MARTELLOW TOWERS

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Jaywick tower was originally built in 1809. It was one of twenty-nine Martello towers situated on the east coast of England, constructed to defend the country against the threat of invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte and his armies. In total, 103 Martello Towers were built between 1804 and 1812. Seventy-four were built between 1804 and 1808 along the Kent and Sussex coastlines from Folkestone to Seaford, and twenty-nine were constructed along the east coast between Point Clear and Aldeburgh from 1808 to 1812. The south coast towers were numbered 1 – 74, while

 

the east coast towers were lettered A – Z. Three additional east coast towers are known as AA, BB and CC.

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The bricks for the east coast towers were made at Grays in Essex using London Clay and transported to each site by barge. The brick walls of the east coast Martello Towers are between 8-12 feet and they are about 40 feet high. East coast towers were each constructed with approximately 750,000 bricks. On the roof were three cannons, usually a 24-pounder facing out to sea and two smaller Howitzers at each side. Jaywick tower still has the original pivots for the cannon on the roof.

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The name ‘Martello’ is derived from a similar military sea defence tower at Mortella Point in Corsica, near Italy, which the British Navy captured with difficulty after two days of fighting in 1794. The British were so impressed with the strength of the tower that before they left Corsica they took its measurements, which provided the pattern for Martello Towers in Britain and elsewhere. 

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JAYWICK

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In Saxon time was called "Clacton-inga-wick" which became Clacton-jeywick and then shortened to Jaywick. It is a seaside village  2 miles west of Clacton-on-Sea.The land was originally a combination of fields and salt marshes, and was generally impractical for agricultural use. It was purchased by the entrepreneur Frank Stedman in 1928 to provide low cost and affordable holiday homes to working class families, and became a popular holiday destination throughout the 1930s.The original estate was developed in the shape of a car radiator grille, with the roads named after various vehicle manufacturers. Coaches regularly picked up holidaymakers throughout the 1930s from Ilford and Romford. An 18-inch gauge miniature railway operated in Jaywick from 1936 to 1939 and the locomotive was a model of a GNR Stirling 4-2-2.

 

After the Second World War, a shortage of housing meant the properties gradually became permanently inhabited despite being unsuitable for this purpose. The local community resisted demolition of the worst estates, and the government tightly controlled building regulations in the village while attempting to rehouse residents elsewhere. Many of the holiday homes were never designed for long-term residence and are now in a state of disrepair. According to the Indices of deprivation 2010 and subsequent reports, part of the village is the most deprived area in England.

 

Jaywick has significant problems with unemployment and a risk of flooding, despite several attempts by the local council and government to transform the area. Tendring District Council hope that by 2026, the area will change sufficiently to be attractive for development, and to provide a self-sufficient service based economy for tourism.

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ST OSYTH

 

Before being renamed to commemorate Saint Osyth, the village was called Chich (alternative spellings include Chiche and Chick). St Osyth was the subject of an episode of Channel 4's Time Team program, "Lost Centuries of St Osyth". This program sought to uncover the early origins of the village, which was presumed to have grown up at around the same time as the Priory, in the twelfth century. Many of the investigations around the current village centre found little evidence of settlement earlier than the fourteenth century; it appeared that the early village centre lay some way off, between the Priory and the river.

 

The village was a focus for the St Osyth witch persecutions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with a total of ten local women being hanged as a result. In 1921 the skeletons of two women were discovered in the garden of a house in the village. One was claimed to be the witch Ursley Kempe who was the first to be prosecuted. The skeletons became a local tourist attraction.

 

The most notable building in the village is undoubtedly St Osyth's Priory, a group of Grade I listed buildings. The Abbey was the home to the Earls of Rochford, following William Third's creation of the title, given to William Nassau de Zuylestein in 1695. St Osyth's Priory was once the home of a herd of polled White Park cattle one of the oldest breeds in this country,  until an outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease in 1951 which led to their slaughter. The land within the Priory boundaries is shown as a Deer Park on the Ordnance Survey map.The village church is dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul. 

 

From pre-medieval times the economy was based on agriculture the 2000 coastal acres used as sheep grazing.  Records from medieval times show a very lucrative trade in wool and also muttons. Dairy produce “ in memorable abundance” mainly ewes’ milk and cheeses. Traces of that medieval economy linger in place names – Wick means grazing marsh hence Amperes Wick, Fro Wick,Lee Wick, and Wigborough Wick.  The community found employment as shepherds, dairymaids and all allied trades including bee keeping on Chisbon and Rough Heaths. A large and busy brickworks was developed in Clay Lane supplying the building programmes of the Lord of the Manor.  
 

Transport of goods centred on barges and hoys that plied from wharves and quays along the creeks, they travelled in the main to London to supply bedding and fodder for the thousands of horses and cattle stabled in the metropolis.  With one exception the population was all looked after, for example doctors and physicians were resident in the Parish, some children were given schooling or musical tuition all provided by the Lord of the Manor.  Almshouses and a workhouse were built and alms provided.

 

With the loss of noble patronage came the Agricultural Depression, migration began to the new industrial centres such as West Ham for the lads, the girls going into service in London.  As a consequence the birth rate dropped, as did the overall population. The final nail in the coffin was the total lack of foresight by the Parish Elders to see the dangers of rejecting totally all proposals for a railway link to St Osyth, despite the financial inducements, they clung to the use of water to transport goods. With the advent of the motorcar and the fast and cheaper railway to up and coming resorts such as Clacton-on-Sea, trade quickly dried up.  Some village businesses realising the potential moved into Clacton. Employment and better housing caused some to move, or commute by cycle to get employment.  For those left behind this became a period of real deprivation.   Debilitated parishioners living in real need and hunger became the norm, for instance orphans were sent to Australia when the workhouse could no longer cope.

 

In the 1920s cyclists or motorcyclists appeared with camping equipment, the masses began to enjoy being by the seaside.  Farmers with coastal marshes seized the opportunity and gradually from this developed into plotlands and tented camps, which in turn evolved into caravan and chalet sites.  Several cycle repair shops opened, as did tearooms and other shops. Cycles were replaced by coaches bringing greater numbers mainly from London.  All this was destroyed by the Great Flood of 1953, but quickly re-established by the 1960s. 

 

The village still has 112 listed buildings, the majority centred on the village crossroads and the Priory.  The Priory, a scheduled ancient monument, stands at the centre of the largest group of listed buildings on one site in all Essex and is still an attraction to visitors.  The holiday settlements, on the coastal marshes are quite separate and are in use for the summer only.  It was the establishment of these camps that provided the basis of the village’s economic pre war recovery. Another landmark is Mill Dam Lake and is used for water skiing which can be filled and emptied from St Osyth Creek.

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St Osyth Abbey: was (originally and still commonly known as St Osyth's Priory) was a house of Augustinian canons in the parish of St Osyth (then named Chich) in Essex, in use from the 12th to 16th centuries. Founded by Richard de Belmeis, Bishop of London, c. 1121, it became one of the largest monasteries in Essex. It was dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul as well as St Osyth (Osith), a royal saint and virgin martyr. Bishop Richard obtained the arm bone of St Osyth from Aylesbury for the monastic church and granted the canons the parish church of St Osyth. The monastery began as a priory, possibly a daughter house of Holy Trinity, Aldgate.

 

The first prior of St Osyth's was William de Corbeil, who was elected archbishop of Canterbury in 1123 and who crowned King Stephen in 1135. In Gesta pontificum Anglorum, William of Malmesbury spoke in praise of the piety and learning of the canons at St Osyth's in the twelfth century. One of the second generation of canons was William de Vere, later bishop of Hereford, who wrote a Latin Life of St Osyth, in which he mentions that his mother Adeliza, daughter of Gilbert fitz Richard of Clare, had been a corrodian at the abbey for twenty years of her widowhood.

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A charter of King Henry II confirmed the right of the canons of St Osyth's to elect their abbot and to hold a market every Sunday at Church in the later 12th century. During the Suppression of the Monasteries, the religious group was dissolved by King Henry VIII in 1539, at which time there were a prior and sixteen canons. The king granted it to his minister Thomas Cromwell, but on his fall from favor, the abbey and its estates were returned to crown possession. In the reign of King Edward VI they were sold to Sir Thomas Darcy for just under £400.

 

The gatehouse, dating from the late 15th century, is the most significant remnant of the original monastic structures still standing. The exterior is a fine example of decorative flint work.

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