Category: Essex

I’ve decided that I can establish a reasonable information about a town or city by the sort of library that it maintains. This one, located opposite the town’s JD Wetherspoon pub, is open five days a week including until 19:00 on one evening. For anyone who likes challenges, guess what this building used to be. The answer is further down the post.

It has tables, so that’s a win for me, and there’s also a relatively substantial local history collection. There was quite an argument going on between a visitor and the librarian, the former claiming they had paid a book fine and the latter stating very firmly that their system showed that they hadn’t. I was a little disappointed not to see the matter resolved, but there’s a limit to how long I’m prepared to wait in a library to see how a customer service issue unfolds. I like a bit of drama with my library visit, it adds something just that bit intangible.

There was some sort of recycling display in the corner to add a little something to the whole arrangement. As for the library, it seemed quiet and comfortable with plenty of books, I didn’t have much to complain about at all. Nothing overly inspiring, but it was open when I wanted to go in it, so that’s sufficient given the current national cutbacks.

There’s an interesting story that I can’t quite understand which is that the denizens of Harwich in 1903 rejected a £3,000 sum from Andrew Carnegie to build themselves a library. This philanthropist funded 3,000 libraries around the world and I haven’t come across an instance where his offer was rejected, although I’m sure it must have happened in numerous locations. The local newspaper commented that “Andrew Carnegie must sometimes feel sad at the inexplicable conduct of some unenlightened people” and that seems a fair summary of the situation. A local vote showed that 235 residents wanted a library and 536 didn’t. I assume that’s because Carnegie required the local ratepayers to take responsibility for the institution and the taxpayers didn’t want that hassle. The local newspapers show that for the next thirty years there was anger from residents writing to say they needed a public library and why wasn’t the council providing them one.

And, for the answer to my question earlier on, it was a bus station. Congratulations to anyone who guessed from the frontage of the building.

I pondered, as this is the sort of thing I decide I need to think about, the problems that councils must have with signage such as this. They have to make it so that the breakwater is clearly out of bounds, but not so much that people have to walk around the signage and risk falling in getting onto it. This does seem a genuinely dangerous thing to walk on, there are photos of the waves pounding it from both sides.

Whilst I’m making reference to danger, I was interested to discover that a fair few sailing craft have hit this breakwater when the tide was high, which seems far from ideal (or sub-optimal as other Julian says). The port of Felixstowe is visible in the background of the photo above.

There’s more Felixstowe, which takes me back to when I walked 50 miles as part of the LDWA Shotley Peninsular walk.

And here’s some more sea photos….. What a treat for the end of a Easter Bank Holiday for both my readers.

Someone like Dave Morgan would decide that he’d go for the option on the left as there would be a nice walk to them……

An entire blog post about a pond, but if there had been more Good Beer Guide pubs in Harwich then I might have been otherwise distracted…. The ducks on this pond have had a challenging time over recent years, they went mysteriously missing in 2011 and had to be replaced with a new cluster of ducks.

I think it’s an interesting pond though and not just because of its duckhouse, a word perhaps forever synonymous now with the late Conservative MP Peter Viggers and his Parliamentary expenses. I was intrigued as it has some heritage to it, the pond was once part of the ditch that surrounded the medieval town of Harwich.

The location of the pond can’t be made out in this early eighteenth century drawing of the town, but it gives an indication of how the ditches were used to help defend Harwich.

This was the best rated fish and chip shop that I could find in Harwich and also one that was open during the day. I was also pleased when I arrived to note that there was a small seating area, which meant that I didn’t have to brave the unbarred rolling plains of Harwich with its potentially aggressive herd of seagulls.

They had quite a stock of items already cooked, the chicken pieces were quite tempting, but I went with a medium chips and large battered sausage. The service was welcoming and friendly, with the environment feeling inviting and clean. The shop has a few negative reviews for not taking cards, but they certainly take them now so that must be a recent innovation.

Goodness knows what meat the sausage was made from, but it was neither decadent or particularly interesting. The batter was a little soft and flavourless, so there wasn’t much to be said for that sausage effort although adding plenty of vinegar improved things somewhat. The chips portion was too big for me and I didn’t finish it, although that’s obviously not a complaint. Perfectly decent chips, quite thick cut with a firm exterior and a fluffy interior, they were more exciting than the sausage element. It would have felt wrong not to have visited the seaside and then not purchased some chips, even though I felt a little exhausted for the rest of the afternoon.

I like a good list and this sign shows all of the ships built at the Old Naval Yard (King’s Yard), with it being particularly active during the Anglo-Dutch Wars. The location didn’t have sufficient deep water access to the larger ships that were needed later on so its usefulness started to diminish. Unfortunately, I understand that every single ship constructed here has been lost whether sunk, scuppered, set on fire or broken up. The Navy used the dockyards between 1652 and 1713, with the site being used by private operators until the early nineteenth century. There’s more about the history of the site at https://www.harwich-society.co.uk/maritime-heritage-trail/the-navyard-wharf/.

This rather lovely little garden is a memorial to those who died in the February 1953 floods and it was reopened just a few weeks ago following a restoration to mark the 70th anniversary of the disaster. There’s an extensive Wikipedia page about the flooding and there were nine Harwich residents who lost their lives. And here’s more about how the flood impacted on the town itself.

In the centre of the garden is a spherical sundial with seating placed around the exterior. It’s a fitting tribute and it’s located on Wellington Road, near to the Harwich lifeboat museum.

Information on how the disaster unfolded.

The names of the victims are listed along the pathway, this one commemorates the life of the youngest, who was just 16 months old. Peaceful and quiet, it’s a very respectful memorial and I like that they’ve made such an effort to add information about the flooding and its impact on Harwich.

From the perspective of visiting Harwich to go to all the Good Beer Guide listed pubs, choosing a Tuesday wasn’t ideal as that meant that 50% of the two pubs in the book were shut. This was all clearly advertised so I wasn’t surprised, but I suspect that I would have very much liked this pub from the reviews. They apparently usually have a mild on, as well as four or so real ales. The food prices are firmly towards the lower end of the scale, but the quality seems high, with reviews marking on the community feel of the pub.

The pub is the oldest one surviving in Harwich having been established in something like 1743 and there’s more information about its history at http://www.harwichpubtrail.co.uk/newbell.html.

Some not entirely cheery history on a plaque above the door which commemorates William Bamford, a weaver from Coggeshall, who was burnt at the stake in 1555. This location was chosen as the pub sits on the area that was once the punishment area in the Tudor period.

I saw this on the side of a construction site and I think that the sentiment and the wording is really quite lovely.

This statue spoke to me, albeit not literally, because it is a snapshot in time of the hopes that existed in Harwich in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The statue was placed here in 1904 and it was listed in 1994 which has likely made it easier to receive the repairs that it had urgently needed over recent decades. The statue was unveiled by the Earl of Warwick on 11 June 1904 and was funded by public subscription which raised the necessary £400. The Earl of Warwick said that he was personally delighted that “all classes have subscribed liberally towards it, showing their spirit of loyalty”.

If Queen Victoria could turn around a little bit, this is the rather beautiful view that she would see. I suspect that if there were requests for statues of Queen Elizabeth II then the population would likely give generously, but it seems that the great era for statues and memorials is perhaps over.