 |
Air, Land & Sea |
Air: first airfield in Britain (1909) at Fambridge; World Wars; ‘Southend’ airport Land: Railway (1889); A127 first road built for motorised vehicles (1925); Crossrail/RSPB Sea: Beagle anchored off Paglesham (1845); Screw pile lighthouse (1835); the Broomway; ferries across River Crouch |
Sally |
||
|
10 |
1900-2020 |
Parish Perspectives |
Key landmarks or features for each of the 14 parishes |
Carol / Olivia |
