1.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
2.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
3.
East of England
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The East of England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of NUTS for statistical purposes. It was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics from 1999 and it includes the ceremonial counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Essex has the highest population in the region and its population at the 2011 census was 5,847,000. Bedford, Luton, Basildon, Peterborough, Southend-on-Sea, Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester, Chelmsford, the southern part of the region lies in the London commuter belt. The region has the lowest elevation range in the UK, North Cambridgeshire and the Essex Coast have most of the around 5% of the region which is below 10 metres above sea level. The Fens are partly in North Cambridgeshire which is notable for the lowest point in the country in the land of the village of Holme 2.75 metres below sea level which was once Whittlesey Mere. The highest point is at Clipper Down at 817 ft, in the far corner of the region in the Ivinghoe Hills. In the late 1960s, the Roskill Commission considered Thurleigh in Bedfordshire, Nuthampstead in Hertfordshire, the East of England succeeded the standard statistical region East Anglia. The East of England civil defence region was identical to todays region, England between the Wash and Thames Estuary has since post-Roman times been and continues to be known as East Anglia, including the county traversing the west of this line, Cambridgeshire. Essex, despite meaning East-Saxons, previously formed part of the South East England, as did Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, the earliest use of the term is from 1695. Charles Davenant, in An essay upon ways and means of supplying the war, wrote, The Eleven Home Counties, then cited a list including these four. The term does not appear to have used in taxation since the 18th century. East Anglia is one of the driest parts of the United Kingdom with average rainfall ranging from 450 mm to 750 mm. This is usually because low pressure systems and weather fronts from the Atlantic have lost a lot of their moisture over land by the time they reach Eastern England, however the Fens in Cambridgeshire are prone to flooding should a strong system affect the area. Northerly winds can also be cold but are not usually as cold as easterly winds, westerly winds bring milder and, typically, wetter weather. Southerly winds usually bring mild air but chill if coming from further east than Spain, spring is a transitional season that can be chilly to start with but is usually warm by late-April/May. The weather at this time is often changeable and occasionally showery, summer is usually warm and continental air from mainland Europe or the Azores High usually leads to at least a few weeks of hot, balmy weather with prolonged warm to hot weather. The number of storms from the Atlantic, such as the remnants of a tropical storm usually coincides with the location of the jet stream
4.
Essex
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Essex /ˈɛsᵻks/ is a county in England immediately north-east of London. It borders the counties of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, the county town is Chelmsford, which is the only city in the county. Essex occupies the part of the old Kingdom of Essex, before this. As well as areas, the county also includes London Stansted Airport, the new towns of Basildon and Harlow, Lakeside Shopping Centre, the port of Tilbury. Originally recorded in AD527, Essex occupied territory to the north of the River Thames, incorporating all of what later became Middlesex and its territory was later restricted to lands east of the River Lea. In changes before the Norman conquest the East Saxons were subsumed into the Kingdom of England and, following the Norman conquest, Essex became a county. During the medieval period, much of the area was designated a Royal forest, including the county in a period to 1204. Gradually, the subject to forest law diminished, but at various times included the forests of Becontree, Chelmsford, Epping, Hatfield, Ongar. County-wide administration Essex County Council was formed in 1889, however County Boroughs of West Ham, Southend-on-Sea and East Ham formed part of the county but were unitary authorities. 12 boroughs and districts provide more localised services such as rubbish and recycling collections, leisure and planning, parish-level administration – changes A few Essex parishes have been transferred to other counties. Before 1889, small areas were transferred to Hertfordshire near Bishops Stortford, Essex became part of the East of England Government Office Region in 1994 and was statistically counted as part of that region from 1999, having previously been part of the South East England region. Two unitary authorities In 1998 the boroughs of Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock were granted autonomy from the county of Essex after successful requests to become unitary authorities. Essex Police covers the county and the two unitary authorities. The county council chamber and main headquarters is at the County Hall in Chelmsford, before 1938 the council regularly met in London near Moorgate, which with significant parts closer to that point and the dominance of railways had been more convenient than any place in the county. It currently has 75 elected councillors, before 1965, the number of councillors reached over 100. The highest point of the county of Essex is Chrishall Common near the village of Langley, close to the Hertfordshire border, the pattern of settlement in the county is diverse. Epping Forest also acts as a barrier to the further spread of London. Part of the southeast of the county, already containing the population centres of Basildon, Southend and Thurrock, is within the Thames Gateway
5.
Conservative Party (UK)
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The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently the party, having won a majority of seats in the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. The partys leader, Theresa May, is serving as Prime Minister. It is the largest party in government with 8,702 councillors. The Conservative Party is one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom, the other being its modern rival. The Conservative Partys platform involves support for market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defence, deregulation. In the 1920s, the Liberal vote greatly diminished and the Labour Party became the Conservatives main rivals, Conservative Prime Ministers led governments for 57 years of the twentieth century, including Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. Thatchers tenure led to wide-ranging economic liberalisation, the Conservative Partys domination of British politics throughout the twentieth century has led to them being referred to as one of the most successful political parties in the Western world. The Conservatives are the joint-second largest British party in the European Parliament, with twenty MEPs, the party is a member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe Europarty and the International Democrat Union. The party is the second-largest in the Scottish Parliament and the second-largest in the Welsh Assembly, the party is also organised in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The Conservative Party traces its origins to a faction, rooted in the 18th century Whig Party and they were known as Independent Whigs, Friends of Mr Pitt, or Pittites. After Pitts death the term Tory came into use and this was an allusion to the Tories, a political grouping that had existed from 1678, but which had no organisational continuity with the Pittite party. From about 1812 on the name Tory was commonly used for the newer party, the term Conservative was suggested as a title for the party by a magazine article by J. Wilson Croker in the Quarterly Review in 1830. The name immediately caught on and was adopted under the aegis of Sir Robert Peel around 1834. Peel is acknowledged as the founder of the Conservative Party, which he created with the announcement of the Tamworth Manifesto, the term Conservative Party rather than Tory was the dominant usage by 1845. In 1912, the Liberal Unionists merged with the Conservative Party, in Ireland, the Irish Unionist Alliance had been formed in 1891 which merged anti-Home Rule Unionists into one political movement. Its MPs took the Conservative whip at Westminster, and in essence formed the Irish wing of the party until 1922. The Conservatives served with the Liberals in an all-party coalition government during World War I, keohane finds that the Conservatives were bitterly divided before 1914, especially on the issue of Irish Unionism and the experience of three consecutive election losses
6.
Coggeshall
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Coggeshall is a small market town of 3,919 residents in Essex, England, between Colchester and Braintree on the Roman road of Stane Street, and intersected by the River Blackwater. The population increased to 4,727 at the 2011 Census and it is known for its almost 300 listed buildings and formerly extensive antique trade. Many local businesses, such as the White Hart Hotel and the Chapel Inn, have established for hundreds of years. A market has been run every week on Market Hill since 1256, Coggeshall won the Essex Best Kept Village award in its category in 1998 and 2001–03, it was named the Eastern England & Home Counties Village of the Year in 2003. Official brown coloured sightseeing/tourist road signs on the entry to the town from the A120 road still show Coggeshall as Village of the Year, the meaning of the name Coggeshall is much debated. Different pronunciations and spellings have been used throughout its history and many theories as to the origin have arisen. The earliest mention of the name is in a grant from around 1040 where it is called Coggashael, the Domesday Book from 1086 addresses the town as Cogheshal and it is mentioned elsewhere as Cogshall, Coxal and Gogshall. Beaumont brought together several theories in his 1890 book A History of Coggeshall, weever 1631 wrote about a monument found on Coccillway, thought that Coccill was a lord of the area in Roman days and a corruption of the name led to Coggeshall. Philip Morant opined that the name was a corruption of Cocks-hall and this may also be supported by Beaumonts suggestion that the first parish church, like the current one, was dedicated to Saint Peter, and the cockerel was used as a sign of this dedication. Beaumont also reasons that the name may have come from the red-coloured shrub the Coccus, whose colour is pronounced Coch, there are several towns throughout Britain with similar names, Uggeshall, Cockfield, Cogshull, Cogges, Coxhall Knoll. Part of the Parish was known as Crowland, the Parish of Crowland in Lincolnshire has an area within it called Gogguslands, Coggeshall has been called Sunnydon, referenced in 1224 as an alias for the town. Coggeshall dates back at least to an early Saxon settlement, though the area has settled since the Mesolithic period. There is evidence of a Roman villa or settlement before then and the lies on Stane Street. The drainage aqueducts of Stane Street are still visible in the cellar of the Chapel Inn today, Roman coins dating from 31 BC to AD395 have been found in the area and Coggeshall has been considered the site of a Roman station mentioned in the Itineraries of Antoninus. Coggeshall is situated at a ford of the River Blackwater, part of another path running from the Blackwater Valley to the Colne Valley, where these paths crossed a settlement started. Coggeshall is mentioned in the Domesday Book as Cogheshal, william the Conqueror gave the Manor to Eustace, the Count of Boulogne. Matilda visited the Abbey for the last time in 1151 and asked for the Abbots blessing, If thou should never see my face again, More things are wrought by prayer than this World dreams of. Flint and rubble were the materials used in the construction of the monastery, and the buildings were faced with stone punted up the Blackwater
7.
Southend-on-Sea
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It is bordered to the north by Rochford and to the west by Castle Point. It is home to the longest leisure pier in the world, London Southend Airport is located 1.5 NM north of the town centre. Originally the south end of the village of Prittlewell, Southend was home to a few poor fisherman huts, due to the bad transportation links between Southend and London, there was not rapid development during the Georgian Era like Brighton. It was the coming of the railways in the 19th Century, during the 19th century Southends pier was first constructed and the Clifftown development built, attracting many tourists in the summer months to its seven miles of beaches and bathing in the sea. Good rail connections and proximity to London mean that much of the economy has been based on tourism, Southend Pier is the worlds longest pleasure pier at 1.34 mi. It has suffered fires and ship collisions, most recently in October 2005, as a holiday destination, Southend declined from the 1960s onwards, as holidaying abroad became more affordable. However, about 6.4 million tourists still visit Southend per year, revenue & Customs, are major employers in the town, and the central offices for the collection of VAT are located at Alexander House on Victoria Avenue. An annual seafront airshow, started in 1986 when it featured a flypast by Concorde whilst on a charter flight, used to take place each May. The aircraft flew parallel to the seafront, offset over the sea, the RAF Falcons parachute display team and RAF Red Arrows aerobatics team were regular visitors to the show. The show has not been held since 2012 due to a lack of sponsorship, an attempt to revive the show for September 2015, as the Southend Airshow and Military Festival, failed. Sopot, Poland, has been Southend-on-Seas twin town since October 1999, Southend-on-Sea was formed as a municipal borough in 1892 with the functions of local government shared with Essex County Council. In 1913 the borough was enlarged by the area of Leigh on Sea Urban District. In 1914 the enlarged Southend gained the status of county borough, exempt from county council control, the county borough was enlarged in 1933 by the former area of Shoeburyness Urban District and part of Rochford Rural District. In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, Southend became a district of Essex with borough status, however, in 1998 it again became the single tier of local government when it became a unitary authority. Seventeen wards each return three councillors, a total of 51, councillors serve four years and one third of the council is elected each year, followed by one year without election. Following the 2016 election results, the composition of the council is and they maintained a minority administration after the 2012 local elections, however the council has been run by a coalition of Lib Dems, Labour and Independents since June 2014. Most day-to-day decisions are by an executive headed by the council leader. The town has been twinned with the resort of Sopot in Poland since 1999 and has been developing three-way associations with Lake Worth, areas of criticism were the use of consultants and the spending of £3.5 million on taxis during the 2006–07 financial year
8.
Thurrock
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Thurrock /ˈθʌrək/ is a unitary authority area with borough status in the English ceremonial county of Essex. It is part of the London commuter belt and an area of regeneration within the Thames Gateway redevelopment zone, the local authority is Thurrock Council. It lies on the River Thames just to the east of London, with over 18 miles of riverfront it covers an area of 64 square miles, with more than half defined as Green Belt. With Greater London to the west and the river to the south, the county of Essex abuts the Borough to the north and east, the local authority is Thurrock Council. Elections are held 3 out of every 4 years, in 2016, the Conservative Party took control of the council, albeit as a minority-party administration. Thurrock is covered by two parliamentary constituencies, Thurrock includes most of the borough while South Basildon and East Thurrock includes some wards in the east of the borough. Both seats were Conservative gains from Labour at the 2010 general election, the Council is led by Cllr Rob Gledhill as of May 2016. The Mayor is Cllr Cathy Kent, Thurrock has a population of 157,500 people living in 90,500 homes. The Metropolitan Green Belt covers 70% of the borough, there are 494 acres of land available for industrial use. There are seven areas,19 scheduled ancient monuments, including the dovecote at High House Purfleet. Thurrock Development Corporation took over much of the boroughs planning functions from its creation in 2005 until its demise in March 2011, much of the population and commercial activity is centred along the riverfront. Thurrock is also home to the Lakeside Shopping Centre, there is one multiplex cinema attached to the Lakeside Shopping Centre, and the Thameside Theatre in Grays. Live shows are held at the Circus Tavern in Purfleet, open space includes Chafford Gorges Nature Park, Langdon Hills Country Park and Grove House Wood, managed by Essex Wildlife Trust. Next to Lakeside Shopping Centre is Arena Essex, a sports complex. Thurrock in Bloom is a group that works in partnership with Thurrock Council and co-sponsors such as Sandown Nursery. It is part of a general in bloom initiative organised by the Royal Horticultural Society. The Thurrock initiative includes a competition and sponsorship of roundabouts. Award winners include Woodside Primary School which has received silver and gold awards for its wildlife garden, mammoths once grazed in the Thurrock area and archaeologists recently unearthed the remains of a jungle cat
9.
Harlow
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Harlow is a former Mark One New Town and local government district in the west of Essex, England. In Old Harlow is a field named Harlowbury, a de-settled monastic area which has the remains of a chapel, the M11 motorway passes through the east of the district, entirely to the east of the town. It is also a part of the London commuter belt and employment centre of the M11 corridor which includes Cambridge. There is some dispute as to where the placename Harlow derives from, One theory is that it derives from the Anglo-Saxon words here and hlaw, meaning army hill, probably to be identified with Mulberry Hill, which was used as the moot or meeting place for the district. The other theory is that it derives from the here and hearg, meaning temple hill/mound, probably to be identified with an Iron Age burial mound. The earliest deposits are of a Mesolithic hunting camp excavated by Davey in Northbrooks in the 1970s closely followed by the large and these deposits are mostly known because of the large numbers of surface-bound, worked flint. Substantial amounts of worked flint suggest an organised working of flint in the area, large amounts of debitage litter the area and tools found include axeheads, hammers, blades, dowels and other boring tools and multipurpose flints such as scrapers. An organised field walk in the late 1990s by Bartlett indicates that most of the area, some 80 hectares and this indicates organised industry existed from 5000 BC to 2000 BC. The deposits are so large and dispersed that any major work in the area will have to take this into consideration before any ground work is started. Harlow was in Roman times the site of a town with a substantial stone built temple. The entry in the Norman Domesday Book reads, Herlaua, St Edmunds Abbey before and after 1066, Geoffrey from Count Eustace, Thorgils from Eudo the Steward, Richard from Ranulf, Mill,7 beehives,8 cobs,43 cattle,3 foals. The mill is now a 300-year-old listed building and restaurant, the original village, mentioned in the Domesday Book, developed as a typical rural community around what is now known as Old Harlow, with many of its buildings still standing. This includes for instance the Grade II listed St Marys Church in Churchgate Street and its former Chapel is in a ruinous state in a field which was once the Harlowbury Abbey part of Old Harlow, is Grade I listed and is a scheduled ancient monument. The original Harlow New Town was built after World War II to ease overcrowding in London, Harlow was a Mark One New Town along with other new towns such as Basildon, Stevenage and Hemel Hempstead. New Towns were designated following the New Towns Act of 1946, the town was planned from the outset and was designed to respect the existing landscape. A number of landscape wedges - which later known as Green Wedges - were designed to cut through the town. Each of the neighbourhoods is self-supporting with its own shopping precincts, community facilities. Harlow has one of the most extensive cycle track networks in the country, connecting all areas of the town to the town centre, the cycle network is composed mostly of the original old town roads
10.
Basildon
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Basildon /ˈbæzɪldən/ is the largest town in the borough of Basildon in the county of Essex, England. It lies 32 miles east of Central London,11 miles south of the city of Chelmsford and 10 miles west of Southend-on-Sea, nearby smaller towns include Billericay to the north, Wickford northeast and South Benfleet to the east. It was created as a new town after World War II in 1948 to accommodate the London population overspill, from the conglomeration of four villages, namely Pitsea, Laindon, Basildon. The new town took the name Basildon was the most central of the four. Basildon Town is one of the most densely populated areas in the county, Basildon also has access to the City via road, on the A127, and A13. The first historical reference to Basildon is in records from 1086 and it is mentioned in the Domesday Book as Belesduna. The name Basildon may be derived from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Boerthal, in historical documents, this name had various forms over the centuries, including Berdlesdon, Batlesdon and Belesduna. A significant number of residents do commute to London. In the 1940s, Billericay Urban District Council and Essex County Council, concerned by lack of amenities in the area and by its development, Basildon was one of eight New Towns created in the South East of England after the passing of the New Towns Act. On 4 January 1949 Lewis Silkin, Minister of Town and Country Planning, Basildon Development Corporation was formed in February 1949 to transform the designated area into a modern new town. The New Town incorporated Laindon and Pitsea and was laid out around small neighbourhoods with the first house being completed in June 1951, the first tenants moved into homes in Redgrave Road in Vange. A large, illuminated town sign Basildon Town Centre Site at 3.5 feet was erected in 1956 by the railway, the first leader elected for the local government district in 1974 was Ryan ORourke. Unusually, since March 2010 Basildon has a famous white Hollywood sign, reading Basildon, at five feet tall. Opponents from all parties believe spending could have been directed toward social problems, the constituency of Basildon was considered a barometer of public opinion in general elections. The results of the elections have been the same as the overall result of general elections since 1983. Basildon was said to epitomise the working class conversion to Thatcherism during the 1980s, nor did the Conservative Party ever hold an absolute majority in the town - its success was due to the split between the SDP and the Labour Party. Basildon Man or Essex Man was coined to describe an aspirational working class voter, the current MP is Tory politician John Baron. Due to boundary changes, in the 2010 General Election the Basildon and Billericay constituency elected 1 MP and South Basildon, in terms of local politics Basildon District elects five Councillors to Essex County Council
11.
Billericay
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Billericay is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Basildon, Essex, England. It lies within the London Basin and constitutes a commuter town 28 miles east of central London, the town has three secondary schools and a variety of open spaces. It is thought to have occupied since the Bronze Age. Some of the earliest records of human occupation of Billericay are the mounds in Norsey Wood, evidence of occupation in the Bronze. Evidence of Roman occupation has been found at a number of locations in the town, the Saxons did not settle in the centre of Billericay. They established themselves two miles south, at Great Burstead, in the late 10th century it was known as Burhstede. Billericay was not mentioned in the Domesday Book, as it lay within Great Burstead, at this time the parish church for Billericay was at Great Burstead. Billericay is an exception in the identification of the origins of English place-names. The name of the town was first recorded as Byllyrica in 1291, the urban settlement, which was within the manor and parish of Great Burstead, was one of many founded in the late 13th century in an already densely populated rural landscape. Several suggestions for the origin of the name include, Villa Erica. Bellerīca, a medieval Latin word meaning dyehouse or tanhouse, billers, a traditional name for watercress, for which Bilbrook in Somerset and Staffordshire are named. Watercress was farmed in Billericay springs during the 20th century, although the a precise etymology of the name is not known, England has other places named Billericas, they are, Billerica, Kent. A deserted town adjacent to the settlement of Court-up-Street by Port Lympne, significantly this is adjacent to a Roman Saxon Shore fort as well as being on spring lines suitable for growing watercress. Billerica Farm, near Upton Noble, Somerset, although this farm might be named after the other Billericas, the site is also close to springs suitable for farming watercress. The Tudor antiquarian John Leland believed the already-abandoned Billerica in Kent was a variant of Bellocastrum, in Billericay there is a Roman fort at Blunt’s Wall Farm, likewise ‘Burh’ gives is name to Great Burstead. This suggests that a Romano-British place name was reused by the Anglo-Saxons following the end of Roman rule in Britain, in the 13th and 14th centuries some pilgrims to Canterbury journeyed via Billericay. Some of them may have spent the night in Billericay before crossing the River Thames at Tilbury and this may account for the large number of inns in the town. Billericays most notable episode was the Battle of Billericay during the Peasants Revolt of 1381
12.
Brentwood, Essex
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Brentwood is a town in and the principal settlement of the Borough of Brentwood, in the county of Essex in the East of England. It is located in the London commuter belt,20 miles east-north-east of Charing Cross, according to the 2011 Census the town had a population of 49,463. It is a town with a small but expanding shopping area. Beyond this are residential developments surrounded by countryside and woodland. Brentwood has been twinned since 1978 with Roth, Germany and since 1994 with Montbazon and it also has a relationship with Brentwood, Tennessee in the United States. The name was assumed by antiquaries in the 1700s to derive from a corruption of the burnt and wood. However, brent was the middle English for burnt, the name describes the presumed reason for settlement in the part of the Forest of Essex that would have covered the area, where the main occupation was charcoal burning. An alternative meaning of brent is holy one, which could refer to the dedicated to Thomas Becket. Rather, it is believed that despite the Roman road between London and Colchester passing through, the Saxons were the earliest settlers of the area. Robert Graves, in his book Claudius the God, refers to Brentwood as the site of the battle where Claudius defeated the Ancient Britons in 44 AD, however, Graves also states that names and places in the book are sometimes fictitious. The borough began as a clearing in the middle of a dense forest, created by fire, giving it the name of Burntwood. A chapel was built in or around 1221, and in 1227 a market charter was granted, the new township, occupying the highest ground in the parish, lay at the junction of the main London-Colchester road with the Ongar-Tilbury road. The ruin stands in the centre of the street, next to the tourist information office. Pilgrims Hatch, or Pilgrims gate, was named from pilgrims who crossed through on their way to the chapel. It is likely, however, that Brentwoods development was due chiefly to its main position, its market. Early industries were connected mainly with textile and garment making, brewing, during the Peasants Revolt of 1381, Brentwood was the meeting place for some of the instigators, such as John Ball and Jack Straw. They, apparently, met regularly in local pubs and inns, Bampton insisted that the peasants pay what was demanded of them. The peasants refused to pay and a riot ensued as Bampton attempted to arrest the peasants, the peasants moved to kill Bampton, but he managed to escape to London
