Maldon
Maldon | ||
---|---|---|
Shire county | ||
Region | ||
Country | England | |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom | |
Post town | MALDON | |
Postcode district | CM9 | |
Dialling code | 01621 | |
Police | Essex | |
Fire | Essex | |
Ambulance | East of England | |
UK Parliament | ||
Maldon (/ˈmɔːldən/, locally /ˈmɒldən/) is a town and civil parish on the Blackwater estuary in Essex, England. It is the seat of the Maldon District and starting point of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. It is known for Maldon Sea Salt which is produced in the area.
History
Early and medieval history
The place-name Maldon is first attested in 913 in the
It was one of the only two towns in
According to the
Renaissance and modern eras
There were strong urban traditions, with two members elected to the Commons and three guilds which hosted lavish religious plays until they were suppressed by Puritans in 1576. Then, until 1630, professional actors were invited to perform plays, which were also stopped by Puritans. From 1570 to about 1800 a rival tradition of inviting prominent clergy to visit the town also existed. In 1629 a series of grain riots took place, led by the wife of a local butcher.[10]
In the 17th century Thomas Plume started the Plume Library to house over 8,000 books and pamphlets printed between 1487 and his death in 1704; the collection has been added to at various times since 1704. The Plume Library is to be found at St Peter's Church. Only the original tower survives, the rest of the building having been rebuilt by Thomas Plume to house his library (on the first floor) and what was Maldon Grammar School (on the ground floor).
In the church of All Saints is a memorial window to
Also in Maldon are Maldon Baptist Church in Butt Lane, Maldon Methodist Church in the High Street, and Maldon United Reformed Church on Market Hill. Maldon Mosque is in Church Street.
During World War II, Maldon was featured in the German invasion plan for Britain, Operation Sea Lion. The plan called for the Germans to advance to a line between Maldon and the River Severn after they had landed in the southern coast of England.[12]
Geography and geology
Maldon is a town of circa 15,000 people on the tidal River Chelmer by the Blackwater Estuary in Essex. It is on the A414 10 miles (16 km) east of Chelmsford and 49 miles (79 km) north-east of Charing Cross, London, via the A13 road.
Essex is a county built on
Hythe Quay at the confluence of the Chelmer and Blackwater, which flanks the northern edge of the town, was an important port and
Transport
Rail
Maldon was previously served by two railway lines. Today, the nearest railway stations to Maldon are Hatfield Peverel, Witham and North Fambridge. Hatfield Peverel is the closest railway station to the north of the town, whilst North Fambridge is closest to southern parts of the town.
Maldon's first railway link was a
Edward Arthur Fitch, writing in about 1895, states that from London's Liverpool Street station to Maldon East via Witham there were eight trains on weekdays and three on Sundays and that, via Wickford, there were five trains on weekdays and none on Sundays. The fastest train took 85 minutes via Witham and 82 minutes via Wickford.[16]
Maldon West railway station was opened in 1889 by the Great Eastern Railway. The line between Maldon and South Woodham Ferrers closed to passengers in 1939, the Maldon and Witham line closed in 1966.
Bus
Regular bus services in and around the town are operated primarily by First Essex and Hedingham; key routes include the 31 from Chelmsford, the 75 from Colchester and the 90 from Witham.[17]
Industry
Maldon Sea Salt has been produced in the town since 1882 by the Maldon Crystal Salt Company; it is also the location of the first Tesco store to be designated as a "supermarket" in the country, established in 1958.[18]
Maldon's Hythe Quay is the residence of a number of Thames sailing barges, these are among the last cargo vessels in the world still operating under sail, albeit now used for education and leisure. Some ten to fifteen of the surviving fleet count Maldon as their home port, and many others are regular visitors alongside at the Quay. An annual sailing barge race ends with a parade of sail and prize-giving at the quay. Cooks Yard, where barges were once built, is still working at the end of Maldon Quay.
Culture
The town holds the charitable Maldon mud race where competitors race across the Blackwater estuary at low tide, along the bank and back through the water. The race generated over £55,000[19] for charities in 2014. Maldon also hosts the international Maldon Festival,[20] which takes place each year in late June and July.
The town holds an annual "Taxi Day" which sees mentally and physically disabled children from London driven to Maldon in London Black Cabs for a fun day of activities and a meal. The event dates back to 1952 when a London cab driver visited the Elizabeth Fry Special School (formerly Grange Road Special School) in Plaistow.[21] He wanted to do something special for the young patients he saw there. He wrote to every one of Essex's seaside towns to arrange an outing and the only town that was willing to help was Maldon; thus, Taxi Day has remained a tradition ever since.
Maldon is twinned with the Dutch town of Cuijk.[22] The charter between the two towns was signed in 1970 to cement the relationship.[23]
Cultural references
Maldon and the surrounding area are the setting for a series of books by the prolific author
Maldon has been the setting for numerous television productions, including
In H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (1898); Maldon is the town from which the narrator's brother and two female companions manage to escape across the Channel.
Maldon is a location mentioned in the "Rose Garden", a short ghost story by M. R. James, and published in More Ghost Stories (1911).
Maldon and its clock tower are featured in the young adult novel Timekeeper by Tara Sim (2016).
Media
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC East and ITV Anglia. Television signals are received from the Sudbury TV transmitter.[citation needed]
Local radio stations are BBC Essex on 103.5 FM, Heart East on 102.6 FM, Radio Essex on 107.7 FM, Greatest Hits Radio East on 100.2 FM, and Caroline Community Radio, a community based radio station that broadcast on 94.7 FM.[25]
The town is served by the local newspaper, Maldon and Burnham Standard.[26]
Sport
Maldon has a non-League football club Maldon & Tiptree F.C. who play at the Wallace Binder Ground.
There are many developed youth football teams in Maldon, among them being Maldon Saints. The town has a vibrant cricket club, with several adult and colts' sides, who play at two grounds: The Promenade Park, Maldon and the main ground at Drapers Farm, Heybridge. Recent improvements to the ground include a dual-lane enclosed all-weather net facility. Overseas players from Australia, South Africa and Sri Lanka have coached cricket in local primary schools as part of the "ECB Chance to Shine" programme. Drapers Farm is also the home of Maldon Rugby Union Football Club which was founded in 1947 by Tommy Harries, who was the landlord of the King's Head public house in Maldon High Street. The inaugural meeting was on 28 August 1947 at the Blue Boar Hotel. Maldon RFC run several senior male sides and one female side as well as all youth age groups from under 7s to under 18s.
Blackwater Leisure Centre[27] is the town's main leisure destination, located in the town's leisure quarter, adjacent to Madison Heights, with a 4 lane 25m swimming pool, 100+ station gym, group cycling studio, group exercise studio and sports hall with indoor courts.
Two short lived greyhound racing tracks existed at Sealey Farm on the Fambridge Road (opening on 3 September 1932 and closing the same year)[28] and around the former Spital Road football ground in 1931.[29] The racing was independent (not affiliated to the sports governing body the National Greyhound Racing Club) and they were known as flapping tracks, which was the nickname given to independent tracks.[30]
Notable people
Essex and England cricketer
Singer/songwriter and TikTok star
Private David Embleton (1853–1912) won a
Edward Bright (1721–1750) was the "fat man of Maldon", a grocer who, at 47.5 stone (665 lb; 302 kg) was reputed to be the fattest man in England. His coat could encompass seven men. After his death, etchings of a painting of him were much sought after. His chair resides in Maldon Moot Hall.
John Cook (1918–1984) was a prolific 20th century Anglo-American composer, organist and church musician.
Myra Sadd Brown (1872–1938), Suffragette, women's rights activist and internationalist was born in the town.
John Strutt (1842–1919) was a British mathematician who made extensive contributions to science. He was born in Langford Grove, Maldon, inherited the title Baron Rayleigh in 1873 and won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1904, in part for discovering the inert gas argon.
Ethan Lawrence (born 28 September 1992) is an English actor, born in Maldon. He is known for playing the roles of Joe Poulter in the BBC series Bad Education and James in the Netflix black comedy series After Life.
Virginia Crosbie (born 8 December 1966), the Member of Parliament for Ynys Mon, was born in Maldon before attending school in Colchester
Twin towns
- Île-de-France, France
- Cuijk, North Brabant, Netherlands
Gallery
-
Byrhtnoth statue marking the Battle of Maldon in 991, in which Byrhtnoth died
-
High Street
-
Tugboat Brent moored on the River Chelmer
-
Market Hill
-
Promenade view north, with St Mary's Church at left
Nearby places
- Beeleigh Abbey
- Brightlingsea
- Burnham-on-Crouch
- Chelmsford
- Danbury
- Great Totham
- Hazeleigh
- Heybridge
- Langford
- Little Totham
- Maylandsea
- Mundon
- North Fambridge
- South Woodham Ferrers
- Steeple
- Tiptree
- Tollesbury
- Tolleshunt Major
- Tolleshunt Knights
- Tillingham
- Cold Norton
- Witham
- Woodham Mortimer
- Woodham Walter
See also
- Cooks Yard – barge building and repair yard on the River Chelmer at Maldon
- Plume School – secondary school in Maldon
References
- ^ "Town population 2011". Neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
- ^ "Seax Archeaology – Unlocking Essex's Past". Essex County Council. Archived from the original on 28 August 2017. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
- ^ Eilert Ekwall, Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names, p. 312.
- ^ "Anglo-Saxon England's Realm of Essex". Ancient Worlds. Archived from the original on 23 December 2011. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
- ^ "Moneyers of the late Anglo-Saxon Coinage" (PDF). University of Nottingham. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 February 2014. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
- ^ "Maldon – Domesday Book". Domesdaymap.co.uk. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
- ^ "Maldon Town Council: History & Heritage". Maldon Town Council. Archived from the original on 20 August 2010. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
- Maldon District Council. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
- ^ "About us". The Moot Hall. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
- ^ Lindley Keith. "Review: Crowds and Popular Politics in Early Modern England". Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
- ^ "All Saint's Church Maldon". It's About Maldon. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
- OCLC 458977803.
- ^ (Bristow 1985, Hutchinson 1965).
- ^ "Geology Site Account: West Maldon landslip". Essex Field Club. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
- ^ Clarke, Vernon; Clarke, Joan (1979). "Down the Chelmer and up the Blackwater". Foxearth and District Local History Society. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
- ^ Fitch, Edward Arthur: Maldon and the River Blackwater. Gowers 1895.
- ^ "Stops in Maldon". Bus Times. 2023. Retrieved 24 June 2023.
- ^ "Our History". Retrieved 2 November 2020.
- ^ "History : The Maldon Mud Race". Maldon Mud Race. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
- ^ "Maldon Festival 2017 – Classical Music, Opera, Jazz and more". Maldonfestival.org.uk. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
- ^ "Grange Road Special School | the Newham Story". Archived from the original on 27 August 2016. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
- ^ "The UK & the Netherlands: Town Twinning". British Embassy, The Hague. Archived from the original on 12 September 2007. Retrieved 24 January 2007.
- ^ "Maldon–Cuijk twinning". Members.lycos.nl. Retrieved 24 January 2007.
- ^ Vickers, John A (October 1995). "A Marshland index". The Indexer – The International Journal of Indexing. 19 (4): 276–278. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
- ^ "Caroline Community Radio". Retrieved 15 October 2023.
- ^ "Maldon and Burnham Standard". British Papers. 20 February 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
- ^ "Blackwater Leisure Centre | Maldon – Places Leisure". Places Leisure. 2023. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
- ^ "Sealey Farm Maldon". Greyhound Racing Times.
- ^ "Maldon Spital Road". Greyhound Racing Times.
- ISBN 0-948955-15-5.
- ^ "Eurovision 2022: How Sam Ryder turned things around for the UK". BBC News. 15 May 2022. Retrieved 15 May 2022.