ONCE AGAIN, IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES - THE TOPIC OF NUCLEAR BUNKERS WAS RAISED THIS MORNING ON LBC

 During my current PR tour advertising my latest book (and 12th contracted title - BRENTWOOD IN 50 BUILDINGS), I was asked on local radio to showcase one or two of my favourite buildings which I chose for inclusion in my book. Of course, there were many, but one of the most mysterious was the secret nuclear bunker at Kelvedon Hatch near Brentwood in Essex.

The construction of this 'cold war' building had been started in the early 1950s and was believed to be the largest and deepest bunker in the south-east of England. The people working on the project were not allowed to talk to anyone about what was going on, yet many villagers all seemed to know! 

Subsequently, over the years that followed, I managed to meet and interview some of the people who were involved and had actually helped dig out the soil at the time of construction.  Many years later, I was invited by the current owner, Michael Parrish to pay a visit with a view to writing a feature for my regular newspaper column and regional magazines. Michael offered me a warm welcome and a chance to talk with him and take photographs of the remaining artefacts from the Cold War period - now on display. 

All you will see at first glance, is merely a modest little bungalow, but take the self-guided tour and you will learn some amazing facts and figures. There is a museum below displaying many items from the fifties and an example of the spooky medical operating theatre and dormitory, plus the bunker canteen and numerous aspects of a long-forgotten period in time, that you may have to make a return visit to absorb the whole story. 

Last time I visited the Bunker, my latest book BRENTWOOD IN 50 BUILDINGS book was on display. 

Other aspects of interest in this Secret Bunker and the memories of people who were there at the time, are included in another of my books VOICES OF BRENTWOOD which was originally published by Tempus Publications in 2020 and has recently been reprinted. 

CELEBRATING OUR QUEEN'S PLATINUM JUBILEE IN JUNE 2022 BY BRINGING FORWARD OUR ANNUAL FUN WALK

LIMBERING UP FOR OUR VIRTUAL FUN WALK THIS                                   YEAR TO BE HELD IN JUNE

The Fun Walk is an annual fundraising event organised by BBW CVS on behalf of The Fun Walk Trust, and this year’s event is being dedicated to the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.  Participants will be able to complete their 5k sponsored walk anywhere and anytime during June, allowing them to raise money for their chosen charity or local community group.

John Baron MP, Chair of The Fun Walk Trustees, said

“When we started the Fun Walk in 2002 it was to commemorate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. We had no idea that it would grow to support hundreds of charities and raise over £1.3m to date. This year the Queen will become the first British Monarch to mark 70 years of service to the people of UK.

 

TODAY'S SPECIAL DATE 22 2 2022 AND TIME TO CONSIDER SNOWDROPS AT KENTWELL HALL, SUFFOLK

Are you ready for an adventure?  

Dig out those wellies and think about exploring the great outdoors and see the signs of spring on the Kentwell nature hunt trail through the splendid family-friendly gardens and woods.  So pull on those boots and discover some of Kentwell's fun surprises along the way. You will find a Wild Nature Hunt Trail and Quiz for older adventurers and the wellie walk is a fun toddle for little explorers, making an active, outdoor day out for everyone - a real breath of fresh air. The drifts of snowdrops through the woods are amazing this year - don't miss your chance to see them. The tearoom is open for lunches, teas and great coffee, and the best flapjack for miles around!  

Open daily until Sunday 27 February, that's right through to the end of Suffolk Half Term!

ESSEX BOOK FESTIVAL 2022 - BIGGER AND BETTER THAN EVER - AWAITING PROGRAMMES

 

Not long to go now to receive details of this year's Essex Book Festival, preparations of which are well underway.

We will be launching on 1st June and running through until 30th June, our venues including everywhere from Layer Marney Tower and Firstsite, through to Harwich Foot Ferry, Royal Opera House's High House Production Park (Purfleet-on-Thames), Cressing Temple Barns, and Hylands House and Gardens. Plans are also afoot to launch ourselves into Space in June. More of that later.

The full programme will be revealed on 4th April when our Box Office opens for business. However, just to get the juices going,we can't resist sharing some of the tasty treats on the menu. These include appearances by award-winning Patrick Gale who will be talking about his new book Mother's Boy at Chelmsford Library on 22nd June, and novelist Samuel Fisher who fittingly will be talking about his debut novel Wivenhoe at Wivenhoe Library on 8th June. Meanwhile The Guardian's brilliantly acerbic columnist John Crace will sharing tips on how to survive the 'New Normal' in Westminster at Anglia Ruskin University (Chelmsford) on 30th June.

Tickets are already on sale for our very special partnership event with EA Festival, which will be taking place at Hedingham Castle on 11th and 12th June. Festival favourite and national treasure artist Maggi Hambling will be talking to art historian and academic  James Cahill, whose debut novel Tiepolo Blue due for publication in June has already been receiving rave reviews from the likes of Stephen Fry. We suggest you get in quick for this one. Rumour has it tickets are selling quickly: ea-festival/maggi-hambling-in-conversation-with-james-cahill

In the meantime ...

Spoken Word Power

Something exciting has been taking shape in six Tendring schools over the winter months. Essex Book Festival has been working with Essex Children's University and other partner organisations around the UK to deliver a fabulous new schools' project: Spoken Word Power

Spoken Word Power is a new Arts Council England funded project led by Hackney-based Eastside Educational Trust, that supports primary, secondary and SEND schools to champion the spoken word by providing a creative platform for a new generation of young people to express their feelings and thoughts and basically have fun with language.

Following a series of artist-led workshops, which have been taking place in the schools this winter, each of the participating schools will be hosting its own Spoken Word Poetry Slam. The winners and runners-up of each Poetry Slam will then take part in a regional Spoken Word Power performance at the Lakeside Theatre (University of Essex) on 14th March. Segments of this will then be screened at The Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly as part of the national Spoken Word Power celebration on World Poetry Day. Find out more here: eastside.org.uk/spoken-word-power

WE CELEBRATE TWO ENGLISH QUEENS AND NOW PREPARING FOR ESSEX ROYAL PLATINUM CELEBRATIONS

Currently, some of our members of the Society of Women Writers and Journalists are gathering material to write articles on our Queen Elizabeth's upcoming platinum jubilee. 

To celebrate this unprecedented anniversary, events and initiatives will take place throughout the year, culminating in a four day UK bank holiday weekend from Thursday 2nd to Sunday 5th June. The bank holiday will provide an opportunity for communities and people throughout the United Kingdom to come together to celebrate the historic milestone. The four days of celebrations will include public events and community activities, as well as national moments of reflection on The Queen’s 70 years of service.

In addition, initiatives including The Queen’s Green Canopy and the Platinum PuddinBecause of its close proximity to London – Essex was once co-joined to the capital at Bow - the people living within the county were used to seeing their monarchs pass by their towns and villages on the major routes to the coast and onward to Colchester.

First of Elizabeth's Progresses in the Summer of 1561

Just a little over 460 years ago, Queen Elizabeth 1 was preparing to set out on her first 'Long Progress' of her reign. She travelled through Essex, crossed the border to Ipswich (Suffolk) and returned to London via north and west Essex. On 19 July 1561, the Queen arrived at Ingatestone Hall - the majestic, newly completed mansion of Sir William Petre  - her clever minister who was close to the end of his long career of devoted service to Her Majesty and three previous Tudor monarchs.

Havering-atte-Bower, the Starting Point for Elizabeth's Journeys
It would be unusual to find a literate person, young or old, who has never been attracted by the stirring events and colourful figures of Elizabethan times and by a magnificent Queen who could extract admiration even from her deadliest foes. The Queen knew the county of Essex better than most parts of her realm, largely because the starting point for at least seven of her Progresses was the palace of Havering-atte-Bowe. High about Romford and the great Essex road, with uninterrupted views southwards, this palace had been a quiet retreat from the cares of court for English monarchs since Edward the Confessor.

When Elizabeth and her retinue were ready – and there were hundreds of courtiers and servants - the cavalcade journeyed slowly through Essex. The Queen recorded her appreciation of the commons, heath and the patchwork quilt of countryside and fields which had been enclosed from forest mainly before the time of the earliest manorial records.

Coastal Marshlands of Essex

Even the coastal marshlands of Essex were not unknown to Elizabeth; on her famous journey to Tilbury in 1588, she saw this area of marsh pasture around the recently formed Gulf in the manor Hornchurch. The fascinating survey of Great Wakering manor, 1598, gives a detailed picture of local marshland topography; all the 'laines' (oyster-layings) in the 'fleets', the 'kedells' (fish-weirs) are all mentioned items that interested the monarch.

The Great Forest of Essex

Elizabeth prided herself on her own Royal Forest of Waltham, the hunting ground of English monarchs from William the Conqueror to Queen Anne. At least three times, Elizabeth visited the Earl of Leicester at Wanstead House on the fringe of the Forest.  During a rather short Progress in July 1568, she was entertained at Copped Hall, Epping, by Sir Thomas Heneage.   Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge at Chingford in the Forest was built as a 'standing' for spectators of the chase; it is shown here as it probably appeared in the 16th century.

Favourite Places for a Queen

Colchester, Maldon, Harwich, Saffron Walden, were all favourite places beloved by Elizabeth, but perhaps New Hall, Boreham, a beautiful manor house, built by her father, King Henry VIII  in 1517.  Although these places were associated with pleasure, her famously recorded visit to Tilbury waters was quite different.  The year was 1588 with the threat from the Spanish Armada handing over England and for this reason she travelled by horse to Tilbury where she reviewed her troops and delivered her noblest speech.

Queen Elizabeth Slept Here

Throughout England, there are many historical plaques declaring that “Queen Elizabeth Slept Here”.  Historians have written that she did, indeed, sleep in 240 different places during her forty-four-year reign, an honour indeed!   

PORTAL TO THE PAST - THE MEADS AT BRENTWOOD - THE PLACE TO BE ON VALENTINE'S EVENING

Today's Valentine celebrations are well under way and the topic has been well advertised as the most romantic  time of the year. Once red roses was the choice of lovers, but polls tell us that  somehow chocolate seems to have been the top of gift-giving this year. 

In the 1960s, young prospective lovers had no sophisticated way of choosing, let alone meeting other prospective partners. So, what did our local lads and lasses do on this auspicious day? One local resident has memories of Valentine Day dances at the Crystal Meads, later known just as The Meads in the Ongar Road.

The building was bought by the late Elsie and Sam Pepperell who had come to live in Brentwood during the Second World War, with their daughter Sandra. By 1964, they had been granted a full drinks' licence and the family set about transforming the old building into one of the most glamorous nightspots in the area. People from all over Essex flocked there. Prior to this, the Meads was used as a dance school run by Madame Tredgett, who advertised her classes in the local newspaper. It was by this lady, that many of Brentwood's youth were taught the finer points of the waltz, quickstep and the foxtrot over the well-sprung wooden dance floor in her studio. But it was the Pepperells who made the Meads so popular and it wasn't just the youth who packed in on Saturday nights to the music of a live band and often popular singers of the day. During the week, the venue was used for political lunches, with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and members of the government often coming to Brentwood to be fed and entertained at the Meads. into its own.

Tickets for their romantic dances quickly sold out and it was here, among the glamorous mirrored room with polished dance-floor where scores of couples met, often later marrying and now fifty years later still retain magical memories of Brentwood by night. Time moves on and the site eventually became Sam's Night Club, equally popular with the youth of the 90s.

Today, the Meads is a complex of smart new retirement apartments serving older residents of the town, some of whom may even have met in the old building half a century ago. So, numerous Brentwood residents may even retain their own memories of their days of dancing and partying at this once famous magical Meads.

To learn more about Brentwood's notable buildings, check out Sylvia's book Brentwood in 50 Buildings published by Amberley Books, ISBN 978-1-4456-9213-5 from all good bookshops. Signed copies can be obtained at Waterstones and WHSmith in Brentwood. Also at other bookshops in Essex and Amazon. 

ROB WEST KICKS OFF BRENTWOOD WRITERS' CIRCLE 2022 MEETING

Today Brentwood Writers' Circle members enjoyed a great afternoon, courtesy of our guest speaker Rob West from Shenfield. It's really great that we were all able to meet again - despite the horrible masks, but happy that so many were able to attend and catch up with Rob and our friends' writing news.

Until recently, Rob was the PhoenixFM Sunday Arts Programme co-presenter alongside Claire Gevaux and the reason for his visit today was to tell us all about his latest book entitled Words Words Words. 

A man of many parts, Rob has worked professionally as an actor, writer and director, but has also had a number of roles, including children’s entertainer, football coach and creative writing tutor, not forgetting his work as arts radio show presenter.

Rob's new book is a fascinating collection of poems that he has written on scraps of paper and in notebooks over the years. He found a lot of these in his loft while doing a lockdown clear out, and rather than throwing them all out, decided to do something positive with them. Rob has pulled them all together into an anthology of poems with a short insight into each poem alongside. 

The super book is available via the publisher xlibris, via Amazon (also available on Kindle), and you can get it via various other online book retailers. People can also contact Rob directly via robwestbiz@btinternet.com to buy a copy.

GROUNDHOG DAY TODAY AND NEWS MARKING THE END OF THE 222 DAYS' SEQUENCE

 Yes, I know it's boring, but I just love Groundhog Day, it's becoming quite an annual regular on my blog, so here's an image of my dear little ground-hoggy friend who often appears at this time of year on my weblog when thinking more about my world folklore series around early February.

Another 'regular' over sixteen years of blogging  is my interest in  palindromes. Although I'm late (by one day), I simply had to mention yesterday's 2222 day sequence in this century.

 This started two decades ago, and will end on February 22 2022. This month will witness three such dates altogether February 2, 2022, February 20, 2022, and February 22 2022. Can't remember what I was doing at 2.22pm yesterday, but that would have been quite perfect!