BRAINTREE, ESSEX

(Redirected from Bocking)

'Braintree' is a town of about 42,393 people and the principal settlement of the Braintree district of Essex in the East of England. It is ten miles north-east of Chelmsford and fifteen miles west of Colchester on the River Blackwater, A120 road and a branch of the Great Eastern Main Line.
Braintree has grown contiguous with several surrounding settlements: Braintree proper lies to the south of Stane Street, and 'Bocking' lies to the north. The two together can be referred to as 'Braintree and Bocking', although most people just lump them together as "Braintree".
Braintree is twinned with the French town of Pierrefitte-sur-Seine. The town of Braintree, Massachusetts, United States, was named after Braintree, Essex in 1640.

Contents

Physical geography

Culture, media and sport

Economy, industry and commerce

Transport

Neighbouring villages

Notable residents

Source Materials on Bocking

External links

References

Physical geography

Braintree lies about 50 metres above sea level[1]. Essex is rather flat on the whole, and the Braintree area is no exception; however, there is a general downward trend in the height of the ground from the northwest towards the coast to the southeast. Two rivers flow through Braintree in this direction. Pod's Brook approaches the western side of the town, forming a natural boundary between Braintree and the neighbouring village of Rayne about two miles to the west. Pod's Brook becomes the River Brain as it passes under the Roman road, before running through the southern part of Braintree. The River Pant (or Blackwater) runs roughly parallel to it, through the north of Bocking, and away to the east of the town. The Brain eventually flows into the Blackwater several miles away, near Witham.

Culture, media and sport

The town's football club have made much progress in recent years and were promoted to the Conference South as champions of the Isthmian League in 2006. Season 2006-2007 saw them just miss out on a second successive promotion to the Conference National. Having finished in third place, they went down 1-0 in the Conference South play-off final. For more information on Braintree Town Football Club see their website at www.braintreetownfc.org.uk.
Braintree has its own museum, which contains displays relating to the history of the town. It is named after John Ray, and has a number of relatively famous patrons, including the famous but rather underground Essex-born artist, Jennifer Walter, and also Lesley Killin influential member of Essex Council of Education, (ECE).
There is a cinema on the outskirts of the town. Opposite the cinema there is also a bowling alley and various restaurants. There are two nightclubs in the town centre, together with numerous public houses and bars.
Braintree's local newspapers are the ''Braintree and Witham Times'' and the ''Essex Chronicle''.
Each year in June the annual Braintee and Bocking Carnival takes place. The event starts with a procession of floats through the town centre finishing at Meadowside. Events including a fair and sideshows continue throughout the afternoon at Meadowside until around 10pm. This year's carnival queen has been confirmed as Lesley Southgate of Tabor Science College.

Economy, industry and commerce

Freeport is a shopping area on the outskirts of Braintree, described as a "designer outlet village". It has roughly 80 shops where designer brands sell surplus stock for lower than normal prices. Freeport also has its own railway station, namely Braintree Freeport station, which is the second stop on the journey from Braintree to London Liverpool Street.

Transport

Braintree is located at the junction of two Roman roads: one coming from the county town of Chelmsford, about ten miles or so to the south-west, and the other (known as Stane Street) running westwards to Great Dunmow, and eastwards to Colchester. Stane Street was a main road (the A120) until the bypass system was built in the late 20th century.
Braintree has two railway stations, Braintree and Braintree Freeport next to the Freeport shopping area. Trains depart from Braintree station to Witham, where the Braintree branch line joins the Great Eastern Main Line to London Liverpool Street. Service frequency is approximately once an hour during the daytime. Nowadays the track terminates at Braintree. However, it used to continue westwards, through the village of Rayne, to Great Dunmow, but this section of the route has been disused for decades.

Neighbouring villages

Villages in the Braintree area include Black Notley, White Notley, Great Notley Garden Village (a recent construction), Cressing, Felsted, Rayne and Panfield.

Notable residents

★ Malcolm McFee, (1949-2001), British Actor born in Forest Gate, Newham, played Peter Craven in Please Sir! 1968-1971 & 'The Fenn Street Gang' 1972-1973

★ Lawrence D Hills originally founded the Henry Doubleday Research Association headquarters and test site at Bocking, and also developed the ''Bocking 14'' strain of comfrey, which has properties of particular interest to organic gardeners.

★ The naturalist John Ray (1627 - 1705), born in nearby Black Notley, is perhaps the most talked about local person, among historians.

★ The Courtauld family were one of the most prominent families of Braintree and Bocking during the 19th century. Their highly successful silk business made them very rich, and provided much employment in the area.

★ Sir Evelyn Wood, (1838 – 1919), British Field marshal, Victoria Cross recipient.

★ Katherine Parnell, younger sister of Sir Evelyn Wood, and wife and downfall of Irish Nationalist leader, Charles Parnell.

★ The Prodigy, a famous dance music group, are probably Braintree's best known export in recent years. The band's leader Liam Howlett was the cause of much indignation among some residents when he criticised the town in an interview for the music magazine ''Q''. He reportedly used "an abusive term" (see [2]). He and fellow band member Keith Flint moved out of the town around 1998, to live in seclusion in a small village five or six miles to the west.

★ Avant-Garde / experimental composer and musician Barry Douglas Lamb, lived in Braintree following the demise of the insane picnic from 1989 - 1993. Although this appears to have been a period of very little musical output on his part, there is an unofficial recording from the period called "Braintree - the concubine harvester".

★ Steve Harley, singer/composer and founder of Cockney Rebel, lived in Bradford Street, Braintree, from 1969 to 1971. He worked as a reporter for the Braintree and Witham Times under his real name Stephen Nice. The novelist Jay Merrick, author of The Horse Latitudes, worked on the newspaper at the same time under his real name John Thompson.

★ Andrew Phillips, Baron Phillips of Sudbury, noted politician and lawyer in the field of civil liberties lived in Bradford Street, Braintree for much of the 1980s

Source Materials on Bocking

Hoffman, Ann. (1976) Bocking Deanery: The Story of an Essex Peculiar.
H. G. Wells, in his ''What Is Coming? A European Forecast'' (1916), in the fourth chapter, "Braintree, Bocking, and the Future of the World," uses the differences between Bocking and Braintree, divided, he says, by a single road, to explain the difficulties he expects in establishing World Peace through a World State.
Efficiency, perhaps the supreme virtue for Wells (and others in the Fabian Society), meant someone in authority preventing waste and inefficiency at every level from water mains to wars. The difficulty of establishing it at the local level was a reflection of the difficulty of establishing it at the global level. In that same chapter he mentions his friend but ideological foe, G. K. Chesterton, who would have been delighted by those same local differences (particularly if it included the beer in the pubs) and whose 1904 novel, ''The Napoleon of Notting Hill,'' praises them. Wells wanted to end war by establishing an authority that could ban any difference between people that might lead to disagreements and perhaps war. Chesterton wanted to reduce the likelihood of war by reminding people that a healthy love for your country meant respecting the love others have for their country. In the December 31, 1910 issue of ''Illustrated London News'' he wrote:
For Wells, differences between people, particularly those not rooted in technological efficiency, were a cause of war. For Chesterton, differences make us human and the very efforts of a World State to abolish differences between people would lead to civil wars more numerous and worse than our present wars between nations. For both men, Braintree and Bocking were the world in a microcosm.

External links

★ Braintree Town Football Club

★ Notley High School

★ Braintree District Council

★
★ Transport Strategy for North Essex

★ The daysoff Guide to Braintree Links to pages on its history, geography, and other subjects

★ Freeport Braintree website

★ 2nd Braintree & Bocking Scout Group

★ Tabor Science College website

★ Thisisessex Website containing the latest Essex news

★ Braintree College's official website

★ Witham, Braintree and Halstead Care Trust

★ Braintree - White's Directory of Essex, 1848

★ Braintree and Bocking Carnival

★ Braintree Bowmen Archery Club

★ Braintree Rivers Rotary Club

★ Lions Club of Braintree

★ Braintree Town Netball Club

References

1. Key Statistics for urban areas in the South East. 2001 Census, National Statistics. Retrieved on February 11, 2007.